Alibaba Business School Kicks Off 4th Netpreneur Training Initiative for Malaysia

• Applications open for digital & traditional businesses seeking transformation
• Cost is fully covered by Alibaba Business School, weekly assignments given

Alibaba Business School, the education arm of Alibaba Group, today announced the 4th Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program for Malaysia.

Jointly organized with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), this is an initiative to facilitate digital transformation and enable businesses, both traditional and digital, to embrace digital disruption. Applications by businesses from Malaysia are open now until 31 Jan 2021.

Since 2019, Alibaba Business School has conducted seven Netpreneur Programmes in Southeast Asia, training over 300 business owners. The programmes, previously offline, have now been developed as a combination of online and offline training modules for digital entrepreneurs as well as business owners of traditional companies with digital aspirations. Alibaba Business School aims to expand the reach of the programme through the online version.

The online programme provides first-hand exposure to ecommerce and digital innovations, access to business leaders across Alibaba and China, as well as an opportunity to connect with like-minded, leading entrepreneurs in your region, through exercises, interactive lectures, and dynamic discussions.

During the training, participants will learn about China’s digital economic transformation, Alibaba’s own successes and mistakes and the work that went into creating a company culture and management practices as they grew from a fledgling startup into a full e-commerce ecosystem.

“Alibaba has played a key role in building China’s digital economy over the past 20 years which has helped us garner tremendous learning and creation of best practices. The global pandemic has further highlighted the need for digital transformation so we have evolved our programme to a mix of online and offline to be able to reach more entrepreneurs and business owners quickly. With this, we hope to share our experience with participants from across markets and enable them to transform their businesses and in turn their larger economy in these times,” said Zhang Yu, Alibaba Group Partner and Vice President.

"The digital economy will play a pivotal role in helping Malaysian companies to bounce back after the global pandemic, especially in terms of market access to global consumers. MATRADE is pleased to continue collaborating with the Alibaba Business School to promote the Netpreneur Programme for our exporters. We hope that participating companies can take full advantage of what is offered in the curriculum to better prepare their companies strategically in embracing digital transformation for global consumers through e-commerce," said Wan Latiff Wan Musa, CEO of MATRADE.

"Our collaboration with Alibaba Group, through this programme is expected to empower more local small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to acquire the latest digital skills and greater access to the “know-how” based on Alibaba’s best practices. It will accelerate MDEC's goal in creating industry-relevant digitally-skilled Malaysians and digitally-powered businesses, while ensuring it is inclusive for all, said Surina Shukri (pic), MDEC's Chief Executive Officer.  

Participants who join the online part of Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program online course will learn:

● An understanding of the development of Digital Economy in China

● Fundamentals of the role new technology and digital economy in enabling national development.

● Key insights into the evolution of Alibaba’s ecosystem including learnings and best practices through sharing sessions from Alibaba’s business leaders.

● Insights into the most cutting-edge trends and practices in use within the growing digital economy in China.

● Gain a deeper understanding of business frameworks and strategic patterns, learn how to create an environment to strengthen your organization’s capacity to drive innovation and achieve greater results.

This edition of the Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program will be conducted from March 2, 2021 for a duration of 6 weeks. The online training course cost is fully covered by Alibaba Business School. During the course, participants will receive assignments on weekly basis and a capstone project at the end. Based on the outcome of the online participation and the assignments/project completions, the top performers will be invited to attend the offline immersion in Alibaba Group headquarter in Hangzhou, China once the travel restrictions due to the pandemic are lifted.

Further information on the enrollment criteria and the full programme details can be obtained here.