Retail Asia 2018 RA September.October 2018 (Online) | Page 18

NEWS
Malaysia’s Prime Minister tours
Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou
CHINESE multinational conglomerate
Alibaba Group recently hosted Malaysia’s
Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad,
and members of his delegation at its
headquarters in Hangzhou, China,
where the company showcased how its
technology can be applied to benefit
people’s lives, the economy and society
at large.
Jack Ma, founder and executive
chairman of Alibaba Group, was present
to welcome Dr Mahathir who was
accompanied by his wife, Siti Hasmah
Mohamad Ali, and members of the
delegation which comprised senior
government officials from Malaysia.
CEO of Alibaba Group Daniel
Zhang gave them a tour of Alibaba’s
exhibition centre, which features
informative and interactive exhibits on
the company’s history and initiatives.
In his opening remarks, Ma said:
“Our main aim is to create jobs,
spur innovation, empower small
businesses and young people, and drive
transformation for social and economic
growth. Our relationship with Malaysia
is an important one, and our goal is
to be an enabler who helps Malaysia’s
small businesses and young people
leverage the latest technology to benefit
from globalisation in an efficient and
cost-effective manner. Nobody can stop
globalisation, but Alibaba’s version of
globalisation is to ensure it is inclusive
and benefits developing countries, small
businesses and young people.”
After the business presentations
by Alibaba Group’s senior executives,
Dr Mahathir said: “Alibaba clearly
understands the power of technology,
particularly in using technology to
market products globally. The work
Alibaba is doing is astounding and its
modern technology can certainly benefit
Malaysia. We look forward to exploring
more collaboration and continue to
strengthen our partnership.”
CEO of Ant Financial Services
Group Eric Jing also shared the
company’s initiatives in promoting
the concept of a ‘cashless society’ —
enabling the digital transformation of
the financial sector. Jing underlined the
significance of a cashless society in the
context of digitising the world’s financial
landscape which can be fruitful to
developing countries such as Malaysia.
The Malaysian government’s visit
to Alibaba’s headquarters came after a
meeting between Ma and Dr Mahathir
during the company’s Malaysia office
opening in June this year. ra
Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Mahathir
Mohamad (left), accompanied by Alibaba
Group’s founder and executive chairman,
Jack Ma, at the company’s headquarters in
Hangzhou, China.
Connecting the continents through e-commerce
IN today’s borderless digital economy,
retailers and merchants in Asia should not
rule out the possibility of looking to Africa
as e-commerce on the continent is growing,
according to Juliet Anammah, CEO of
Jumia Nigeria. The Jumia Group currently
has e-commerce operations in 14 African
countries, serving 1.2 billion consumers
with more than five million products,
hotels, restaurants and other services listed
on its platforms.
Speaking to Retail Asia on the
sidelines of the Africa Singapore Business
Forum (ASBF) this year, Anammah
suggested retailers can leverage partnerships
to enter the African market. “If a retailer in
Asia has access to various products within a
specific product category, [the retailer] can
partner with e-commerce platforms such
as Jumia to make those products available
in Africa. [They] can also partner in terms
of either consignment or direct shipment.”
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Retail Asia September/October 2018
For example, there are Chinese small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that retail
their products on Jumia through these
options.
Juliet Anammah shared that e-commerce is
about 2% of total retail in Africa.
She shared that e-commerce is about
2% of total retail in Africa today and cited
several factors behind the tremendous
growth. Firstly, there is a huge and relatively
young population with a hunger to access
goods and services in a continent where
there are multiple barriers (such as roads
and infrastructure) that make it difficult for
people to reach them.
“It is also growing on the back of
the fact that we have people who are
accessing the Internet through the mobile
phone. With the advent of smartphones,
it makes it easier for people to be able to
access mobile apps to shop on Jumia,” she
explained.
While there are no plans for Jumia
to enter the Asian market, Anammah
foresees the possibility of having more
global consumers by opening up the portals
to international credit card payments in
future. ra