US-BASED Ecolab Inc, a food safety and environmental protection solutions provider, said it plans more investment in China as government regulators and the public step up pressure for higher food-quality standards and lower pollution levels.

"We consider China one of the most important markets, on par with the US and Europe," Douglas Baker, chairman and CEO of Ecolab, said in an interview with Shanghai Daily at the Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu. "For us, China is high priority because of its size and pace of growth."

Baker said investment in China will outpace that for the US and Europe in areas such as food safety, energy savings and water conservation.

"Europe and the US went through a period of water and air pollution when they were focused on economic development," he said. "It took them decades to rebalance. I think China will go through the same evolution, but it will proceed faster because the government seems resolute in tackling pollution. The technology used China is more advanced than that of the US and the Europe in the 1960s and 70s."

He said Ecolab's research and development center in Shanghai will overtake Europe's in size in the next five years, becoming the company's second-largest in the world. Investment and expansion here will continue.

Baker said the company invested US$160 million in the past four years to expand manufacturing and research capacities in China. The company currently operates 40 offices and six factories in the country.