Tesco is to open its first store in Taiwan later this year.

The 10,000 sqm store in the Taimall Shopping Centre in Nankan will open in December.

The supermarket chain plans to open a further 20 stores in the next five years and two are currently under construction, due to open in 2001.

The chief executive officer of Tesco Stores (Taiwan), David Orchard-Smith, said: "Taimall is Taiwan's number one shopping mall with seven floors of retail and leisure - a great location to begin our Taiwan expansion plans."

The new store will be located in an existing store purchased from Makro Asia Management.

It will be completely rebranded and refitted.

Around 400 new jobs will be created with 150 existing Makro employees retained and retrained, Tesco said.

Asia is a key component of the company's global expansion plan.

It now has 24 stores in Thailand and will have seven stores in South Korea with Samsung by the end of this year.

Research teams are in China and Malaysia, a spokesman added.