French retail giant Carrefour will open its first outlet in central China's Henan province in December, a spokesman for the Shanghai-based Carrefour China Headquarters said Tuesday.

Preparations are going smoothly in Luoyang, an ancient city about 150 km west of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, according to the Carrefour spokesman reached by Xinhua on the phone.

Patrick Ganaye, general manager of east China division of the French retailer, visited Luoyang Saturday and signed an agreement with a local real estate company on land lease.

The spokesman said the outlet in Luoyang would have a sales area of 8,000 to 10,000 square meters, and its construction work was expected to begin in August.

The store is likely to provide Luoyang with nearly 1,000 jobs, the spokesman added.

The world's second biggest retailer behind Wal-Mart, Carrefour has more than 10,000 outlets in 31 countries, including hypermarkets, supermarkets and hard discount stores. It employs more than 500,000 people across the globe. Carrefour first landed on the Chinese mainland in 1995.

Henan has a population of nearly 100 million, which means a huge consumer market. Figures released by Henan's Provincial Commerce Department show that the province's total retail sales valued at 49.1 billion yuan (about 5.9 billion US dollars) in the first two months this year, up 17.3 percent over the same period last year.

Among the 31 provincial-level regions on China's mainland, Henan's retail sales was the sixth biggest, following Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and Liaoning provinces, according to Henan's Provincial Commerce Department.

Source: Xinhua