Wal-Mart is considering expanding its operations in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand as part of plans to achieve a 10 per cent growth rate of revenues to $100 billion this year, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive of Wal-Mart Asia, International Vicente Trius said September 4.
Mr Vicente Trius said that Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are the potential markets in Southeast Asia. Wal-Mart is seeking to boost operations in the bloc as American consumers are tightening their belts due to the sub-prime crisis, he said, adding currently, Wal-Mart is expand operations in emerging markets.
Last month, Wal-Mart announced that it had profit rising 17 per cent to $3.45 billion in the second quarter with $25.26 billion in revenues from its international operations, up 17 per cent on year.
It Sept 3 opened its offices in Hong Kong to manage operations in Japan, India and China.
With a network of 4,000 outlets in America and 3,000 shops in 13 countries and territories, Wal-Mart had gross revenues of $90.6 billion in the fiscal year of 2007.
In late Aug, Chief Executive Officer of Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, Randy Guttery who used to work for Wal-Mart, assured that the group will unlikely enter Vietnam because of small scale of the market and underdeveloped transport infrastructure.
Vietnam’s total retail sales of goods and services were estimated at VND527.5 trillion ($33 billion) in the first seven months of 2008, up 30 per cent on year, the GSO said.
Vietnam has a population of more than 86 million people. (www1.dantri.com.vn,
www.laodong.com.vn)
Vietnamese
