GE to open research center in Brazil
Folha de S. Paulo
General Electric announced yesterday it intends to put up a Research & Development Center in Brazil. It will be the fifth Research Center of the company in the world. The announcement was made by the GE International CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, in São Paulo. "Research and innovation are GE's apple of the eye. There is nothing more important for the company to do in order to demonstrate our commitment to Brazil than the setting up of a Research Center", said the Executive of the largest company of the world, according to "Forbes". "The Brazilian economy is very strong. I am impressed with the progress of the country".
Besides, the company plans investing at least US$ 118 million in increase of capacity, including a turbine plant in Petrópolis (RJ).
The company sees business opportunities of nearly US$ 10 billion over the next three or four years with the infrastructure works of the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) and the exploration of the pre-salt layer. The investment in the research center and its location are yet to be defined. The main dispute is between Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, States which host the 15 plants of the company in the country.
GE international earned US$ 183 billion in 2008 and it invests US$ 6 billion every year on research and development. The company has centers in the USA, Germany, China and India. Once the headquarters is defined, the construction should take from 12 to 15 months. According to the Institutional Relations Officer of GE, Alexandre Alfredo, national engineers will be hired. "We want to invest in local talent", he said. The researches should focus in the areas of oil and gas, energy and aviation (turbines).
Despite being in the country for 90 years, Brazil is still relatively small in view of the size of GE. The Brazilian subsidiary earned US$ 3.3 billion in 2008, but the number should shrink to US$ 3 billion in 2009. The company had been growing at a rate of 12% a year, and in 2008 it çeaped 45% compared to 2007. "We intend to recover and even to exceed the levels of 2008 in 2010", said the President of GE Brasil, João Geraldo Ferreira. The Brazilian GE has 6,000 employees and, with the new investments, it should hire another 600. This number does not include the employees of the maintenance center.