Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, has seen the emergence of 15 chain enterprises and 311 stores in 2004, said an official with the provincial commerce bureau Sunday.

He said that Shenyang now has 315 chain enterprises, with more than 4,000 chain stores, which have brought 21.6 billion yuan (about 2.6 billion US dollars) of sales volume to the city, accounting for about 20 percent of the total social commodity retail sales of Shenyang in 2004.

By the end of 2004, chain store management was adopted in more than 20 industries including general merchandise, catering industry, bookstores, medicine and automobiles.

Famous chain enterprises as Carrefour, Walmart and Hualian have also accelerated their market shares in Shenyang. Thirteen out of the 38 supermarkets, each covering over 5,000 square meters of floor space, are invested by foreign chain enterprises.

He also noted that franchise stores have also developed rapidly in Shenyang last year.