Alibaba Group’s First Overseas eWTP Hub Goes Live in Malaysia
November 03 2017 - 5:24AM
Business Wire
Enhancing global competitiveness of local
Malaysian SMEs with a far reaching infrastructure that encompasses
ecommerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile payment and talent
training
Alibaba Group announced that the first eWTP hub outside of China
has gone live in a ceremony held in Malaysia and hosted by Malaysia
Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak and Alibaba Group Chairman
Jack Ma. The milestone event follows Alibaba’s partnership
announcement with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
in March this year to work jointly to enable Malaysian small and
medium-sized enterprises to benefit from global trade.
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Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma
and Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak hit the gong
to signal the first eWTP hub outside of China has gone live in
Malaysia's Digital Free Trade Zone (Photo: Business Wire)
The Electronic World Trade Platform, or eWTP, forms part of the
Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) spearheaded by MDEC. The eWTP hub
offers Malaysian SMEs the infrastructure for doing commerce with
services encompassing ecommerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile
payment and talent training.
Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak said, “With the launch
today and our early participation with eWTP, Malaysia is
progressing its economic transformation vision and taking a step
towards becoming the leading sourcing and fulfilment hub in Asia.
Collaborating with Alibaba to develop the infrastructure freely
available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the DFTZ,
we have fundamentally improved the competitiveness of Malaysian
firms on the global stage which will boost exports and bring wide
reaching economic benefits to society.”
“I’m truly amazed by the resolve and commitment of the Malaysian
government to remove all the barriers in just under a year to make
this day possible,” said Mr. Ma at the event. “Today we are
witnessing a historic moment in Asia where one country has begun to
use technology to enable its SMEs and young people to become more
competitive on the world stage. As the eWTP hub in DFTZ commences
operation, they will have the opportunity to global buy, global
sell, global pay, global delivery and global travel. This is an
opportunity for not just the small businesses and young people in
Malaysia but across Asia.”
The vision for eWTP is to lower trade barriers and provide more
equitable access to markets for SMEs around the world, with private
sector and governments working together. The eWTP initiative was
accepted as a major policy recommendation of the Business 20 (B20)
and officially included in the 2016 G20 Leaders’ Communique.
The various initiatives under eWTP include the launch of a
Malaysia Pavilion on Alibaba.com to help promote quality Malaysian
products to global buyers. A one-stop solution platform has been
set up with an emphasis on providing export facilitation support to
local SMEs, with services ranging from marketing and customs
clearance, to streamlined permit application procedures and tax
declaration and more.
Today’s ceremonies also included the ground breaking of a
regional ecommerce logistics hub to be developed by Malaysia
Airports Holdings Berhad and Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics
affiliate, through a joint venture announced today. The facility
will enable speedy storage, fulfilment, customs clearance and
warehousing operations.
As part of the initiative to support Malaysian SMEs with cloud
computing needs, Alibaba Cloud opened a local data centre in
Malaysia last week. As the first local public cloud platform in
Malaysia, the new center will provide Malaysian enterprises a local
choice to build their businesses and run their applications on a
powerful, reliable and secure cloud platform.
Under the eWTP, the training of local talent is a core focus to
ensure a sustainable ecosystem. Over 1,000 students from various
Malaysian universities have participated in a range of B2B
ecommerce curriculum and almost 140 faculty members have completed
the Train the Trainers program with the expectation that this
continues and the talent pool grows significantly.
Malaysia represents the successful launch of the first
international eHub as part of the eWTP initiative and many local
merchants will benefit from the trade facilitation services. In
future, more eHubs will create the global network necessary to
facilitate trade for small and medium enterprises around the
world.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business
anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of
commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live
at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102
years.
About Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP)
The Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) initiative’s goal is
to build a more inclusive and innovative global trading platform
for SMEs, young people and consumers. The eWTP was proposed by Jack
Ma in 2016 and was accepted as a major policy recommendation of the
Business 20 (B20) and officially included in the 2016 G20 Leaders’
Communique. The aim is to complement the work being carried out by
the World trade Organization (WTO) and reduce barriers making it
easier for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to expand
their trading capabilities worldwide.
The benefits of increased trade and globalization have not
reached smaller enterprises and developing countries as much as it
has benefited their larger, more established counterparts. The eWTP
is intended to help companies and developing countries that are not
realizing their full trading potential.
An increasing amount of local, regional, national and
international commerce is conducted on a variety of platforms on
the Internet. This comparatively frictionless method of conducting
business can enable more countries, enterprises and entrepreneurs
to participate in global trade and reap the benefits of
globalization.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171103005324/en/
Alibaba GroupRachel Chan, +852 9400
0979rachelchan@alibaba-inc.comorRico Ngai, +852 9725
9600rico.ngai@alibaba-inc.com
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