Tibet To Open 400 Rural Retail Stores In 2010

News from a meeting of Tibet's Political Consultative Conference held in Lhasa is that Tibet plans to build 400 rural retail stores in the autonomous region's agricultural and pastoral areas to address the problems of the local population in purchasing commodities.

Ma Xiangcun, a member of Tibet's Political Consultative Conference and the director of Tibet's Department of Commerce, told local media that Tibet will guide large and medium distribution enterprises to set up chain stores and encourage small shops in the agricultural and pastoral areas to participate in the chain operation. With the establishment of these 400 new stores, they will provide various quality products to local farmers and herdsmen.

During recent years, Tibet has been improving the market infrastructure in its agricultural and pastoral areas as well as cultivating new consumption hot spots. To date, Tibet has developed and renovated 1,244 rural stores. In 2009, Tibet realized total retail sales of CNY15.5 billion.