Cooperation with Alibaba

Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan (left) and Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma (right) shake hands on Jan. 28 at the headquarters of Alibaba in Hangzhou.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan (left) and Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma (right) shake hands on Jan. 28 at the headquarters of Alibaba in Hangzhou.

 

Alibaba will provide information and assistance to help Korean small firms make their way into China. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma recently met with each other for the second time to agree on this point. During their first meeting in Korea in August last year, they spoke with each other about collaboration in the e-commerce industry.

Specifically, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and Alibaba are planning to choose about 100 young people and small firm employees in Korea and send them to Alibaba so that they can be taught about the Chinese consumer market, business in Alibaba’s shopping malls such as Alibaba.com, Tmall and Taobao, and other business information.

At the same time, they are going to work on internship programs for better networking between Korean and Chinese e-commerce companies while seeking a higher level of cooperation between Tmall Global and Kmall 24, the international shopping mall run by the KITA.

“I’ve discussed investment in entertainment, films, and TV dramas with many Korean companies, and I’m very interested in the Korean Wave in China,” the Alibaba chairman said at the meeting, adding, “Another point of interest for me is the joint culture fund the Korean and Chinese governments are going after.” The purpose of the fund is investment in the production of cultural content like films and dramas. A full 40 billion won (US$36 million) is expected to be raised by each of the governments, with the private sector shouldering 120 billion won (US$109 million).

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