General Electric (NYSE:GE) expects its business in China to double to $10 billion a year by 2010, says William Patalon III in Money Morning. GE aims to overcome a sputtering US economy by ramping up its emerging-markets focus.

In a market such as China, where even many basic human needs aren’t yet being met, infrastructure improvements figure to be first-focus initiatives for the central government. And that will benefit GE, Immelt has said.

For instance, water and power are two basic societal needs. Once those capabilities are available, basic development can begin. But development can’t happen without transportation of products and people. That creates demand for rail service. And once folks start to populate a region, all sorts of new jobs will be created, generating income and savings that consumers can spend on household appliances, on improved healthcare, on consumer electronics - and even on financial services, so that consumers will know how to save and invest the money left over from their newfound ability to spend.

This vibrant new economy will facilitate travel to other areas for the first time ever - but it will also attract new foreign investors and first-time foreign workers. Both the tourists and the financiers will require the same service - airplane travel.

As airline travel in Asia expands, the demand for commercial jets will grow in lockstep. And that will stoke the need for aircraft engines. Indeed, The Boeing Co. (BA) has estimated that China’s development will create demand for $340 billion worth of new jetliners during the next two decades.

This infrastructure-centric strategy sounds simple - and it is. But GE has products or services that meet all those needs - and many others, as well.

Immelt said that a corporate reorganization announced in July was aimed at simplifying GE’s structure and focusing on its finance and infrastructure businesses.

“It’s another natural evolution for the company,” he told journalists. “It’s another way to simplify the company and run it better.”

That’s why GE has long viewed China as such a key long-term market.

On Aug. 25, GE announced it was starting to move into its new China headquarters, a massive office campus situated in the East Coast city of Shanghai.

Located in that city’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, GE’s China Technology Park complex of offices is an expansion of its former China research center. It covers more than 650,000 square feet and - when completed - will house more than 3,000 employees from GE’s China business groups.

Immelt said the new facility - one of four global R&D centers that GE operates - would help the company conduct actual research-and-development programs inside China. The three other R&D centers are located in the United States, Germany and India.

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