Nearly two years ago around January 2008, Pepsico's CEO Indra Nooyi said companies like Pepsico were resistant to a slowdown because people continue to eat and drink despite the slowdown and in fact Pepsico products made them happy at a very low cost. It was something that people would want more of as times got tougher. Nooyi now says that the market for Pepsico's product range has gotten stronger with households across the world cutting back on spending on luxuries like eating out. She's betting big on growth from the Asian markets and was in China to inaugurate a plant there. CNBC's Maria Bartiromo spoke to Nooyi earlier. Here's an excerpt of that conversation.

Bartiromo: We've been talking a lot about protectionist issues; certainly in the United States, the whole idea of just buy American and then China comes out and does the same thing—buy Chinese. Are you feeling that in any way, being an American company, this protectionist issue that so many of us talk about given the global slowdown?

Nooyi: It's unfortunate that there's a lot of protectionist debate going on because big multinational companies depend on expanding into global markets to sustain a growth rate. And so it's important that all markets remain open, so that we can grow our business.

About China in particular, the investment climate in China is very good. We've submitted an application to build 10 more plants, and the Chinese government has worked with us very constructively and has looked upon our investment very, very favorably. At the same time, we've had several meetings with government officials here in Beijing, and there is tremendous concern here that protectionist tendencies will sort of take root in many markets which are facing a slowdown. It takes about a year to put in trade barriers, but it takes seven to 10 years to knock them down. The world has come a long way because we've really pushed for globalization and global trade. It would be very sad if we went back. Now, I'm not arguing that we export jobs. That's not what I'm arguing for. What I'm suggesting is that we find creative ways to keep job creation in each of the key countries which require the jobs, but we don't set up barriers for global trade because global trade modernises the world. Global trade brings people out of poverty and it's critically important that we don't go back on that. We've worked too hard to get here.

Also read:  Pepsi plans low-cost beverages, snacks to fight anaemia 

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