GE China capitalizes on environmentally-efficient products

Beijing, Feb. 8 -- According to GE China President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Norbom, China is in the process of evolving from a low-quality product manufacturing center into a high-quality one, in which he sees vast market potential by bringing into the nation his company's environmentally-efficient products and services.

Mark Norbom,GE China President and Chief Executive  Officer (Photo Source:Chinadaily.com)

"If you look at some of the measurements, such as the purchasing managers' index, they are all heading in the right direction, with China's exports rising for the first time in December. So now I can absolutely see a recovery starting to happen in the manufacturing sector of China," he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

"Like Japan, which started initially as a low-cost product base globally, China is moving towards better and higher quality product manufacturing a leader in technology development and research."

US conglomerate GE is viewing China not only as a manufacturing hub and sourcing center but also as a base for product innovation and research and development (R&D). Last year it spent 4.5 billion U.S. dollars on product sourcing in China.

So far, among the 13,000 people GE employs in China, 2,000 are focused on R&D and product innovation.

For example, the company developed a new near-shore wind turbine specially for the Chinese market.

Norbom hailed China's 4-trillion yuan economic stimulus plan as "well-targeted" and "fast to the market".

He said: "You can judge it from the annual GDP growth of 8.7 percent China obtained last year. That speaks for a success." He forecast the nation's economy could grow faster at 9 to 10 percent in 2010.

He said all of GE's infrastructure business in China had seen an increase in opportunities.

In addition, because part of the stimulus program was targeted towards technology, particularly in environmental areas, it benefited Ecomagination, a business initiative GE launched in May 2005, to address worldwide environmental challenges. This involved launching more than 80 products and services focused on being environmentally efficient in areas such as clean coal, water treatment and the wind business.