General Electric (GE) has announced the relocation of 500 American manufacturing jobs to Europe and China, as it no longer has access to loans from the Export-Import Bank.
This decision comes after Congress did not extend the mandate of this American bank, whose task is to finance export-import activities. Meanwhile, according to the claims of this American industrial conglomerate, the French export financing agency COFACE has agreed to financially support some of GE’s global projects in the energy sector with a new credit line, in return for relocating gas turbine production to the French city of Belfort, along with 400 jobs. GE states that an additional 100 jobs will be moved from the U.S. to Hungary and China.
The company has announced that it is competing internationally for energy projects worth $11 billion that require financing through export credit agencies, including for some projects in Indonesia. Additionally, GE launched its digital business earlier this week and hopes that this will propel it to the top of the software industry.
After starting to reduce its financial assets to focus on its core industrial business – from manufacturing aircraft engines, household appliances to energy grid equipment, this American conglomerate announced that it is “writing the rules for a new world of digital industry.”
The new subsidiary GE Digital will be led by Bill Ruh, GE’s software chief.
– GE’s transformation into a leading global digital industrial company will provide GE’s customers with the best industrial solutions and software needed to solve real-world problems, said Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE in a statement.
Immelt estimates that this move will increase GE’s software and analytics business from $6 billion in 2015 to the level of “the top 10 software companies by 2020.”
