BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chairman Ning Gaoning of China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), said Sunday the corporation's total investment in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region would reach 10 billion yuan (1.46 billion U.S. dollars) over the next five years.

    Ning made the remarks during his visit to the Xinjiang-based subsidiary companies of the corporation, the country's largest oil and food producer.

    Currently, COFCO's accumulative investment in the region is about 5 billion yuan, focused on tomato processing, sugar manufacturing, and beverages.

    Ning said the corporation would double investment over the next five years due to confidence in the region's growth potential, but did not say for which the future investment would be targeted.

    In 2005, COFCO made an investment in Xinjiang's Tunhe Investment Co., Ltd. by taking over a 37.2 percent share of Tunhe. So far COFCO Tunhe has become the largest tomato ketchup producer in Asia, and the second largest in the world.