US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc plans to open 15 new stores in China next year.

Joe Hatfield, president of Wal-Mart Asia, revealed the news at a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

Starting in 1996, Wal-Mart set up 40 stores in 20 cities in China and has provided local people with more than 20,000 employment opportunities over eight years of business growth, Wal-Mart said.

The total number of Wal-Mart retail stores in China in 2004 is expected to reach 43 as Wal-Mart will open another three by the end of the year.

Up to now, the total investment of Wal-Mart into the Chinese market amounts to 1.6 billion yuan (US$192 million) and the accumulated paid tax reaches 1.1 billion yuan (US$132 million), statistics show.

Last year, Wal-Mart purchased US$15 billion worth of goods from the Chinese market for its global sales, up from US$12 billion in 2003, showing continuous annual growth.

Currently, locally purchased goods account for 95 percent of Wal-Mart's total number of goods for its Chinese market sales.

The world's largest retailer plans to further expand its procurement from China, said Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Scott said Wal-Mart will increase its China investment and start targeting western China to echo the West China Development project of the Chinese Government.

Close cooperation will be deepened between Wal-Mart and local manufacturing companies in China to guarantee the smooth supply of goods and to help local companies improve production, technology and management, the Wal-Mart CEO indicated.

Wal-Mart has established cooperation relationships with 180,000 local goods supply companies in China, according to statistics.

Wal-Mart donated 1 million yuan (US$120,482) to help establish China's first retail research institute, the China Retail Research Center (CRRC) at Tsinghua University yesterday, as the retail industry is showing an escalating influence upon the country's economy.

China's retail sales volume in 2003 reached 4.58 trillion yuan (US$551.8 billion), and the figure keeps growing by an annual 10 percent, expected to hit 20 trillion yuan (US$2.4 trillion) in 2020, according to government sources.

(China Daily November 3, 2004)