9/29/2009

GE Committed to Investment Strategy in Germany / Bavaria

General Electric (GE), one of the largest industrial companies in the world, is continuing to build up its German operations despite the global economic downturn.

Over the past five years, the US-based corporation has invested around EUR 100 million in its European research center in Garching just outside Munich. The center focuses on developing long-range technologies for the company's energy, sensor, and healthcare divisions. GE has also recently opened a new research center for aircraft engines in Regensburg, Bavaria. And in Salzbergen, Lower Saxony, the company is continuing to expand its wind turbine manufacturing capacity, adding 160 employees to its workforce there this year.

Georg Knoth, who heads up GE's operations in Germany, recently noted that his company views Germany as one of its "core regions" worldwide. In an interview with the news magazine Stern, he described Germany as a particularly "important growth market in the areas of environmentally-friendly technologies and research and development."

Aircraft propulsion and carbon fiber technologies represent other important sectors for GE in Germany, says Knoth. Asked what makes Germany such an important business location for GE, Knoth noted its progressive approach to developing "greentech" and health technologies, and singled out the country's "exceptionally well trained workforce."

Source: GTAI

For more information about establishing a location in the State of Bavaria, please contact Jan Danisman, phone: 212-317-0588 or email: info(AT)bavaria.org.