Chinese tech giant Alibaba signs its first MoU in Pakistan

World’s largest e-commerce company, Alibaba has announced the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to promote e-commerce industry of the country.

The MoU was signed by Khurram Dastgir (Minister for Commerce), Michael Evans (President Alibaba Group) and Douglas Feagin (Senior Vice President Global Business of Ant Financial) on behalf of Alibaba.

Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Jack Ma were present at the signing ceremony. Alibaba and TDAP agreed to flourish small enterprises in Pakistan through e-commerce. Furthermore, Alibaba, Ant financial and TDAP have agreed to stimulate financial growth in Pakistan in areas such as online payment system.

Alibaba will also conduct online and offline training programs to assist small enterprises for optimizing exports through e-commerce.

Addressing the signing ceremony Prime Minister said, “the initiative will help create more opportunities for people working in e-commerce sector and generate more jobs in the country.”

While speaking to the audience Jack Ma said, “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”.

The parties also agreed to use cloud computing services to support small enterprises in Pakistan.

In addition to Alibaba coming to Pakistan, another development for Pakistan earlier today has been the update that MSCI Pakistan Index was upgraded from frontier market to its emerging market classification.