GE singles out Brazil for $500m investment

General Electric is extending its network of global research centres with a new facility in Rio de Janeiro as part of a $500m investment in its Brazilian activities. The high-tech R&D centre, which is due to open at the end of 2012 and employ 200 technologists, will be the company's fifth. Similar labs in India, China and Germany have been established during the past decade, joining GE's original innovation centre, set up in New York 100 years ago.