GUANGZHOU: GE Lighting will invest up to 400 million yuan (US$49.32 million) into research and development (R&D) in China in the next four years, said a top executive with its parent firm.

GE Lighting's capital input into R&D of energy-saving technologies in China was 100 million yuan (US$12.33 million) this year, while the budget for the coming four years will be another 400 million yuan (US$49.32 million), said Darryl Wilson, president and CEO of GE Consumer & Industrial for Asia-Pacific.

A lighting division of GE Consumer & Industrial, the unit deals in lamps, switchgears, and uninterrupted power supply.

"We highlight energy-saving and durable technologies in our strategy to fortify the position in the competitive but lucrative lighting market in China," Wilson said. "For this, GE will continue to invest heftily in R&D here in the coming few years."

High-tech solutions have become trump cards for GE Lighting to win bids for many of China's lighting projects, including the Donghai Bridge in Shanghai, which is the longest cross-sea bridge in China, the Chengdu Convention Centre, the Nanjing Olympic Centre, the Haicang Bridge in Xiamen, and the Beijing-Zhuhai expressway.

GE Lighting has also won 50 per cent of the bids it has tendered for the 2008 Olympic Games' lighting projects, Wilson said.

The firm faces competition from some other major players, however. Philips, Seimens-backed OSRAM, and Chinese-owned TCL are all competing in the same space.

To find new opportunities, Wilson said GE Lighting is seeking co-operation opportunities with designers and local governments.

The recent launch in Guangzhou of the 2006 GE Edison Award - Asia-Pacific, GE Lighting's first design competition in the Asia-Pacific, is an attempt to look for top lighting designers and forge co-operative ties with them in China, he said.

Besides the 2008 Olympic Games, the World Expo to be held in Shanghai in 2010 and the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou in the same year are also among the events GE is eyeing.

"The deals we have won will be convincing for many more massive projects across the nation," Wilson said.

(China Daily 12/13/2006 page10)

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