General Electric Co (GE) announced Monday it will build an innovation center in Chengdu, capital city of southwest Sichuan province, focusing on the country's local healthcare market.

According to GE, the Chengdu innovation center will be different from traditional research and development centers, as it will combine research and development sections with marketing ones.

The center is expected to open this year, and is currently recruiting 380 engineers for research and development in areas such as healthcare, petroleum, natural gas and automation.

According to GE, the center will develop tailor-made products or services for Chinese after studying local medical conditions and people's consumption capacity.

"The center will work out solutions for GE Healthcare, a giant in China's medical equipment market, in line with China's healthcare reform," said Chen Xiangli, general manager of GE China Technology Center.

According to China's three-year plan for national healthcare reform released in 2009, the government promised universal access to basic health insurance, improved primary health care facilities and equitable access to basic public health services.

The center will make efforts to help the government reduce local medical costs, and improve health services, Chen added.

In November last year, GE unveiled a plan to expand its China presence. In the plan, some half a billion US dollars will go to establishing innovation centers in China, including those in Chengdu, northeast China's Shenyang and northwest Xi'an.