The grand tour of Alibaba's HQ
It will be the first global public cloud platform in Malaysia
ALIBABA Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, will establish a data centre in Malaysia to provide enterprises in the country and region with powerful, scalable and cost-effective cloud capabilities to support their global expansion.
The planned data centre will become the first global public cloud platform in the country.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in a press conference here yesterday, said this was a continuation of Malaysia’s partnership with Alibaba.
Alibaba Cloud, in a statement, said it would take part in Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor initiatives and a certification programme for local tech talents to help local SMEs (smalland medium-sized enterprises) succeed in the digital age through technology, such as big data and Internet of Things.
The company received the MSC Status certification from the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) yesterday.
The plan was unveiled in conjunction with the signing of a three-way memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Hangzhou yesterday witnessed by Najib between MDEC, Hangzhou Municipal Government and Alibaba (China) Company Ltd.
The MoU represents a significant milestone in realising the vision of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), as it represents the first connection between a China e-hub and an international e-hub in Malaysia.
The three signatories agreed to work together to explore potential strategic collaborations from the connections of the e-hubs in the two countries to the eWTP, the China (Hangzhou) Comprehensive e-Commerce Pilot Zone and the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ).
The MoU signing — by MDEC chief executive officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang and Hangzhou Mayor Xu Liyi — was also witnessed by Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province Che Jun and Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma.
The MoU will bring the country’s DFTZ to the next level, said Najib.
The DFTZ, launched by Najib and Ma in March, will provide physical and virtual zones to enable small- and medium-sized enterprises to capitalise on the exponential growth of the Internet economy and cross border e-commerce activities.
Najib also announced the launch of DFTZ’s regional e-Fulfillment Hub near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in October, adding that he had invited Ma for the event.
He said Ma praised the Malaysian government as being “super efficient”.
“He said he got my agreement for DFTZ in 10 minutes and that I committed as well to make it a reality within three months.
“This is someone’s assessment of the Malaysian government’s ability to be very responsive and business friendly,” he said, adding that the sky was the limit for the DFTZ.
“Once the partnership gets going, the potential is enormous.”
Najib said MDEC would select 1,500 companies to take part in the management of Alibaba platforms in Malaysia so that they could increase their market penetration in China.
“I hope this will give an impetus to SMEs in Malaysia to further develop their business. The rate of export among Malaysian companies is at an encouraging level.”
Najib said he also discussed with Ma how Alibaba could play a role in attracting more tourists from China to Malaysia.
“We had 2.1 million Chinese tourists last year and are targeting 3 million this year.”
Simon Hu, senior vice-president of Alibaba Group and president of Alibaba Cloud, in a statement, said the planned new data centre in Malaysia later this year would add to the company’s 14 data centres worldwide, covering mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, and the US (East and West Coast).
“It will empower local entrepreneurs of various industries and scales to migrate their IT infrastructure to a powerful, reliable and secure platform.
“Alibaba Cloud is helping to realise the eWTP vision by establishing cloud infrastructure to facilitate seamless cross-border online businesses for Malaysian enterprises.
“We look forward to laying the digital foundation for Malaysia in the new global economy, equipping the country with future-proof online marketplaces, as well as payment, logistics, cloud computing and big data services that work seamlessly in the ecosystem.”