GE includes Brazil among the nine priority countries in the world
Valor Econômico
The American General Electric (GE) announced yesterday the creation of a new business platform, which aims at the intensification of the company relationship with the Governments of nine countries. The company strategy involves treating Governments as preferential clients, and it is focused on the better position of the company as a supplier of those countries in the infrastructure sector. Brazil, China, Canada, the USA, France, Germany, England, Saudi Arabia and Japan will make part of this new platform. In Brazil, a new work structure to deal with the detection of the opportunities in the sector will be created. "We will develop more integrated solutions in order to supply the infrastructure needs of the country", affirmed João Geraldo Ferreira, now ahead the new business area and appointed as the company CEO in Brazil.
Ferreira explained that this new platform tends to be strong in Brazil, emphasizing that, with his new nomination to the office, from now on, GE Brasil will have its own command. "What shows the relevance of the country to the company", he emphasized. Until now, Marcelo Mosci directed the group in Latin America and Brazil. Now, Mosci takes over GE Healthcare in China, whereas Rogério Patrus gets the presidency in Latin America. Ferreira still said GE Brasil will form a team of specific professionals for the new platform. Three professionals will be hired in the areas of corporate communication, market intelligence and rules and regulations.
The challenge of this staff in Brazil is to take advantage of the opportunities in four fronts, identified by the company as those the Brazilian Government will operate in its plan of economic stimulation. They are: the Federal PAC (Growth Acceleration Plan), the BNDES (National Development Bank) investments, the PAC of São Paulo and the investments of Petrobrás. Yesterday the group announced GE Oil & Gas executed a US$ 250 million agreement to provide 250 well-head systems to Petrobras. The agreement is already part of the strategy to come close to the Brazilian Government and it foresees the delivery of the first system next month. The agreement will last three years. With the implementation of this new strategy, the agreements closed with the Government, which previously represented 8% of the income of the company in Brazil, should close 2009 with a share of 15%.