Alibaba founder meets Thai leader

BANGKOK, April 19 (TNA) -- Jack Ma, founder and CEO of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group meets the Thai premier at Government House in Bangkok and discusses investment plan in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) with Deputy Thai Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak. Both sides held talks on cooperation between Thailand and Alibaba Group in digital industry development and improvement of personnel skill in E-commerce. Jack Ma will sign MoUs with the Thai Industry Ministry on building the Smart Digital Hub in the EEC to be the logistics information center for Thai Chinese goods transportations through neighbouring countries and to other regions. Alibaba also proposed to Alibaba Business College to introduce its E-commerce platform to train Thai entrepreneurs as part of cooperation to improve E-commerce skill among Thai personnel, who have digital talent. Other cooperation includes E-commerce skill improvement for Thai SMEs and Startups in local communities. Alibaba will also work with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to introduce the tourism platform, linking tourism information in Thailand’s secondary provinces and local communities. Due to development in the digital system and improvement of personnel’s digital skills, it is expected that Thai E-commerce venue will grow to 113 billion baht this year and increase to 186 billion baht in 2022. (TNA)