Amazon expands business in SW China

Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, will set up a major distribution center in the southwestern city of Nanning, local authorities said Tuesday. The Seattle-based company Monday signed a deal with the Economic and Technological Development Zone in Nanning to build its distribution center in the city, capital of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said a statement released by the zone's management office. The center, with an investment of 600 million yuan (95 million U.S. dollars), will generate an annual output worth at least 200 million yuan after it starts operation, said the statement, without elaborating on the timetable. The center will cover an area of 332 mu (about 22 hectares), on which a 50,000-square-meter E-commerce center will be built, in the Beibu Gulf Technopark, said the statement. Once operational, the facility is expected to provide over 1,000 jobs, it said. Amazon said Nanning had a favorable investment environment, as the city is the capital of Guangxi which borders Vietnam and is China's gateway to doing business with the ASEAN, said Zhou Honglin, employee of Amazon's operation center in Xiamen, a major city on the country's southeastern coast.