The world's largest online and mobile commerce company Alibaba has signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to support e-Commerce development in the country.
The MoU was signed during Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to the Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou, China on Tuesday, local media reports said.
Alibaba Group's Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, and Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Global Business of Ant Financial, signed the Memorandum on behalf of Alibaba and Ant Financial, respectively.
"I am honored to have had the opportunity to visit the Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou, China," Sharif said.
He said that this agreement will further strengthen mutual cooperation and bring about a positive change for Pakistan's small and medium enterprises.
"With the support of the Alibaba Group and Ant Financial we hope to elevate our local businesses to new heights and bring them into the realm of the e-commerce platform," Sharif added.
Alibaba Group's Chairman, Jack Ma said that with the globalization of e-commerce taking place, 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.
"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," he said.
According to the MoU, Alibaba, Ant Financial, and TDAP agreed to foster the 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 optimizing exports through e-commerce.
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.
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