Statement from Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE, and Chairman, President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

FAIRFIELD, Conn., Sep 08, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, who serves as chairman of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, today issued the following statement on President Obama's speech to Congress on jobs creation and competitiveness:

President Obama made clear tonight that it is critical that all of us work together to create jobs in America. The 26 members of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness are pleased that the President embraced several Council recommendations, including programs cutting red tape, improving our nation's infrastructure, helping U.S. universities graduate more engineers and skills training programs for advanced manufacturing and healthcare.

The Council is focused on many other actions to increase jobs and competitiveness. They include both private-sector actions and government-led initiatives.

Because more than two million construction workers are out of work, the Council identified ten high-priority infrastructure projects based on their potential to put Americans to work right away -- projects that have already been funded, but are being held up by regulations. We are working with the Administration to fast-track permitting and get these projects moving. There is broad support within the Council and the business and labor communities for investing in our nation's aviation, broadband, surface and energy systems, including improving existing financing mechanisms for our critical infrastructure needs.

The Council has held Listening & Action sessions with small businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs across the country to identify steps that both the public and private sectors can take to create jobs and strengthen the economy. We heard from small businesses that they face too much red tape. At the Council's urging, the Administration has started a regulatory look-back, directing every agency including independent agencies, to determine how they can make their regulations more friendly to small business and more streamlined.

The Jobs Council will be making additional recommendations to the President over the next few weeks on topics such as tax policy and investment in the U.S. economy.

President Obama and congressional leaders are correctly focusing national attention on job creation. We need a sense of urgency and more collaboration around getting more Americans back to work and maintaining America's competitive leadership.

About GE

GE +0.06% is a diversified infrastructure, finance company taking on the world's toughest challenges. From aviation and power generation to financial services, healthcare solutions, oil and gas and rail, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.