China has become a major supplier of the world's merchandise as approximately 60 billion US dollars of goods are to be purchased this year by multinationals from China.

Ding Junfa, executive vice director of the China Federation of Logistics and Procurement (CFLP), said that purchasing goods in China has been viewed as "a must choice" by most multinationals aiming to reduce their production costs and raise their competitive capability.

CFLP statistics have revealed that China provides three percent of the two trillion US dollars of goods annually purchased by retailing conglomerates of the Global 500 largest companies across the world, and slightly less than one percent of the one trillion US dollars of auto parts and components annually purchased by world automobile companies.

"There is still a lot of space in the Chinese market for multinationals to expand their procurement," Ding was quoted by the China News Service as saying.

According to Ding, nearly half a million foreign-funded companies had been established in China by 2004, with a total contracted foreign investment 1.1 trillion US dollars. About 562.1 billion US dollars have been put to use so far.

Allured by the huge potential of the Chinese market, many chain-store giants like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro and Ikea have moved their global procurement centers to China.

In 2004, Wal-Mart purchased goods worth 18 billion US dollars in China while the procurement made by Carrefour, Metro and Ikea stood around 3.2 billion, 2.6 billion and one billion US dollars separately.

Source: Xinhua