Deepening its ties with Malaysia, Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding has set up its office in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, marked  by a launch by executive chairman Jack Ma.

In a statement, Alibaba said the new office was part of its effort towards strategic cooperation with Malaysia, where it has also established the first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub outside China.

The move to set up a physical premise in Kuala Lumpur also signifies Alibaba’s continued endeavour to boost Malaysia businesses’ technology capability, through providing support and platform assistance to drive exports and offering extensive training programmes on digital innovation and trade opportunities.

“It (the office) is the commitment of Alibaba – in the past year, so many things happened, but we never changed our commitment to Malaysia. It’s a small office, but it’s so much bigger than 18 years ago, [my first office in] my apartment. Alibaba has gone to many countries, but we focus on three things. Mainly, we want to digitalise the local [business] partners, the local market and support businesses and young entrepreneurs to go global,” said Ma in his speech during the launch.

Speaking to the local media, Ma said the company has already invested a total of $100 million through its initiatives here and he said “there will be much more”, including the second phase of the logistics hub.

Last November, Alibaba launched its first international eHub in Malaysia under eWTP, with an emphasis on facilitating exports for Malaysian SMEs and creating the infrastructure to support global trade with services encompassing e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile payment and talent training.

The company’s first investment in Malaysia was a regional e-fulfilment hub in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) – a joint venture between Alibaba and airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Aeropolis.

Lats year, its cloud computing arm Alibaba Cloud also set up its first data centre in Malaysia.

Alibaba Cloud has 42 availability zones across 18 economic centres globally, with coverage extending across mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, India and the US.

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