A Yunnan government delegation visited Alibaba Group and held talks with Jack Ma, the group's chairman, on April 24.

Yunnan delegates included Li Jiheng, Party chief of Yunnan province, and Chen Hao, provincial governor. Li invited Alibaba Group to the Fourth China-South Asia Expo to be held in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province June 12-17.

Li Jiheng said that Alibaba has signed a one-year strategic cooperation agreement with Yunnan effective April 23, and Yunnan is expected to further cooperation with Alibaba in wider fields.

Chen said Yunnan would welcome Alibaba's settling its West China Big Data Center in Yunnan.

The two sides also reached agreement on developing cross-border and rural e-commerce during the meeting.

By Li Xiaoxu and edited by Peter Nordlinger