Q&A: What the year has in store

Rachel Duan, senior vice-president of GE and president of GE China.

A1 We expect the Chinese economy to grow at a rate of about 6 percent in 2017. This is a growth rate that many countries would be happy with. There are two demographic trends that support this growth. By 2020, more than 800 million people will be urbanized and 180 million people will be over the age of 65. With China's increasing urbanization and aging population, we see huge opportunities arising out of mass transportation, affordable healthcare and cleaner energy. In addition, China's national strategies of Made in China 2025, The Belt & Road, and internet+ will further spur growth in advanced manufacturing in these areas.

A2 At GE, we have spent time studying China's 13th Five-year Plan, not only for China but for our global business growth. We have aligned GE China's 2020 growth strategy closely with the Plan to tap into China's mega needs. Our strategy is simple: building a digital industrial platform and applications to help our Chinese customers; all-in localization throughout the value chain to make China an advanced manufacturing base for GE globally; and building strong and long-lasting partnerships with Chinese national champions to help them win both at home and abroad.

A3 We don't make predictions on our revenue and profit targets publicly but we expect our business in China to grow in line with or exceeding China's GDP growth.

A4 China is GE's single-largest market outside the US. GE has a strong commitment to investing and growing in China. We have built a strong presence in the country, including 20,000+ employees, 37 manufacturing sites, 84 offices in 43 cities, 34 joint ventures and 7 R&D centers with 60+ technology labs & 3000+ engineers. Earlier this year, we added to this list a digital foundry with $11 million investment in Shanghai at GE's China Technology Park-it is the first digital foundry in operation outside the US for GE. The foundry will add over 200 jobs and will be working with over 1,000 developers over the next couple of years. GE will continue to invest over $20 million over the next two years to boost our technical and commercial capabilities in digital industrial in China.

A5 Managing foreign exchange risks on an ongoing basis is essential to a global company such as GE so we will manage these risks in 2017 as we do always.