
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104110573
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FOREIGN PARTNERS CULTIVATED

Even the largest of U.S. corporations find it difficult to get business abroad without a foreign partner who is expert in overseas operations, says General Electric's manager of business alliances.

General Electric's Drive Systems division, based in Salem, looks for partners to help cope with problems at foreign sites and win business in other countries, said Robert Davidson.

He told the International Trade Association of Western Virginia Wednesday that his company has trouble penetrating European markets that are controlled by large corporations.

It took GE nine months of negotiations with a small electric company in Spain before agreeing on supply, price and training, Davidson said. But within a year, the partnership that GE formed with a European company got its first order in the paper industry.

Davidson said he was 80 percent certain GE could not have captured the contract without local help.

Davidson had just returned from a trip to Canada where he's trying to locate a Quebec partner before bidding on a metal processing contract.

GE, whose Salem plant is a half-billion-dollar annual operation, has 22 people "who are our eyes and ears" to help find partners around the world, he said. That includes two people in Tokyo, three in Seoul, six in Frankfurt and one in South America.

by CNB