While its competitors either hold off or cut back new investments, Samsung Group boldly announced on Tuesday plans for more investments this year, estimated to reach more than $41 billion, reports said.

Samsung's announcement came with corresponding plan of more hiring that will add up to the South Korean firm's present stable of at least 350,000 employees worldwide, based on Reuters' estimate.

The ramp-up hiring will expand Samsung's present workforce into another 26,000 workers, on top of the 25,000 fresh hires realised in 2011, the conglomerate said, which is composed of some 80 companies that include the tech giant Samsung Electronics.

Analysts predicted that with billions of cash on its treasury, Samsung looks forward to improve on the technologies that proved its milk cow in the past year, as shown by the millions of smartphones and tablet computers the company sold.

Samsung managed to cash in on its Galaxy product lines despite efforts by Apple last year to prevent their introduction into key global markets via court injunctions, which proved initially successful but were reversed by courts around the world in late 2011.

Reuters reported that up to 80 per cent of the total investments geared for 2012 will be allocated to further enhance Samsung's organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology, a field that the company presently dominates.

Samsung plans to sustain that scenario as works are underway to employ the same technology on television screen that will gradually improve on Samsung's new versions of flat TVs with LCD and LED screens.

The new investment blueprint also includes further innovations on Samsung mobile chips, which presently find their way on competitors' gadgets, including that of Apple's, arguably one of Samsung's fiercest industry rivals.

Apart from bolstering its human resources and improving its product technologies, Samsung also aims to build more manufacturing facilities and improve on the existing one, possibly including the Austin, Texas plant that makes mobile chips for Apple devices.

Company officials also did not discount the likelihood that Samsung will consider corporate expansions, paving the hunts for entities that can be targeted for takeover.

Analysts viewed Samsung's aggressive expansion plans as the company's way of trying to further widen the margin with its competitors, the nearest of which, LG Group, has revealed investment cuts of some $3 billion citing gloomy global prospects.

Other competitors have pretty much adapted the same cautious approach announced by LG, Reuters wrote.