First Sino-Foreign-Funded Wholesaler Set Up in ShanghaiThe Shanghai Baihong Trading Co., Ltd. was founded Wednesday in Shanghai to become the first Sino-foreign joint venture wholesaler in China.China had banned the setting-up of such joint ventures until 1999 when the government issued experimental methods on foreign investment in this field. This new joint venture was co-founded by the Shanghai No.1 Department Store (Group) Co., Ltd. and the Marubeni Cooperation, Japan, with the Chinese side and its Japanese partner holding 51 percent and 49 percent in the company, respectively. The new company will mainly deal in wholesale business while dealing in imports and exports, storage, processing and distribution. A 20,000 sq.m. wholesale base has been put into operation in the area near the Shanghai West Railway Station. The new company's sales are expected to top 1.5 billion yuan in five years. Marubeni is one of the five largest trading companies in Japan and ranked 12th in the Fortune Top 500 in 1998. So far, the Japanese firm has opened 130 joint ventures of various kinds in China with a total investment of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars. |
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