General Electric Co’s Middle East sales should rise as demand increases for electricity and health care services, including solar energy equipment and medical information systems, the company’s regional chief said.
Saudi Arabia’s goal of pushing electricity output to almost 80 gigawatts by the first half of next decade from 40 gigawatts now will help drive purchases, said Nabil Habayeb, who oversees the Middle East and Africa regions.
“It’s about ‘how do you diversify the technology for power generation?’” Habayeb said yesterday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Marrakech, Morocco. “So solar energy becomes an extremely important part of the planning for power- generation growth across the whole region.’”
GE, whose power generation equipment provides one third of the world’s electricity, unveiled an expansion of its solar business this month. The region is one of the energy division’s biggest customers, led by Saudi Arabia, whose 500 gas fired GE turbines produce about 20 gigawatts of power there.
GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, got about $10 billion of its $157 billion in 2009 sales from the Middle East and Africa. Sales will rise to meet the needs of a growing population, Habayeb said.
He said: “We see that based on the orders that are being placed across all sectors, whether it’s power or water or health care, aviation. We continue to see positive growth.”
GE signed a wastewater treatment accord in Saudi Arabia this month, and has predicted that the kingdom will become the world’s third largest market for reused water after the US and China.
GE is the world’s biggest maker of power plant turbines, locomotives, jet engines, medical imaging equipment and health care information technology systems. Its other businesses include commercial and consumer finance, appliances, lighting and water treatment.
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