中美双剑合璧 通用电气与华为达成合作协议

US manufacturing giant General Electric has agreed a deal with Chinese technology and smartphone giant Huawei to help it improve production.

美国制造业巨头通用电气已经和中国科技智能手机巨头华为达成协议，将帮助华为提高生产力。

GE hopes that by connecting all areas within a production process via the internet it can improve productivity, lower costs and reduce emissions. It predicts that the improvements will help it to save $500m (381m pound) this year.

通用电气希望通过互联网将一件产品生产过程中所涉及的所有领域全都连接起来，这样就能够提高生产力、降低成本、减少排放量。通用电气预测这一改进将帮助该公司今年节省5亿美元（约合3.81亿英镑）。

Both sides see the concept as a key step towards "smart manufacturing."

而合作双方都将这一概念视作迈向“智能制造”的关键一步。

Shenzhen-based Huawei is one of the world's biggest smartphone vendors behind Apple and Samsung. Huawei's managing director, William Xu, said it was "very pleased" with the deal.

总部位于深圳的华为公司是全球最大的智能手机厂商之一，仅次于三星和苹果。华为常务董事徐文伟表示，华为对这一协议感到“非常满意”。

"The next ten years are an important period for the traditional economy to move to a digital economy... Companies can not cope with all the challenges alone," he added.

徐文伟补充说道：“未来十年将是传统经济迈向数字经济的一个重要时期。公司不能单独应对所有的挑战。”

The move came as GE said that it still saw plenty of opportunities in China, despite the country's slowing growth.

尽管中国的经济增长速度正在放缓，但是通用电气方面表示，他们仍然在中国看到了大量的机会，所以他们采取了该行动。

"Yes the economy is growing at a slower growth rate... but it's the the world's second-largest economy so there's plenty of opportunity," said GE vice chairman John Rice, speaking in Shanghai.

通用电气副主席约翰·瑞斯在上海讲到：“是的，经济增长速度正在放缓，但是中国是世界第二大经济体，因此这里有很多机会。”

China's economy grew at an annual rate of 6.7% in the first quarter of the year, its slowest quarterly growth for seven years.

2016年第一季度，中国的经济年增长率为6.7%，为7年来最低。

The US-based multinational firm is a huge conglomerate, whose business interests include everything from manufacturing jet engines, to providing firms with finance, developing software, and making consumer goods such as dishwashers and coffee-makers.

美国通用电气是一家庞大的跨国企业集团，该公司的业务领域包括制造喷气式发动机、为公司提供融资、开发软件以及制造洗碗机和咖啡机之类的消费品。