The move is part of the companies first strategic blueprint under new Chief Executive Roland Busch who took over as CEO from Joe Kaeser in February. Busch wants to win customers and deliver growth by using Siemens's software and hardware, the company said at its investor day.

The German engineering company aims to expand beyond its traditional industrial customers by boosting its digital offering used to improve the performance of their factories, trains and buildings.

"Digitalisation, automation and sustainability are growth engines for our business. Here, our core business and our digital business reinforce each other in a virtuous circle", Busch said in a statement.

Under the plan, Siemens raised its target for increasing its comparable annual revenue at a rate of five to seven per cent above global market growth and Siemens's own previous target. Both ran at four to five percent.

Digital technology is expected to lead, with a faster growth rate of 10 percent per year from the 5.3 billion euro of revenues Siemens made in the area in 2020.

The company also hiked the profit margin targets for its mobility and smart infrastructure businesses, in the goals that will apply from October 2021, the start of Siemens's 2022 business year.

Under the strategy, Siemens said it will develop digital applications for specific industries and launch products more quickly in areas, including automation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Still, Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas said Siemens remained committed to keeping its investment-grade rating.

Accompanying the targets will be a new three billion euro share buyback, starting in October to run until 2026. The buyback is a slowdown from the company's two 3 billion euro repurchases over the last five years.

Siemens also committed to a progressive dividend policy, which means a rising or stable annual pay out to shareholders.

Earnings per share, before the amortisation of goodwill for acquisitions, would increase in the high single-digit range, around eight percent to 10 percent, the company added.

In an update on trading, Siemens said the favourable business development had continued, and it expected full year net income in the range of 5.7 to 6.2 billion euro. The forecast included the impact of the 300 to 500 million euro integration costs associated with the Varian acquisition which had not been included in previous company outlook.