Beverage major, Coca-Cola has indicated that it is planning to invest about $2 billion in India over the next five years.

Coca-Cola India and its bottling partners will invest the funds in consumer marketing and brand-building activities in the country. The company and its parents are also planning to invest in expansion of distribution and cold drink equipment placement and development of manufacturing capacity in India.

Coca-Cola and its bottling partners are planning to invest the amount over a period of five years starting 2012. This will be the company's single largest investment in one phase since it re-entered the country just less than two decades earlier. The announcement shows the importance given to the emerging markets like India by the multinational firms facing slowdown and stagnant demand in developed markets.

"India has passed a certain threshold for the Coca-Cola system; we see this market as a determining factor in our growth story," said Ahmet C Bozer, Coca-Cola's president, Eurasia and Africa Group.

He also said that if the company continues of the right track, India could emerge as one of the top five markets for the company at the end of the decade.