(Yicai Global) July 2 -- Walmart plans to invest CNY8 billion (USD1.2 billion) in China to build or renovate more than 10 distribution centers countrywide, according to a senior vice president at the world's largest traditional retailer.

Government incentives for foreign investment explicitly encourage firms to develop logistics technologies and services and this is of great benefit to the retail sector, Ryan McDaniel, SVP of Walmart's China supply chains, told Yicai Global yesterday. The Arkansaw-based firm also wants to invest more in China because of its retail market's great potential, he added.

The firm already has 18 distribution centers in China to supply its more than 400 stores and the dozens of new outlets it opens every year, which will stand to gain from the fortified supply chain -- something Walmart has been placing greater importance on in recent years.

In March this year, the company opened a new CNY700 million (USD102 million) fresh food distribution center in Dongguan, Guangdong province. The project was its largest investment in China since it entered the world's second-largest economy 23 years ago.

The new center aims to offer deliveries to around 200 stores, and expects to be able to provide for 100 of these in the second half of this year.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, James Boynton