Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest maker of internet switches and routers, expects to spend $16bn in China over the next five years, nearly double its expenditure in the country over the past half decade.

The rise highlights China’s growing importance as a global electronics assembly and manufacturing base, with procurement of Chinese-sourced components and services accounting for $7bn of the $8.5bn Cisco said it spent in China from 2002-2007. Cisco declined to give details of how it would spend the money, which also includes business expenses, financing for customers, direct and indirect investments, and R&D costs.