GE still cool, focusing on China: GE CEO

BEIJING - General Electric is second to none when it comes to innovation and technology, said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) before the company's opening of a new healthcare manufacturing facility in Tianjin Thursday.

"When you go and get on a plane tonight, from Tianjin to Shanghai, and you look out the window, you see a miracle technology of jet engine, and that jet engine says GE, not Google," Immelt, the world industry leader, gave his comments on those fashionable companies such as Google, Facebook and Tesla in an interview with Xinhua.

GE opens healthcare facility in China

GE's industrial Internet ready for take off

"We admire those companies, but they do different things from what we do," Immelt told Xinhua, when he was asked whether GE's business model was out of date.

"I take second place to no one when it comes to innovation and technology," he added. "That is why I think we are cool."

According to the company's annual report, GE is a $150 billion global company. Its growth this year will be high single-digit, and its organic growth will be 10 percent this year globally. It invests about 6 percent of its revenues back on research and development.

"We do big, complicated systemic technology. We innovate skills," Immelt said, "The things we do are amazing products."

In addition, Immelt said GE was investing significantly to build a strong analytical capability. He said all the industrial companies needed to be aware of advances in software and analysis, so they could compete in the long term.

"We want to be the most competitive company in the world, so we study Chinese companies, South Korean companies, American companies and German companies." This is how GE maintains its competitive momentum.

When talking about GE's business in China, Immelt said GE was pursuing more partnerships with China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs), more innovation locally in China, and more challenging activities involved in clean energy and environmental protection.