Lianhua Belgium venture approved

China's largest retail chain, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings. has received approval from China's
commerce ministry to form a distribution firm in Belgium with two over-seas firms, Saudi
China Morning Post said. Lianhua said it planned a two-prong strategy where Chinese-
made goods will be distrib-uted in Europe and European goods brought to China. The new
firm will be a Lianhua unit but no details were given of shareholding structure or the
amount of investment.