Wal-Mart targets aggressive growth in China

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, plans to keep expanding in China at more than 30% a year, Reuters reported. Terence Cullen, vice-president of development for the US firm in China, outlined his goal at a news conference on Monday. Wal-Mart revealed that it won approval to open its 100th store in the country at the conference. It has opened 24 new hypermarket outlets in 2007 alone, taking its current total to 94. Wal-Mart has invested US$230 million in China since opening its first store in 1996 and buys around US$18 billion in goods from local factories each year. It also imports over 6,000 products from the US for sale in China. Last year, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions forced Wal-Mart to accept official union organization in its stores, a policy that flies in the face of the company's long-standing resistance to such activity elsewhere in the world.