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[August 25, 2005, Shenzhen] The officials and leaders of Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau, Shenzhen Charity Association and Wal-Mart (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and SITIC Commercial Property Co., Ltd. met 15 poor students, who have been just successfully admitted by universities in conference room in Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau today. These students received the financial aids of their first year tuition fee.

On August 12, Wal-Mart and SITIC Commercial Property Co., Ltd announced to donate RMB 600,000 to Shenzhen Charity Association to sponsor 15 university freshmen from Shenzhen’s poverty-stricken families for their four year tuition fee at Wal-Mart China Ninth Anniversary Ceremony to appreciate support and favor from Shenzhen customers. Shenzhen Charity Association was responsible of selecting and interviewing the candidates. These 15 students, coming from poverty-stricken families in several districts of Shenzhen, have been admitted by universities with high scores, but they can not afford the high tuition fee because of their poor family economic conditions. The financial aids from Wal-Mart help these students overcome the economic obstacle

Mr. James Lee, Vice President of Wal-Mart (China) Investment Co., Ltd. expected the students to keep study hard at universities and become talent in future. Wal-Mart would take a long term care of the students, for instance, providing intern opportunities for them during school vacation and welcome them to apply for career in Wal-Mart.

Mr. Liu, director general of Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau highly appraised Wal-Mart’s charitable behavior. He said:” As the No. 1 enterprise in the Fortune Global 500 List, Wal-Mart not only promotes Shenzhen citizens’ living standards, drives the development of Shenzhen circulating economy and manufacturing industry, makes a great contribution to Shenzhen economy, but also sets a good example for other companies to follow in respect of community involvements.

Wal-Mart opened its first SAM’S CLUB and Supercenter on August 12, 1996 in Shenzhen. Its Every Day Low Price policy and unique one-stop shopping experience have changed Shenzhen people’s shopping conception and habits, and brought along reform and development in Shenzhen retailing industry.

Through nine years’ development, Wal-Mart has opened 11 outlets in Shenzhen including 3 business formats: Wal-Mart Supercenter, SAM’S CLUB and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. Wal-Mart operates 48 stores in 23 cities throughout China with more than 25,000 associates. Wal-Mart advocates its corporate culture--- Respect for the Individual, Service to Our Customers, and Strive for Excellence, and engages in providing quality goods at low prices and aggressive customer service. In 2004, the total value of merchandise Wal-Mart directly and indirectly purchasing from China reached $18 billion, which made a great contribution to the development of China’s economy and foreign trade. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart positively involves in community involvement and has totally donated RMB 20 million to China’s charity, education cause and disaster areas so far.

As the biggest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart has topped the Fortune Global 500 List for four consecutive years with the sales of $ 285.2 billion in 2004. Wal-Mart has also been listed as “The Most Respected Companies” and “The Best Employer to Work For” in many countries. So far, Wal-Mart successfully operates 5300 stores in US, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea, Germany and UK with over 1.6 million associates. Every week, almost 140 million customers visit Wal-Mart stores worldwide.