US retailer Costco announced today that its plan to set up its Australian headquarters in Sydney has got the approval from the NSW government. Costco plans to build its second store in Australia after the pilot store in Melbourne.

The new store will also be used as its headquarters in Australia. The NSW government approved the project saying that it will create around 230 permanent jobs.

Costco, the discount retail giant from US, said that it has got approval to build a three storey office and warehouse at Auburn with 745 parking spaces. The new Costco store will have more than 13700 square meters of floor area. Costco, which also sells luxury goods such as diamonds and fur coats, said that corner supermarkets should not fear the competition from Costco.

Earlier, the local retailers put objections to this project. The company said that the new Costco store will be open 12 hours a day.

"We're only one Costco and we will pull from the entire city of Sydney," said Patrick Noone, Costco Australia managing director. "We're a competitor not with supermarkets but with handbag stores, jewelers and those kinds of things."

While approving the new Costco store, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally also said that a new intersection with traffic lights will be built on the busy arterial road as there are expectedly a large numbers of customers to visit the store each day.