Regional e-commerce hub in Malaysia kicks into gear as Alibaba bets big on Southeast Asia

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-03 19:57:41|Editor: ZD
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SEPANG, Malaysia, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian government and Alibaba on Friday jointly launched a regional e-commerce hub located near the Kuala Lumpur airport area, part of Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma's vision to create an Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) where people can "buy global and sell global."

The operation of the eWTP, the first such hub outside China, coincided with the establishment of a joint venture (JV) between Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao and Malaysia Airports Holdings (MAH), in which Cainiao will hold a 70 percent stake while MAH retains the remaining 30 percent, according to a filing sent by MAH to the stock exchange Bursa Malaysia on Friday.

The JV will implement and carry out the development of the regional e-commerce and logistics hub, comprising the development of cargo terminals, sorting centers, warehouse and fulfillment centers, and other facilities for the e-commerce industry, according to the filing.

The event was witnessed by Jack Ma and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is pushing for the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via e-commerce and logistics.

In his second visit to the southeast Asian nation this year, Ma awed the audience with a pledge to help the young people and SMEs, whom he said didn't get the opportunities in the last 20 years of globalization.

"We want to build up a platform that every small business and any young people, they can global sell global buy global fund (get the money) global pay and global deliver the products through our logistics network," said Ma.

Najib, who has met Ma at least four times in the last two years, said a total of 1,972 SMEs have applied to join the DFTZ. He said in cooperating with Alibaba, the DFTZ initiative can bring high-paying jobs to Malaysia, as many as 60,000 by 2025 and Malaysia can become the regional leader in e-commerce.

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