GE Medical Systems unveils industrial park ( 2003-10-22 01:04) (China Daily)
GE Medical Systems, a unit of the United States giant General Electric, is to
boost its capacity in China with the completion of its industrial park in
Beijing.
Jeffrey Immelt, GE chairman and chief executive, attended the park's launch
ceremony yesterday. He said the new plant will triple both the capacity of GE
Medical production in China and its export volume.
The GE Medical industrial park is in the Beijing Economic-Technological
Development Area in the city's north. It occupies 60,000 square metres and
involves total investment of US$26 million.
It will serve as a base for engineering and development, manufacturing, sales
and marketing, and services for medical diagnostic equipment including
computerized tomography scanners, magnetic resonance imaging systems and X-ray
equipment.
The industrial park will enable China to become one of the world's top bases
for the production of CT scanners by providing 25 per cent of total global
demand every year, said Chih Chen, president of GE Medical Systems China.
GE Medical is set to double its business volume in China in the next three
years.
"We will achieve a volume of US$2 billion by 2005,'' said Chen.
GE Medical China now exports 70 per cent of its products but it wants to
increase its domestic sales to 50 per cent to tap into the growing Chinese
market.
As a major part of General Electric's Chinese operations, GE Medical will
make a large contribution to its parent company's target of making annual
purchases of US$5 billion by 2005.
Its Chinese shopping list is expected to grow by more than 50 per cent
year-on-year to between US$300 million and US$400 million this
year.
