For smart tech, emerging markets are where it's at

As far as power generation and green energy are concerned, the world’s emerging markets are where the action is.

Energy, engineering and infrastructure giant Siemens, for example, foresees rapidly growing demand for its services not only in the Middle East and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries but in nations like Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. The German firm has made it a priority to expand its reach in those markets over the next five years.

Strong economic growth in emerging-market countries is creating an “enormous” demand for solutions not only in power generation and transmission, but also in healthcare and sustainable urban and industrial infrastructures, according to Siemens.

The Chinese government’s twelfth five-year plan, for example calls for — among other things — massive investments in renewable energies, smart grids, electric mobility and improvements in the healthcare system. And India says it needs to be feeding an additional 200 gigawatts into its power grid by 2020 to meet its exploding energy needs.

Siemens also foresees growth in the market for entry-level “SMART” products that are simple, maintenance-friendly, affordable, reliable and timely-to-market. In China and India, for instance, demand for such products is growing by 10 percent a year.

“The emerging markets are still the growth engines of the global economy,” said Roland Busch, a member of Siemens Managing Board.