Zhang Qiang was sipping Coca-Cola as he sat by the PepsiCo-sponsored US Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo on Monday.

Zhang bought the Coca-Cola at a nearby kiosk. However, the US Pavilion is the only venue that visitors could buy Pepsi-Cola in the park.

"I am not fussy about drinking Coca-Cola or Pepsi, but I think both these American firms are keen on expanding their business in China," said Zhang, from east China's Shandong Province.

Zhang is probably right, given Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola's chairman and chief executive officer, said last week the US soft-drink giant will this year open two new bottling plants in China and start building another one.

Coca-Cola is one of the 13 official global partners of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, together with China Mobile, the country's leading mobile phone carrier and China's top steel maker Baosteel.

But PepsiCo could not afford to be absent from the world's biggest exhibition, and contributed five million US dollars to become a highest tier of US Pavilion sponsor together with other leading American firms.

The US Pavilion is one of the most popular ones in the park, and it would hopefully attract most of the expected 70 million visitors to the Expo.

A total of 189 countries and 57 international organizations are participating in the event, the biggest number in the history of the exhibition.

Kent believes China will become the world's largest soft drink market in the near future.

One of the new plants opening this year is in southern China's Guangdong Province, the other in Hohhot, in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The six-month Shanghai World Expo, which opened May 1, has not only stimulated spending on infrastructure; it's also boosting Chinese consumption.

It is also a branding opportunity for both international and domestic companies, Standard Chartered's Shanghai-based economist Jinny Yan told Xinhua.

Under Shanghai's sunny skies Monday, there were long lines to buy a Coca-Cola or Sprite at the Expo park's Coca-Cola kiosks.

"We believe that both our global sponsorship and marketing campaigns at the Expo represent a chance to enhance our connection with our consumers, and we invest solidly in these opportunities," Brenda Lee, Vice President of Coca-Cola Greater China, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Coca-Cola became an official global partner for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo in 2007.

The new bottling plants are part of Coca-Cola's 2-billion-US dollar China investment program. The firm will also significantly increase investments in marketing, distribution and logistics in the following years in China, Lee added.

But it is not only Coca-Cola and Pepsi that are eager to grab a bigger share of the world's fastest-growing consumer market. Other multinational firms, as well as homegrown Chinese companies, are beefing up their branding efforts during the Expo.

Many stores in the eastern metropolis have Expo-related advertising campaigns - "Buy air-conditioners and win Expo tickets, " says one poster, for example.

An array of pavilions are also showcasing their manufacturers to enhance their reach with the expo's expected 70 million visitors.

Experts say both Chinese and foreign firms want to use the expo as a platform for marketing and networking as the Chinese economy becomes the world's leading market for autos and luxury products.

The Chinese economy grew at a sizzling double-digit pace in the first quarter, despite the financial meltdown in some European countries.

China's GDP expanded 11.9 percent year on year in the period, suggesting a solid recovery in the world's third largest economy.

Many international and domestic firms expect Shanghai's neighboring regions to be major growth engines over the next decade, and so participating and marketing at the Shanghai Expo has taken on added importance, Lian Ping, chief economist at Bank of Communications, China's fifth largest lender, said.