GE Lighting chooses RI as regional production base

GE Lighting chooses RI as regional production base

JAKARTA (JP): GE Lighting, a unit of widely diversified
General Electric of the United States, has chosen Indonesia as
its main production base to serve Southeast Asian countries, the
company's top executive said yesterday.

Stuart Dean, the chief representative of GE's Indonesian
operations, said GE Lighting, one of the world's major suppliers
and producers of commercial, consumer and industrial lighting,
has for several years marketed its lighting products to the
growing Southeast Asian markets through PT GE Lighting Indonesia,
its local subsidiary.

He said that the Indonesian lighting subsidiary began
manufacturing lighting products through its own factory in
Surabaya, East Java, in 1995 to support its marketing networks in
Southeast Asia.

"GE Lighting has, in fact, run businesses in China and India
but the two production bases are mainly used to serve the two
respective countries," he said following the announcement of a
merger deal between GE Lighting Indonesia and the country's
second largest lighting manufacturer PT Sinar Baru Electric
(SiBalec).

Dean said that GE Lighting has two production bases in
Southeast Asia; one in the Philippines to serve the Philippine
market and the other one in Indonesia to serve the rest of
Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
as well as Australia.

"The Indonesian production base is in principal directed to
serve ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations)," he
said.

According to Dean, Indonesia was chosen as the regional
headquarters for the company's operations in ASEAN, which groups
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore
and Vietnam, not only because of its vast population but also due
to its impressive economic progress in the last decade.

"The growth of the Indonesian economy is really impressive,
reaching 8 percent per annum," he said. "The growth of the
middle-class population is much higher, reaching over 14 percent
per annum to over 20 million people at present," he said about of
the prospect of the Indonesian market.

Because business does not always progress as smoothly as
possible in developing countries, he said that his company is
basing its investment on long-term prospects. "The little bump in
the road," he said, is not something to worry about.

Paul Morse, the president of GE Lighting Indonesia, said that
the merger with SiBalec, which last year booked a sales turnover
of around US$16 million, is an important breakthrough in
strengthening its marketing networks both at home and in other
Asian countries.

GE Lighting Indonesia is the surviving company in the merger
deal but most of SiBalec's brand names such as Dops and SiBalec
will be maintained, Morse said.

He said that GE Lighting, which has so far invested around $50
million in Indonesia, is the majority shareholder in the venture
but he declined to elaborate.

General Electric, which last year booked sales turnover of
over $70 billion, established a financial joint venture with PT
Astra International in 1992. General Electric is also the main
supplier of aircraft engines for Indonesian airline companies.

In 1995, the business giant won a contract to supply state-
owned railway company Perumka with a 2,000 horse-power
locomotive. (hen)