36 | bhge 2017 form 10-k liquidity and capital resources our objective in financing our business is to maintain sufficient liquidity , adequate financial resources and financial flexibility in order to fund the requirements of our business . at december 31 , 2017 , we had cash and equivalents of $ 7.0 billion compared to $ 981 million of cash and equivalents at december 31 , 2016 . cash and equivalents includes $ 997 million of cash held on behalf of ge at december 31 , 2017 . at december 31 , 2017 , approximately $ 3.2 billion of our cash and equivalents was held by foreign subsidiaries compared to approximately $ 878 million at december 31 , 2016 . a substantial portion of the cash held by foreign subsidiaries at december 31 , 2017 has been reinvested in active non-u.s . business operations . at december 31 , 2017 , our intent is , among other things , to use this cash to fund the operations of our foreign subsidiaries , and we have not changed our indefinite reinvestment decision as a result of u.s . tax reform but will reassess this during the course of 2018 . if we decide at a later date to repatriate those funds to the u.s. , we may be required to provide taxes on certain of those funds , however , due to the enactment of u.s . tax reform , repatriations of foreign earnings will generally be free of u.s . federal tax but may incur other taxes such as withholding or state taxes . on july 3 , 2017 , in connection with the transactions , bhge llc entered into a new five-year $ 3 billion committed unsecured revolving credit facility ( 2017 credit agreement ) with commercial banks maturing in july 2022 . as of december 31 , 2017 , there were no borrowings under the 2017 credit agreement . on november 3 , 2017 , bhge llc entered into a commercial paper program under which it may issue from time to time up to $ 3 billion in commercial paper with maturities of no more than 397 days . at december 31 , 2017 , there were no borrowings outstanding under the commercial paper program . the maximum combined borrowing at any time under both the 2017 credit agreement and the commercial paper program is $ 3 billion . on november 6 , 2017 , we announced that our board of directors authorized bhge llc to repurchase up to $ 3 billion of its common units from the company and ge . the proceeds of such repurchase that are distributed to the company will be used to repurchase class a shares of the company on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions . on december 15 , 2017 , we filed a shelf registration statement on form s-3 with the sec to give us the ability to sell up to $ 3 billion in debt securities in amounts to be determined at the time of an offering . any such offering , if it does occur , may happen in one or more transactions . the specific terms of any securities to be sold will be described in supplemental filings with the sec . the registration statement will expire in 2020 . during the year ended december 31 , 2017 , we used cash to fund a variety of activities including certain working capital needs and restructuring costs , capital expenditures , business acquisitions , the payment of dividends and share repurchases . we believe that cash on hand , cash flows generated from operations and the available credit facility will provide sufficient liquidity to manage our global cash needs . cash flows cash flows provided by ( used in ) each type of activity were as follows for the years ended december 31: .
what is the cash held on behalf of ge as a percentage of cash and equivalents in 2017?
operating activities our largest source of operating cash is payments from customers , of which the largest component is collecting cash related to product or services sales including advance payments or progress collections for work to be performed . the primary use of operating cash is to pay our suppliers , employees , tax authorities and others for a wide range of material and services. .