Alibaba to promote e-commerce in Pakistan

Pakistan is partnering with Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, to popularise the use of e-commerce in the country. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Alibaba in presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his first ever visit to Alibaba’s Hangzhou headquarters, which entails training of Pakistan’s small businesses in e-commerce.

The MOU was signed on April 16, 2017. Under the agreement, Pakistan’s small businesses will be trained to better use Alibaba’s platforms and e-commerce in general.

Alibaba, affiliate Ant Financial and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan also agreed to “foster growth” of exports from the South Asian country’s small and medium-sized enterprises. The parties will also work together to grow online payments and cloud-computing services in Pakistan.

“Pakistan has seen significant progress in the past years, and we look forward to working together with TDAP to further enhance the potential of their SMEs through the signing of this MOU,” said Alibaba group executive chairman Jack Ma in a statement. Ma was on hand for the signing ceremony.

MOUs are typically the first phase of collaboration between Alibaba and its public and private partners to explore ways of doing business together.

The announcement follows similar initiatives by Alibaba to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries by increasing access to e-commerce. As these SMEs grow, the economies of those developing countries do as well.

“With the support of the Alibaba Group we hope to elevate our local businesses to new heights and bring them into the realm of the e-commerce platform,” Prime Minister Sharif said in the statement.