Retail sales of consumer goods in South China's Guangdong Province reached 788.3 billion yuan (98.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005, up 15 percent year-on-year, and ranking first in the country for 23 years in a row.

Statistics from a recent modern logistic industry conference held here suggested that with the opening of new shopping outlets by international retail giants such as Walmart and Carrefour last year, some 600 million U.S. dollars of foreign contractual investment flew to the wholesale and retail business in Guangdong in 2005.

So far, the province has more than 200 shopping malls each with a business area of above 10,000 square meters.

Tong Xing, vice governor of Guangdong said that in the next step, the province will smooth out the logistic flow for selling farm produce from the rural area to downtown markets.

He said that Guangdong also plans to take five years to set up 100 consumer goods distribution centers in county-level cities, 625 shops in townships and 15,000 shops in villages to prosper the retail business in rural area.

Editor: Yan