Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer that has a wholesaling venture with India’s Bharti Group, plans to open 40 more “cash & carry” stores in the South Asian country, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said.

Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt., in which the two companies are equal partners, opened its first Indian wholesale store in the northern city of Amritsar on May 30, with initial plans to start 10 or 15 more outlets and hire 5,000 people during the next three years.

“I was informed by the Walmart CEO that they are looking at opening more stores,” Sharma said today at the India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum in New Delhi. “He gave me a figure of 40 more stores across the country in the immediate future.”

India bars Walmart and other overseas companies from opening retail stores or buying stakes in supermarket chains in the world’s second-most populous country. Local laws, aimed at protecting small shops, allow foreign chains to operate only wholesalers that sell groceries and other goods to businesses such as supermarkets, department stores and restaurants.

Chairman S. Robson Walton visited India earlier this month and met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Walmart said in a statement on Nov. 6, without providing details of what they discussed. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company sought the easing of foreign investment rules in the local retail industry at the meeting held on Nov. 4, the Economic Times reported on Nov. 6, citing people familiar with the matter.

Walmart’s international business has expanded an average of 13 percent annually in the past five years, more than twice as fast as the 5.9 percent growth in the U.S., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kartik Goyal in New Delhi at kgoyal@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 8, 2009 05:04 EST