Parkson Group, a general merchandise and chain-store giant from Malaysia, will open three new shops in the Chinese capital Beijing, state press said Sunday.

Lou Kim Tuan, regional general manager of Parkson Group for Northern China operations, said the company was selecting sites for the new ventures, which will be either general merchandise department stores or shopping warehouses.

Staking claims

Lou, who is also general manager of Beijing Parkson Department Store, did not disclose the investment needed for construction of the new shops.

Parkson Group currently operates one department store in downtown Beijing and a warehouse in the city's Haidian district.

Retailers have been aggressively staking claims in an increasingly wealthy China, which has dismantled trade barriers in the retail sector as laid out by its obligatons to the World Trade Organization. - AFP