KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Bhd has allocated between RM1 and RM2 billion as capital expenditure (capex) for expansion in China over the next five years.

Its president and group CEO Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid said the capex has been earmarked for the company’s core businesses expansions there.

“We are looking at (expanding) the industrial, motor, property and plantations,” he told reporters after its AGM on Monday, Nov 30.

Its chairman Tun Musa Hitam in its annual report statement said China would remain Sime’s core focus of its investment strategy in the ‘next decade’ to capitalize on the country’s long term growth trends.

Sime already has port, water, energy, utility, refinery and bunkering businesses in China.

Sime Darby had said it would spend RM7 billion in capex over the next two to three years. Actual capex for FY09 came in at RM2 billion.