GE CEO Immelt Says United States Needs A Reorientation Of Policy And Its Economy In Order To Double Exports

Manufacturing & Technology News (McCormack) - For the United States to live up to President Obama's goal of doubling exports over the next five years, American companies will have to deploy a sophisticated set of capabilities beyond developing and manufacturing products that the rest of the world wants to buy, according to Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric. U.S. companies will need "exceptional capabilities" in marketing, sales, support and financing.

To double exports, the federal government will also have to move away from an economic policy focused on consumption, finance and services to one that promotes investment in manufacturing and exports abroad. Since 70 percent of all U.S. exports are manufactured goods then "we have to make things here," Immelt told the annual meeting of the Export-Import Bank of the United States in Washington, D.C., held in March. "We have to know how to make things. It's like night follows day."