Herbalife, one of the world's top five direct-selling companies, is investing in China a lot more aggressively than before to increase the size of its business from its current fourth place to become the largest in the Asia-Pacific region within four years, China Daily reported Saturday.

Michael O. Johnson, chief executive officer of the U.S. personal care and nutritional products maker, made the remark during a three-day China visit to Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

He refused to be specific about numbers, only saying the volume would be "larger" than in previous years.

The company's China investment has amounted to 38 million U.S. dollars so far. The majority, 31.25 million U.S. dollars, went to its Suzhou factory, one of its two manufacturing plants worldwide whose products have been mainly sold in China.

Future investment will be injected into three major areas, including expanding the output capacity of the Suzhou factory to cover a floor area of over 7,000 square meters, setting up a research and development (R&D) unit and establishing a training system.

The Suzhou factory, which will contain not only the manufacturing base but also R&D and training centers, will be the model for all Herbalife's global businesses, said the CEO.

Part of the investment will be used to apply for licenses to conduct business in more regions around China, according to the newspaper.