Alibaba to set up e-commerce hub in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR — China's e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday announced a plan to set up an e-commerce hub in Malaysia encompassing logistics, cloud-computing and e-financial service.

The e-commerce hub will be part of the collaboration between Alibaba and the Malaysian government in the development of a Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) in Malaysia in line with the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) promoted by Jack Ma, Alibaba's executive chairman.

In launching the DFTZ with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Ma said the first overseas e-hub would be aimed at empowering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as the younger generation.

Among the cooperation announced on Wednesday, Alibaba's logistic platform Cainiao and its e-commerce website Lazada will lead other Alibaba's subsidiaries and affiliates to development of a regional e-commerce and logistics hub near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Alibaba Cloud, its cloud computing arm, will build a cloud platform in Malaysia to foster the local SMEs, while Ant Financial inked an agreement with Malaysia's leading banks CIMB and Maybank to explore collaboration opportunities in e-payment and financing services in Malaysia.