Alibaba Group opens first Southeast Asian office in Malaysia

• Alibaba to launch 'Malaysia Week' in July in effort to promote Malaysian products and tourism to China
• New country office to serve as a ‘one-stop solution centre’ for local businesses

ALIBABA Group opened its national office in Malaysia today, marking a new chapter in the company’s deepening strategic cooperation with Malaysia, which is the first eWTP hub outside of China.

Located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at The Vertical Bangsar South, the new office signifies Alibaba Group’s continued endeavours to bolster the technology capability of Malaysian SMEs and young entrepreneurs, provide support and platforms to assist them to drive exports, as well as offering extensive training programs to help them take advantage of digital innovations and trade opportunities.

Serving as a ‘one-stop solution centre’ for local businesses, the country office is designed to engage with existing local partners, help Malaysian businesses identify global cross-border trade opportunities as well as to support the country’s technology innovation through cloud computing services.

In November last year, Alibaba successfully launched its first international eHub in Malaysia under the eWTP initiative, 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.

Since then, various initiatives have been undertaken by Alibaba Group in Malaysia in order to build inclusive and innovative global trading technology infrastructure for local SMEs, including the establishment of Alibaba's first regional e-fulfilment hub in KLIA Aeropolis DFTZ Park and the establishment of Alibaba Cloud’s internet data centre in Malaysia - Malaysia’s first global public cloud platform.

The Launch of ‘Malaysia Week’ in China

During the opening ceremony, the company also announced the launch of Malaysia Week a special online promotion initiative that seeks to attract Chinese consumers to buy all-things Malaysian from July 6 - 12. The Malaysia Week campaign is set to showcase an array of ‘Must-see’, ‘Must-eat’ and ‘Must-experience’ Malaysian products and tourism packages across Alibaba’s platforms.

More than 50 Malaysian brands, featuring a wide range of product categories will be showcased in addition to a whole host of exciting promotional activities to be launched during the period.

‘Malaysia Week’ is the result of fruitful discussions between Alibaba Group and Malaysia since the launch of the eWTP. 

Other milestones in the development of Alibaba Group’s support for Malaysia’s digital economy, include the areas of logistics, cloud computing, training and e-commerce.

Under logistics, this included the construction of a smart e-fulfilment hub in Kuala Lumpur under a Cainiao- Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) joint venture to enable speedy storage, fulfilment, customs clearance and warehousing operations.

Cloud computing-wise, Alibaba Group has opened a local internet data centre to provide Malaysian enterprises with a local choice to build their businesses and run their application on powerful, reliable and secure world-class global cloud platform.

In terms of training, the company claimed it has trained thousands of individuals, entrepreneurs and cloud computing professionals under various programs in conjunction with leading Malaysian universities and government agencies to support Malaysia’s sustainable e-commerce development.

Lastly, Alibaba has launched a Malaysia Pavilion on Alibaba.com to promote quality Malaysian products to global buyers. It also established a one-stop platform to provide export facilitation with services ranging from marketing and customs clearance to streamlined permit application procedures and tax declaration.

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