Canon to hike China, Vietnam operations

Canon Inc. reportedly plans to boost the production of its digital cameras in China and to build a new laser printer plant in Vietnam, in a bid to meet the booming demand for these devices in emerging markets.

Canon announced last week that it is looking to doubling its production of compact digital cameras at a factory in China's Guangdong province to 10 million units by 2009. The beefed up production is set to hike the company's global output by 20 percent.

In addition, Canon is said to be investing around $49 million to construct a new factory in Northern Vietnam, which will assemble low-cost printers.