Posted by meb at June 14th, 2008

In what analysts see as a major vote of confidence for the Turkish economy, General Electric (GE) has decided to move all managing operations in the eastern and African growth markets (EAGM) to İstanbul.

Officials from GE Healthcare and Turkey’s Investment Support & Promotion Agency said at a joint press conference on Friday that GE Healthcare, a $17 billion healthcare business, has decided to combine the EAGM region into a single “International Diagnostic Imaging” operation and conduct its activities from İstanbul. The company will split a major part of its operations from its London center and move it to İstanbul. The company’s Western European operations will still handled by the London center.

With this new move, GE Healthcare will coordinate all its operations in 80 countries in four major regions — Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Africa — from its İstanbul center. Richard di Benedetto, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, International-EAGM will be overseeing the company’s operations. The EAGM region accounted for more than $600 million in revenue in 2007 and is expected to double the figure to $1.2 billion by 2010 thanks to the new structuring. (more…)