In the wake of China's surging economic development, a growing number of foreign retail giants have increased their investment in China's commercial sector.

Statistics shows, 70 percent of the top 50 retailers in the world have set up footholds in China. Wal Mart has opened 19 chain shops with a goal of 100 shops in China. Carrefour opened four newshops in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, and other Chinese cities. METRO has set up 18 shops in various parts of China.

Nearly 80 percent of supermarkets, the main channel of retail sales in China, are dominated by foreign retail companies. Some large cities, where domestic retail shops face fierce competition from their overseas partners, foreign retailers have maintained in the forefront in terms of sale value.

Ji Xiangqi, chairman of the Shandong Provincial Commercial Group, attributed the thriving growth of overseas retailers to the contradiction between growing domestic demand and the status of small scale, sparse distribution and poor quality offered by domestic commercial departments.

Statistics showed that the ratio of the commercial sector in China's GDP is no more than 10 percent. The sales volume of Shanghai-based Bailian Group, China's leading retail seller, was 3.1 billion yuan (373 million US dollars) in 2003, equivalent to the sales value of only nine days of Wal Mart.

"Competition is good," says Li Jiangning, an economist in Shandong Province. "The competition impels us to reorganize the retail firms, expand the scale and improve management," he added. 

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(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2004)