The company also extended its 2005 forecast for 12 to 14 percent earnings per share growth through 2006.
"One of the reasons our growth rate is accelerating is that we are doing disproportionately well in the developing economies," McNerney told investors at a company meeting in New York, calling the company's international business "our biggest growth platform."
"We're going to grow faster than a lot of manufacturing outfits," he added later of the company's overall prospects.
3M's business in emerging markets increased 23 percent last year in local currencies and accounted for more than $4 billion in sales, or almost a quarter of its total. And that share is only rising, the company said.
"There is an unusually strong match between the stuff we make and growing GDP rates and growing per-capita income," McNerney said.
"We often fly under the radar in places like China," he added. "All these things can be bought and sold without government intervention, by and large."
3M, seen as a benchmark for the U.S. economy because of its broad array of businesses, last month offered an outlook for the year that could top analysts' expectations, but remained cautious about the global economy.
While there is decent momentum in the United States, Europe shows no signs of taking off and Asia should see a modest slowdown, McNerney said last month.
3M, whose portfolio includes medical products, optical films and other products, repeated on Friday that it is planning for slower global growth over the next couple of years compared with 2004, and said it is targeting earnings per share growth in 2005 and 2006 of 12 to 14 percent.
It earned $3.75 a share last year, and analysts expect the company to post profit of $4.22 and $4.69 a share in 2005 and 2006, respectively, according to reporters Estimates.
Some of the projected growth through 2006 will come through increased pricing power.
"Pricing provides an upside opportunity for us in '05 as we expect to turn around the negative trend of the past couple years," Chief Financial Officer Patrick Campbell said.
The company expects to boost its capital spending to $950 million a year in 2005 and 2006, up from an average of $850 million a year over the last four years, he said. It also expects to spend about $2 billion over the next two years on stock buybacks, reducing share count by 1 percent each year.
The company will have more than $15 billion in cash available in 2005 and 2006 through cash flow, debt instruments and working capital improvements, Campbell said. After accounting for capital spending, dividends, buybacks and up to $1 billion in pension contributions, about $7.5 billion is not allocated, he said, adding there are no specific objectives for acquisitions.
Last year, 3M saw 29 percent sales growth in the China region in local currency, 14 percent in Brazil and 18 percent in Eastern Europe, the company said.
3M's products fit "very nicely with the rising aspirations of a middle class," McNerney said.
He said the display and graphics business, which makes optical films designed to boost the brightness of liquid crystal displays used in televisions, computer monitors and wireless telephones, also remains a strong growth market for the company despite weaker-than-expected growth in the latest quarter.
