Shanghai, China, Mar. 17--China will stick by pledges to open a booming retail sector to foreign players such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, abolishing joint-venture requirements before December 11, state media said Wednesday.
Under commitments made to the World Trade Organization, Beijing also promised to end restrictions on the location and number of foreign-owned chain stores, the China Securities Journal cited Vice Commerce Minister Zhang Zhigang as saying.
Grappling with slack sales growth in a mature home market, international retailers are looking for a slice of sales in China that jumped 10.5 percent to $106 billion in the year through to the January-Feburary period.
But retail industry investment now accounts for just 0.6 percent of total foreign direct investment. And sales generated by foreign retailers accounted for less than 3.5 percent of total retail sales, the newspaper reported.
France's Carrefour SA was ranked the top foreign retailer by revenue, the paper said. Its sales in China rose 25.7 percent from a year earlier to 13.4 billion yuan ($1.62 billion) in 2003.
Wal-Mart Stores, which runs 33 chain stores across the country, posted a more modest 5.85 billion yuan in sales, but bought $15 billion worth of goods in 2003, the newspaper said. Underscoring the emphasis placed on the mainland by foreign retailers, Wal-Mart said last week it had held its first-ever annual board meeting in China, Asia's second-largest retail market behind Japan. ($1=8.277 yuan)
