Aroundtheworld
Alibaba to open Vancouver office
Alibaba plans to open its first Canadian office in Vancouver and to hire at least 30 employees within two or three years.
Steve Wang, general manager of Alibaba Group North America, announced the news at a forum held in Vancouver, local newspaper Business in Vancouver reported on Monday.
The report said that staff in the future Vancouver office will likely work to help Canadian entrepreneurs understand and access Alibaba’s platforms, as well as to link tourism-related businesses with Alibaba’s online travel platform Fliggy.
The announcement follows an agreement between the Canadian federal government and Alibaba in 2016, which resulted in a surge in the number of Canadian businesses using Alibaba at that time.
Didi approved for tests in the US
Ride-hailing provider Didi Chuxing has been approved to launch live trials of autonomous vehicles on roads in California, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The approval was issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and is Didi’s first license for testing on public roads in the US.
In 2017, Didi set up its main US research facility in California to focus on developing artificial intelligence, including for autonomous driving.
Didi is still finalizing plans to begin road trials to make sure that the test would be done in a “prudent and safety-first” manner, said the report, citing Sun Liang, senior communications director of Didi.
HNA to divest Spanish hotels
HNA Group will start a formal process to sell its 29 percent stake in Spain’s NH Hotel, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
According to a statement released by the Spanish regulator on Monday, HNA has received several expressions of interest for its stake, so it decided to launch a formal process for the sale.
In January, HNA said it had hired JP Morgan and Benedetto, Gartland and Co to look for possible buyers. The stake was valued at around 632 million euros ($753 million) at that time.
NH Hotel has nearly 400 hotels, with one-third of them located in Spain.