German software giant SAP said on Tuesday it planned to invest $2.0 billion (1.5 billion euros) in increasing its presence in China over the next four years.

"SAP today announced multi-year spending plans of more than $2 billion through 2015 to grow its business in China," the world's second-largest economy, the group said in a statement.

Co-chief executive Bill McDermott said SAP, which has been present in China for 20 years and has two research centres in Shanghai and Chengdu, would set up five or six more branches there and hire around 2,000 more people.

SAP does not publish separate figures for its activities in China, but the Asia-Pacific region accounted for around 14 percent of overall group revenues last year.