General Electric plans US$2b investment in mainland ventures
General Electric plans to invest more than US$2 billion over two years on the mainland to improve product development and fund manufacturing joint ventures in the power distribution and railway sectors.
The United States-based corporate giant has also announced the appointment of vice-chairman John Rice to expand GE's businesses outside the US and relocate him to Hong Kong from next year.
The heavy commitment in China and Rice's new role underline the allure of faster growth in industrialising countries to global technology companies in the face of slow growth in the US and Europe.
'We are raising the stature of everything global [non-US] in GE,' chief executive Jeff Immelt said, adding that non-US sales were expected to account for 60 per cent of total sales in the future after expanding by 15 per cent a year for most of the past decade. Non-US regions made up 54 per cent and Asia Pacific accounted for 13 per cent of last year's total sales.
GE is involved in aviation, electricity generation and distribution, health care, lighting, oil and gas, rail, media and finance.
Rice will lead all of the firm's non-US operations 'with particular emphasis on high-growth markets such as China, India, the Middle East and Brazil', GE said.
