Tang Liangzhi, major of Wuhan, Hubei Province, has met with the visiting Aeon president Motoya Okada recently. The Fortune Global 500 and biggest commercial group in Asia is planning to build three large-scale shopping centers in the city.

Tang Liangzhi said Wuhan people’s purchasing power was on the rise with its rapid development on various economic and social fronts. Retail sales of consumer goods in Wuhan reached 300 billion yuan last year. In addition, central China was one of the regions that enjoyed fastest economic development in the country. Oita is the sister city of Wuhan and to meet market demands, there will be more flights between the two cities in the future.

Motoya Okada said Aeon was making a lot of efforts to expand in Chinese market and planned to open more shopping centers in the coming three years. Its investment in Wuhan was based on the fact that it was a key city in central China region and it could influence the markets in surrounding provinces and even the whole country.