GE to engineer success with centre

The centre will be located in Ho Chi Minh City and employ 200 local engineers after its completion in late 2013. This investment plan was disclosed following  the visit of General Electric (GE) chairman Jeff Immelt to Vietnam in August, this year.

“We are pleased to announce the establishment of our new facility which will bring GE manufacturing and engineering capability to Vietnam,” said John Rice, vice chairman of GE during his visit to Vietnam last week.

Rice said the investment reflected GE’s support for modernising of Vietnam’s infrastructure, a critical step in its path towards sustainable growth and prosperity.

“We have plans to expand into applications engineering and production design for our power and water and healthcare businesses. The centre will create high quality jobs in a region known for its professional workforce,” said Rice.

Vietnam is one of GE’s most important markets in ASEAN and the company has registered strong growth across its core businesses here. It has deep local partnerships to address needs in energy infrastructure, including upgrading the national power transmission line and provides cutting edge equipment for the region’s first wind farm in the Mekong Delta.

GE has been in Ho Chi Minh City since 2001 with businesses in oil and gas, power and water, energy management, healthcare and aviation. Since 2009, GE has invested more than $110 million in its northern Haiphong port city manufacturing facility, which employs 600 engineers and skilled workers. Wind turbine generators and other energy products manufactured in Haiphong are exported to GE’s manufacturing and service centres around the globe. Total export volume stands at $271 million since inception and is one of the most productive plants in Haiphong.

“GE understands the challenges that Vietnam is now facing but we remain confident in the country’s potential for growth long-term,” Rice said. “As ASEAN integrates into a single market in 2015, Vietnam will continue to be a regionally competitive and strategic market in this fast growing region.”

On the occasion of Rice’s visit to Vietnam, GE hosted a career session for 280 students from engineering schools of the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, three seminars for healthcare and one seminar for aviation customers. The firm also donated $211,750 in financial assistance to economically disadvantaged first-year Vietnamese university students in the last five years.