From The BusinessWeek Online (link):
Companies that supply the products sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have been flocking to northwest Arkansas for years to be near their biggest customer. The next wave of job creation may come from China.
Economists and a leading executive recruiter say foreign companies, especially from China, where businesses supply more of Wal-Mart’s goods than any other non-U.S. producer, are expected to follow the lead of mainly U.S. companies that have opened more than 1,200 local vendor offices in the Bentonville area, where Wal-Mart is based.
“The Chinese and other international suppliers, that is certainly where the biggest growth in vendors is expected to happen over the next couple of years,” said Katherine A. Deck, associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
