File pic of Walmart (Xinhua/AFP)

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- American supermarket giant, Walmart, announced Wednesday that it will invest 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in Mexico over the next three years.

Walmart's director general for Mexico and Central America, Guilherme Loureiro, said that the investment would build new distribution centers and expand existing ones in order to boost the speed and lower the costs of supplying its over 2,300 shops in Mexico.

The new infrastructure will generate over 10,000 direct jobs in the country and will have a knock-on effect on the construction, transport and agricultural industry, according to Loureiro, who made the announcement from the Los Pinos presidential palace, alongside President Enrique Peña Nieto.

"We are defining the receiving states (for the investment) based on several questions, such as geographical location, highway infrastructure, access to services, and competitiveness among others," explained the executive of Walmart, which employs around 200,000 people in Mexico.

Peña Nieto stated that this announcement showed the confidence investors have in Mexico due to the dynamism of its internal market.

"Mexico is growing, it is among the few economies in the hemisphere that are growing. It has become the main economic driver in Latin America, due to the contraction of other important countries in the region," added the president.

Loureiro also said that this new investment would be added to the 3.63 billion U.S. dollars in investment Walmart made in Mexico over the last four years, a period in which it opened 526 new stores.

Walmart stores are located in around 500 Mexican towns and receive an average of 4 million customers a day.