Supermarket retailers Carrefour and Wal-Mart will open new outlets in the next two years in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of north China's Hebei Province.

Wal-Mart will sign an agreement with a local project called Yuanyangcheng Commercial Plaza, according to sources at the ongoing international investment and trade fair in Shijiazhuang.

The plaza is to be built early next year in the downtown area of the city. Wal-mart will be one of the stores there and is expected to open in May 2007.

Carrefour, the world's No. 2 retailer, signed a 10-million-US-dollar contract Wednesday. According to the contract, construction will begin next May and finish by October 2007.

"Carrefour has a 10-year friendship with the Chinese people. It knows how to make an intimate approach to them. I consider it promising to set up a new outlet in Shijiazhuang," said Luo Dingzhong, director of business development with Carrefour China Management and Consulting Co. Ltd.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2005)