(Telecompaper) Toshiba wants to invest USD 1 billion in Southeast Asia over the next five years and double its current sales to USD 7 billion. CEO Hisao Tanaka made the announcement as part of the manufacturer's strategy to expand its business in the region. Tanaka said that Southeast Asia has long been a strategic manufacturing hub for Toshiba's major businesses, including semiconductors, hard disk drives and SSD in the Storage business, transmission and distribution equipment and industrial motors, and TVs and home appliances. Toshiba will shortly start operation of a new infrastructure business in Indonesia, part of a regional network it is putting in place, and is also promoting major initiatives in healthcare. The company company recently positioned healthcare as one of its three main pillars of business and is building a new medical equipment manufacturing plant in Malaysia, alongside the medical equipment sales company it established this June.