U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy Group has signed an agreement with China Chain Store & Franchise Association in Nanjing to set up an education fund in China.

Under the agreement, Best Buy and its Five Star Appliance will reportedly offer education and training fund to the Chinese retail industry over the next few years.

For the first phase, Best Buy will invest CNY1 million in 2011 to launch a research program on China's retail management technologies. With the progression of this project, the retailer will continue to make investments from 2012 to 2015. Meanwhile, CCFA will take advantage of its enterprise membership resources, expert resources as well as Best Buy's retail technology resources to compile a full set of retail technology teaching materials for the Chinese retail industry. Parts of the courses will be published as online training courses with cooperation from Accenture.

According to local media reports, the establishment of this education and training fund aims to reduce enterprises' costs for the development and training of basic management theories, and to improve the talent training efficiency of enterprises.

The project is also expected to benefit Best Buy's talent training for the development its dual-brand retail businesses in China.