KUALA LUMPUR: Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma is upbeat on China-Malaysia relationship, especially in the e-commerce infrastructure sphere following the opening of its first electronic world trade platform (eWTP) hub in Malaysia.
Ma believes the Malaysian government will continue the policy to open foreign investments in the country, to help with the creation of business value and job opportunities for locals.
"I am very confident with the relationship between China and Malaysia. I am also confident of China's business community coming to Malaysia to invest,” he told reporters after launching Alibaba Group’s national office here today.
Ma said Alibaba’s ultimate goal in any countries is to digitalise its local partners and support small business as well as young people.
“We want to empower small business and young people to go global. We (Alibaba) come here to serve the small business and its future.
“It is our opportunity and responsibility. We know it is not easy, but when you solve the issue, that is the opportunity,” he added.
Ma said Alibaba would want to enable more Malaysian partners here thus creating more jobs.
"Alibaba has created 36 million jobs in China. We come here to look for partners. We want to enable our partners and want them to be the local king," he said.
Ma pointed out that the conglomerate would keen to work with young Malaysians, citing that the country has many talented work force.
“We know, only when partners succeed, we (Alibaba) can be successful. Malaysia is so unique with so many young people. We would do anything to empower and help them. I think Alibaba needs Malaysian people,” he assured.
Ma said Malaysia has inspired him on Alibaba, referring to the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).
"This morning (yesterday) I thanked the prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his great inspiration for MSC. We shared a lot of similarities. We believe internet, technology and young people.
“We are both interested on how we can use technology to empower the rural farmers and create job as well as to make them more productive,” he said.
Ma said Alibaba and its partners together with the Malaysian government would train as many young people as possible and work with small businesses to use technology and empower Malaysians.
“China is a huge opportunity for everybody in the world. China president Xi Jinping announced that in the next five years, China's global import market would reach US$8 trillion (RM31.97 trillion). I think it will change the global trade map,” he said.
Ma said China currently has about 300 million middle class people and the number is expected to reach about 500 million people of the same class in the next 50 years.
"China is shifting from exporting to importing. China needs to import enough things," he said.
The opening of Alibaba’s national office also marked a new chapter in the company’s deepening its strategic collaboration with Malaysia to bolster technological capabilities of Malaysian SMEs and young entrepreneurs.
"We decided to make this office as the training centre for Malaysian people so that they can go out globally with us. By support young Malaysians, they can support us (Alibaba) growth globally in the future,” he said.
The training centre also provides support and platforms to assist Malaysian SMEs and young entrepreneurs to drive exports, as well as offering extensive training programmes to help them take advantage of digital innovations and trade opportunities.
Serving as a ‘one-stop solution centre’ for local businesses, the country office is designed to engage with existing local partners, helping Malaysian businesses to identify global cross-border trade opportunities, as well as to support the country’s technology innovation through cloud computing services.
In November last year, Alibaba launched its first international eHub in Malaysia under the eWTP initiative, with an emphasis on facilitating exports for Malaysian SMEs and creating the infrastructure to support global trade with services encompassing e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile payment and talent training.
Since then, various initiatives have been undertaken by Alibaba group in Malaysia in order to build inclusive and innovative global trading technology infrastructure for local SMEs including the establishment of Alibaba’s first regional e-fulfilment hub in the KLIA Aeropolis DFTZ Park and Alibaba Cloud’s internet data centre in Malaysia.
MA also announced the launch of ‘Malaysia Week’ – a special online promotion initiative that seeks to attract Chinese consumers to buy all-things Malaysians from July 6 to July 12, 2018.
The campaign is set to showcase an array of ‘must-see’, ‘must-eat’ and ‘must-experience’ Malaysian products and tourism across Alibaba’s platforms.
“The Malaysian week symbolises that we (Alibaba) would like to introduce more Malaysians’ products to Chinese consumers. This is the first time that we will spend one week to promote a country (Malaysia).
“Because Malaysia is our partner – it is our commitment to make every Chinese consumer to understand more about Malaysian and its products, not only the fruits but also Malaysian movies and views as well as its culture,” he said.
Ma said there were about 160 million people travelling outside China last year, citing that this ‘moving’ country would bring a lot of opportunities to many small medium companies, particularly the tourism sector.
“We changed the eWTP into electronic wallet trade and tourism platform (eWTTP). We believe by bringing tourism to many developing countries, it would bring a lot of opportunities and jobs. We hope to continue doing the ‘Malaysia Week’ for the next 10 years,” he said.
Ma said a country should never use trade as a weapon to against each other. Instead, he said it should use trade as the ambassador to communicate and exchange culture as well as respect.
“We think China and Malaysia should exchange trade as much as possible. Only by trade, we can solve the problem.
“All the young Malaysian, opportunity is in. When people complaint, that is an opportunity. Solve the complaint, you will be successful. I think Alibaba story in Malaysia will be long. We will make this story together,” he said.