 "Alibaba preparing Hindi portal")
Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi several times and discussed the possibility of tie-ups for the said projects. Alibaba.com, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, said on Monday that in the next few months it would more than double the count of Indian SMEs on its board. From 4.5 million now, the number is set to rise to 10 million, Timothy Leung, in charge of global business development for Alibaba, told Business Standard.
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To make it more relevant for India and take on competition, a Hindi portal is also being planned by the group for its B2B business. “This will make it more convenient for SMEs to get on board with Alibaba. We have a team of Indian tech support (at its headquarters in Hangzhou, China), working for making the Hindi version of the website. It (portal)will start in the next couple of months,” said Leung.
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The company on Monday also announced the launch of an online platform, SMILE (Small and Medium Industries Leveraging Export), at the CII Global SME Business Summit 2015. SMILE aims to provide Indian SMEs access to global business trading counterparts. Plus one-stop trading solutions — financing, domestic and cross-border logistics, inspections and certifications, technology and SME trade-linked education.
Alibaba has also got into a tie-up with ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, CRISIL Ratings, Tally, Capital Float, Jeena, SGS and Mypacco in financing, credit rating, software, online lending, transportation, inspection and verification, and online logistics, respectively.
“We are the number one B2B platform in the world. In India, our goal is to reach out to 10 million SMEs and help them in trading on our website. We will help them in getting trained, give them the exposure they need and help them grow,” said Leung.
From India, the popular categories of trading would be gems and jewellery, textiles and the food & beverage sectors. “There is a huge market for products from these sectors. Machinery supplies from India are also doing well globally. The platform aims to draw in more enterprises later, to provide holistic trading solutions and make Alibaba’s B2B system more comprehensive,” added Leung.
The SMILE platform also aims to provide new products and services, leveraging on the capabilities of joining enterprises.
For instance, facilitating the access of Indian merchants with a good trading record, based on their previous logistics and trading history, to local credit line providers.
On Digital India and Make in India, Leung said, ''We are trying to leverage on the two campaigns. We want Indian SMEs to make in India and export to the world.''