Alibaba has signed of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to grow the e-commerce sector in Pakistan, which could give the country’s airfreight sector a boost.
Executive chairman, Jack Ma and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif penned the MoU during PM Sharif’s visit to the Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou, China this week.
Under the terms of the MoU, Alibaba, Ant Financial, and TDAP agree to foster growth of worldwide exports of products by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan through e-commerce.
Online and offline training programs for the SMEs will also be conducted by Alibaba in a bid to assist SMEs with on-boarding on to Alibaba’s platforms and optimising exports through e-commerce.
Ma adds: “With the globalisation of e-commerce, developing countries are well-placed to support the growth of their small and medium enterprises and to seize opportunities which can help bolster their economies.
“E-commerce has been established for developing countries and for SMEs. Pakistan has seen significant progress in recent years and we look forward to working together with TDAP to further enhance the potential of their SMEs through the signing of this MoU.”
TDAP will help identify suitable SMEs to participate in the training programs 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 agreed to promote the growth of financial services in Pakistan in areas such as mobile and online payment services. The parties have also agreed to adopt cloud computing services to support the online and mobile e-commerce businesses of SMEs in Pakistan.
