Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said it plans to open as many as 15 new stores in China next year, expanding in the world's fastest-growing economy as the government lifts curbs on foreign store operators.
Joe Hatfield, Wal-Mart's chief executive for Asia, gave the forecast in an interview before a press conference in Beijing.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart yesterday opened its 40th Chinese store in the central city of Wuhan.
Wal-Mart, Carrefour SA and other overseas companies are stepping up plans to open more stores in China as the government prepares to remove restrictions next month on the number, location and ownership of foreign retail outlets.
China is easing rules to meet WTO pledges, widening access to a market where retail sales are growing at a 14 percent annual rate. From Dec. 11, China will let overseas retailers open outlets in any city in the country.
The US retailer, which has stores in 20 Chinese cities, has invested as much as 1.6 billion yuan (US$193 billion) in the country, the company said in a release. Wal-Mart plans to have 43 outlets in China by the end of this year, spokeswoman Amy Wyatt said in August.
Germany's Metro Group, the world's fourth-largest retailer, plans to increase the number of its stores in China by more than half before the end of next year as the nation opens up its retail industry.
The Dusseldorf-based company plans to add two stores in China by the end of this year and another 10 next year, Chief Executive Hans-Joachim Koerber said in a statement.
Metro has 21 Cash & Carry stores in China, hiring more than 5,100 people and serving 2 million customers. The company plans to have more than 50 stores in the country in three to five years time.
"China is the center of our Asian expansion," said Koerber. "In mid-term, Metro Cash & Carry wants to generate 10 percent of its total sales in Asia."
France's Carrefour, the largest overseas retailer in China, aims to open as many as 15 superstores a year in the country, its largest and fastest-growing Asian market, Philippe Jarry, regional manager for Asia, said in a May newsletter to shareholders.
Average disposable income in China's urban areas, home to a third of the nation's 1.3 billion people, rose 40 percent from 1999 to last year, topping US$1,000 for the first time last year, government statistics show.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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