The chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc warned yesterday the global economic recovery would likely be lethargic, even as the retailing behemoth sees great growth potential in China and India.
“The world recovery is going to be led by Asia although it’s going to be very challenging. I think this recovery is going to be a slow one,” Robson Walton told a global CEO business conference here.
Walton said “sales have been tough” for Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, even though it was benefiting from the economic downturn as more people shop at discounters for bargains including over-the-counter drugs and eat-at-home food.
The Wal-Mart chief’s comments echoed remarks on Tuesday in Singapore by General Electric Co chief executive Jeffrey Immelt. He warned that high unemployment and slower lending would drag on US economic growth, likely resulting in the weakest recovery in decades.
Walton said international operations accounted for one-third of Wal-Mart’s global sales, and the proportion was expected to increase as the group focuses on larger markets in Asia.
“China is a big opportunity for us. We are just getting started in India, where there’s great opportunity for us,” he said.
“There is change and opportunity in the crisis. If we want to be successful, we got to change. We are working very hard to get our cost down and developing high-efficiency smaller stores to go into urban areas,” he said.
He didn’t elaborate and couldn’t be reached for further comment.
Wal-Mart has more than 250 stores in China. It ventured into India in May to tap the country’s US$430 billion retail market.
Bharti Wal-Mart Private Ltd, a joint venture between India’s Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart, opened its first wholesale outlet called “Best Price Modern Wholesale” in Amritsar in India’s northern state of Punjab.
The company has plans to invest US$100 million over the next three years to open 10 to 15 more wholesale outlets, which would employ 5,000 people across India.
But for now, it can only sell its 6,000 food and non-food items to other businesses because Indian law prohibits foreign companies from selling direct to customers in multi-brand retail outlets to protect smaller domestic retailers.
Wal-Mart has tightened its inventory controls and improved its earnings in the second quarter.
However, the key barometer of same-stores sales in the US (sales at stores open at least a year) slipped 1.2 percent during the period — a worrisome confirmation of broad weakness in consumer spending.
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS