Wal-Mart, the world's top retailer,opened its first store in southwest China's Guizhou Province on Thursday.

The store covers 17,000 square meters in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, and employs 500 workers.

This was Wal-Mart's 39th store in China and the third store in western China after Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, and Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Joe Hatfield, president of Wal-Mart Asia, said the second storein Guiyang is expected to open in December this year.

Wal-Mart is optimistic about Guizhou's potential in retail development as a hub of communications in southwestern China. The company is ready to bring its advanced retail skills and experience to western China, Hatfield said.

US-based Wal-Mart has 5,000 stores in 10 countries. It entered China in 1996 by opening its first Supercenter and Sam's Club in Shenzhen. It has since then opened 39 stores in 19 cities at a cost of 1.6 billion yuan (approximately 193 million US dollars) inChina.

Wal-Mart has built ties with 15,000 Chinese suppliers. Nearly 95 percent of products sold by Wal-Mart were purchased in China.