SINGAPORE - Singapore water treatment company Hyflux Ltd said it expects to post a 20 percent rise in annual sales and profit over the next five years and plans a partnership with a Japanese group to develop water projects that could be worth more than S$1 billion.

Hyflux, builder of the largest membrane-based desalination plant in China, would boost its profitability on the back of increased spending by governments on treatment and desalination facilities to conserve scarce water supplies, Deputy Chief Executive Sam Ong told Reuters in an interview.

"The company is poised to pace record earnings in 2008 this year," said Ong. He said Hyflux's order book value for engineering and construction projects, at more than S$1 billion, should sustain earnings growth over the next two years. The partnership would involve state-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), he said.