ABB will add more than $100 million in investments in China this year.

The money will be used to "support the expansion of research and development, manufacturing, sales and engineering services across the complete power and automation product portfolio in China", ABB CEO and CFO Michel Demar said yesterday.

The proposed investment by the leading global power and automation technology group comes on the heels of the Switzerland-based company's sharp increase in investments by another $100 million in its 25 local companies last year. Together, it's already double the company's original plan of injecting $100 million in its Chinese operation between 2004 and 2008.