Tesco's chairman says world needs China

David Reid is the chairman of the world’s third-largest retailer, Tesco. He states there have been tremendous changes and development in China following the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy (which is not arguable), and the world today needs China more.

David Reid told Xinhua that he is very familiar with China. Nearly 30 years ago, Reid paid his first visit to China. In recent years, he has been visiting China three or four times each year.

Tesco entered the Hong Kong market in the 1970s, when China just adopted its reform and opening-up policy. Raid said that over the period, "China absolutely sets a good example among the countries."

Tesco is witnessing a fast-growing business in China, and Reid said "the mayors of the cities we visited are all very helpful."

According to Tesco’s 2009 first-quarter management statement, its global sales increased by 12.6% while the international operations, particularly those in Asia, which had an encouraging growth of 43.8%.

Reid described China’s development as "huge." At the beginning, Tesco just imported products from China worth $320 million. The figure has now increased to $1.92 billion.

China View quoted Reid (misspelling his name as Raid throughout) as saying that the Chinese market means a huge opportunity for Tesco. Now Tesco has 70 stores in China, and it will build more in the future.

He said, "Britain is much smaller than China. We have over 2,000 stores in Britain, so we can see a big potential in China. If the economic condition is good, I’m sure we will start 10 or more new stores in China per year."