General Electric Korea, the Korean unit of General Electric Co., opened a new energy technology center near Seoul on Tuesday, seeking more business partnerships with domestic firms.

Built within the firm’s research and development complex, in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, the energy technology center supports sustainable growth and efficient solutions, company officials said. 

“The work going to be done here is the synergy between the high-end research and application-oriented work that will bring better products to the market,” said John Rice, GE vice chairman and head of global growth and operations.

The Pangyo center has become one of the three energy technology centers of General Electric Co., which also has ETCs in China and Canada. GE has announced it will build an ETC in Saudi Arabia later this year, and has two to three other locations under consideration.

GE Korea said that GE decided to open an ETC in Pangyo since Korea tops the world in the engineering and procurement sectors, especially in marine engineering, shipbuilding and construction of power generating facilities.

“The domestic EPC market is relatively weak and therefore needs business collaborations,” said GE Korea president Christopher Khang.

In addition to joint-projects in research and development, the center is designed to support business-to-business collaboration by introducing Korean EPC firms to overseas energy and construction firms in oil and gas developers and builders in developing countries, Khang said.

Despite the global recession and diminishing overseas EPC deals, GE and GE Korea held to an optimistic vision, stressing that energy efficiency still is and will be the world’s priority.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)