HANOI (AFP) - THE Coca-Cola Company said it would double its investment in communist Vietnam to US$400 million (S$575 million).

The firm said it would invest, in conjunction with its local bottler, an additional US$200 million in the country over the next three years.

Since returning to Vietnam in 1994, Coca-Cola has already invested US$200 million and has three bottling plants: in the north, central and southern parts of the country, the company said in a statement on Friday.

It did not say what the additional investment funds will be used for.

'Vietnam is a very important growth market to The Coca-Cola Company,' the firm's chairman and chief executive officer, Muhtar Kent, said in the statement.

'We are very optimistic about the future of our business here,' Mr Kent said on a visit to the southern commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City.

Following Vietnam's reunification after the war ended in 1975, the United States did not lift a trade embargo until 1994. Diplomatic relations were normalised a year later and the US has developed into a key economic partner of its former adversary.

According to official data 51 per cent of Vietnam's population of about 86 million is under the age of 30.

Is this article useful to you?