General Electric Co., the world's largest conglomerate, hoped to post a fivefold leap in sales from its infrastructure division in China by the time of the Olympic Games in 2008, a senior executive said Monday.

GE's infrastructure division - its smallest business but also one of the fastest-growing - aimed to rake in US$500 million in revenue from China by 2008, versus US$100 million this year, he said.

"By the time the Beijing Olympics are concluded in 2008, we're aspiring to sell US$500 million," Bill Woodburn, president of GE Infrastructure, said in Shanghai.

Still, that figure represents a mere sliver of overall turnover in China for GE, whose global businesses run the gamut from jet engines to media group NBC Universal.

GE had expected overall sales in China of between US$3.5 billion and US$4 billion this year, on track to hit US$5 billion next year, executives had said earlier this year.

It now derives about 2 percent of global turnover from the country, versus the 5 percent of Siemens.

Infrastructure possesses two of GE's major growth initiatives - water purification and security products.

The division, which also provides factory sensors and water management systems, could grow to a US$6 billion to US$7 billion business by 2006 or 2007, Woodburn has said. The business generated US$3.1 billion in revenue last year.

(Shenzhen Daily-Agencies)