Business
UPDATED: 16:33, November 01, 2004
Wal-Mart opens 40th outlet in central China city
Wal-mart, the world's largest retailer, announced the opening of its 40th outlet in China Monday in Wuhan, with a new shopping center coming into being in this capital city of Hubei province in central China.
Li Qingquan, manager of Wal-mart's east China company, said Wal-mart attached great importance to the Wuhan outlet, with 30 percent of its products on sales stocked from the local market.
Wal-mart is planning to buy more local products from Wuhan for its other outlets elsewhere in China, said Li.
With the coming of Wal-mart, all the world's top three retailers have entered the Wuhan market. Currently, French retailer giant Carrefour has opened three branches in Wuhan since 1998, and the world largest chain-store Metro also opened two branches in the city.
China is becoming an attractive market for world retailers thanks to its fast economic growth and huge potential market. Nowadays, 70 percent of world's top 50 retailers do business in China.
According to China's promises for the entry of the World Trade Organization, experts acknowledged, China will completely open its retailer industry by the end of 2004 when no complex procedures are required for the overseas retailers to enter the China market.
Sources from Wal-mart noted that the U.S.-based retail chain has opened 39 outlets in 19 major Chinese cities, including Shenzhen, Beijing, Harbin and Nanjing, in the past eight years since its entry into China in 1996. The retailer has employed more than 20,000 employees in the country.
Wal-mart boasts the largest revenues among its peer companies, and it topped the global Fortune 500 from 2000-2003, with a total of 1.5 million employees.
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