Canon, well known for its EOS and PowerShot digital models, is doubling the number of outlets and boosting its marketing workforce in China to tap the company's fastest-growing major market, Canon's Chief Director of Image Communication Business Masaya Maeda said.

"The China market is very vibrant and will likely drive worldwide growth in the coming years," he said.

According to Maeda, Canon forecasts its sales will rise 10 percent in China this year.

Maeda reiterated the firm's projections in January that Canon's global camera sales will increase 6.6 percent to 25.7 million units and that China accounted for about 15 percent of Canon's camera sales in 2009.

Suppliers including Nikon Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. are also looking to expand there and competition will likely intensify, he said.

Canon boosted the number of employees at its Beijing-based marketing unit by 10 percent to 1,421 last year, Maeda said. The company plans to almost double the number of its servicing outlets in the country to 25 by the end of this year, he added.

"China will probably match the size of the U.S. and Europe in five to six years after maintaining an annual growth rate of about 10 percent," he said.

The average selling price of cameras will likely drop further this year by "several percentage points," said Maeda.

"We still have room to cut our expenses to cope with the declining prices," he added.

Following the comments, shares in Canon Inc. rose 0.76 percent to 3,995 yen as of 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday in Tokyo.