Alibaba inks deal with Pakistan to promote exports

Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday signed a deal with Chinese tech giant Alibaba to promote the export of products by small and medium enterprises through its e- commerce platform globally.
Online and offline training programmes for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) would also be conducted by Alibaba in a bid to assist them with the company's platforms.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Alibaba and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) was signed by Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir and President of Alibaba Group Michael Evans and Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Global Business of Ant Financial.
The development occurred during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to the company's headquarters in China, where Sharif with Alibaba Group's Executive Chairman Jack Ma witnessed the signing ceremony, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Alibaba, Ant Financial and TDAP agreed to foster growth of worldwide export of products by SMEs in Pakistan through e-commerce.
TDAP will help identify suitable SMEs to participate in the training programmes while Alibaba will be responsible for providing industry analysis to TDAP to assist them in their selection process.
In addition, Alibaba, Ant Financial and TDAP have also agreed to promote the growth of financial services in Pakistan in areas such as mobile and online payment services.
The parties have agreed to adopt cloud computing services to support the online and mobile e-commerce businesses of SMEs in the country.