Herkert oversees Wal-Mart's businesses in the Americas, excluding the United States.

Wal-Mart's Mexican unit, Walmex, will release its third-quarter results on Tuesday and analysts expect the retailer to post its first decline in quarterly net profit in five years. A slump in the U.S. economy, which employs many Mexican immigrants, has reduced the amount of money that they send back home, hurting a key economic driver in that country.

Nevertheless, Herkert said Wal-Mart remains on track to open 205 new stores in Mexico this year, and it continues to focus on touting its low prices to lure Mexican shoppers.

"Value today is more important than ever in food, in consumables," he said.

Herkert also oversees Wal-Mart's operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. He said Wal-Mart is sticking by the growth plans it has announced for those countries.

For instance, he said Wal-Mart is "very bullish" on Brazil. It opened its first store in that country in 1995, and now has 322 outlets in 17 of the country's 26 states.

"There's a couple of big cities we're not yet in that we'd like to get in to yet in Brazil, so there's a huge opportunity," he said.

In Brazil, Wal-Mart recently branched out into e-commerce, unveiling late last month a website it hopes will extend its reach across the country, where consumer demand is booming.

Wal-Mart is now developing e-commerce sites for the other major markets in the Americas where it operates, like Mexico and Canada, he said.

Herkert said the Americas division represents a key growth driver for Wal-Mart, but the retailer is determined to focus on profitable growth in the region rather than expanding for its own sake.

The Americas division posted sales of $47 billion for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, and its sales have increased at a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent for the past 10 years.

The compares with Wal-Mart's namesake U.S. division, which last year reported net sales of $239.5 billion, up 6 percent.

Herkert said the retailer can achieve its internal growth plans by focusing on the current countries where it operates in the region. But it is not ruling out expanding into new areas.

"I think there's growth opportunity in the hemisphere," he said.

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz) See http://blogs.reuters.com/category/themes /shop-talk/ for "Shop Talk" -- Reuters' retail and consumer blog. Keywords: WALMART/AMERICAS tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com ra

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

MMMM

Less than half of the Fortune 500 subsidiaries in China have established trade unions, compared with more than 73 per cent for all foreign-funded firms in China, he said.

To rectify the situation, the top trade union launched a three-month national campaign in June. Sony, Canon, FedEx, Intel and Toyota have set up unions since then, Yang said. IBM and Volvo are among those that are planning to set up trade unions, he told China Daily.

Currently, 483 of the Fortune 500 firms run business in China, with 336 setting up headquarters here and about 10,000 having subsidiary operations.

China made a breakthrough in setting up trade unions among Fortune 500 firms in 2006, when retailing giant Wal-Mart, which did not have unions anywhere in the world, began setting them up.

Zhang Jianguo, director of the top trade union's department of collective contracts, said more than 50,000 workers at Wal-Mart's 108 chains in China have now signed collective contracts with their employers through their trade unions.

The contracts introduce annual wage negotiations and state the minimum wage offered by the firms should be higher than the local monthly minimum rate. The contracts also include other agreements on working hours, paid vacations, social security and training.

(XIC)

Set up in 2007, the base in Guiyang mainly plants and sells vegetables. By far, 518 mu (1mu = 667 square meters) of green organic vegetables have been planted in the vegetable base, driving local residents in the surrounding areas to plant nearly 1,000 mu of vegetables, said an executive in charge of the base.

From www.cspgp.org.cn, Page 1, Friday, September 19, 2008
 info@SinoCast.Com

"There's a Wal-Mart people see every day, a company saving people money so they can live better - and a Wal-Mart with which they may be less familiar," said David Cheesewright, President and CEO of Wal-Mart Canada. "Our CSR Report outlines the less familiar story of a company making positive strides in environmental sustainability, community involvement and investment, global sourcing and as an employer."

For the first time, and with the help of the non-profit CSR consultancy Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR), Wal-Mart Canada has included key performance indicators (KPIs) in its CSR Report. KPIs will help the company provide greater transparency to stakeholders and will allow it to continually measure, observe and analyze CSR performance.

In another first, Wal-Mart Canada initiated an open and proactive dialogue with a range of external stakeholders as it developed the report, ranging from environmental groups to labour watchdogs, to gain insight on how the company could improve its performance and be more transparent with its reporting.

"We've opened ourselves to review by external stakeholders and even critics because, while we continue to make progress on our CSR objectives, we realize we can improve and benefit from feedback covering many perspectives," added Cheesewright.

Highlights of Wal-Mart Canada's 2007 corporate social responsibility report include:

Environment

-----------

Wal-Mart Canada is aggressively pursuing its long-term sustainability goals: to be supplied by 100 per cent renewable energy; to produce zero waste; and to sell merchandise that sustains resources and the environment.

The company made several notable strides in 2007 including the expansion of its waste diversion program to include additional types of plastics. As a result of Wal-Mart Canada's multi-stream recycling program, the company was able to divert more than 100,000,000 kilograms of waste from landfill.

Given that 92 per cent of the company's waste is the result of product packaging, Wal-Mart Canada established new criteria to assess suppliers and supply chain partners on the basis of their environmental efforts, impact and improvement. In addition, suppliers were invited to participate in two sustainable packaging expos, in conjunction with the Packaging Association of Canada, where they were educated on new sustainable packaging materials, technologies, designs and alternatives. Wal-Mart Canada is on the verge of rolling out its new packaging scorecard, a roadmap designed to help suppliers reduce their individual packaging.

At the store level, the company installed the latest high-efficiency heating, ventilation, air conditioning, insulation and lighting systems in new prototype stores, making them 20 to 30 per cent more energy efficient than the Canadian average for non-food retail outlets. Wal-Mart Canada also introduced more than 300 environmentally preferable products to its customers.

Global Sourcing

---------------

Wal-Mart has one of the most active ethical sourcing programs in the retail industry. Though the company does not own its own factories, it ensures suppliers comply with rigorous ethical sourcing standards through training and auditing processes.

In 2007, Wal-Mart's Ethical Standards auditors conducted a total of 1,594 audits on 1,062 factories (that provide products both directly and indirectly to Wal-Mart Canada) in an ongoing effort to bring suppliers into compliance with the highest ethical sourcing standards.

In 2007, the company also added new environmental criteria to its supplier standards, covering waste identification, handling and disposal, wastewater treatment and discharge of air emissions, as well as banned substances.

People

------

Despite a challenging economy, Wal-Mart Canada kept associate wages above minimum wage in all provinces and paid a record $45.4 million in bonuses to eligible hourly associates - an average bonus of $1,000 per eligible recipient.

Wal-Mart Canada introduced a new diversity program to promote a stronger culture of inclusion and introduced several initiatives to promote women into leadership roles. One of the latter programs is a Women in Leadership Group, made up of the company's 35 most senior women, who are helping drive several key initiatives aimed at promoting women into leadership roles.

The company was listed among the nine best employers in Canada for Canadian age 50-plus by the Workplace Institute. The only retailer on the list, the company was recognized for finding interesting and effective ways to engage and retain older workers, including consulting opportunities, special projects and mentorships.

Community Investment and Involvement

------------------------------------

One of the most significant ways in which Wal-Mart Canada contributes to Canada is through economic opportunities for people, businesses and communities.

In 2007, Wal-Mart Canada created nearly 5,000 news jobs and paid more than $11 billion to 6,311 Canadian businesses. The company raised and donated more than $18 million for local charities, 26 per cent more than in 2006. Children's Miracle Network, Breakfast Clubs of Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, the Juno Beach Centre and the Salvation Army were just a few of the many organizations that received charitable donations from Wal-Mart Canada.

Through the Wal-Mart Canada scholarships program, the company awarded 81 scholarships, valued at $115,000 in total, to Canadian students heading to college or university.

"In order to ensure the continued success of our business for tomorrow, we recognize the need to manage our social, environmental and ethical performance to the same extent that we manage our financial performance," added Cheesewright. "That change in mindset is continually top-of-mind in how we do business and at all levels of the company."

Wal-Mart Canada's 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report is available online at https://www.walmart.ca/wps-portal/microsite/CorpVal/index.jsp

About Wal-Mart Canada

Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Wal-Mart Canada operates 310 retail outlets nationwide. The company serves more than one million Canadians each day and is one of the country's largest employers with more than 77,000 Canadian associates.

SOURCE: Wal-Mart Canada Corp.

Karin Campbell, corporate affairs, Wal-Mart Canada, (905) 821-2111 x 4042