Jack Ma pledges to bring a million jobs to the US
ALIBABA executive chairman Jack Ma met US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday and laid out the Chinese e-commerce giant’s new plan to bring one million small US businesses onto its platform to sell to Chinese consumers over the next five years, an Alibaba spokesman said.
Alibaba Group Holding expected the initiative to create one million US jobs as each company adds a position, company spokesman Bob Christie said in a phone call. Alibaba has previously campaigned to bring more small US businesses onto the company’s sites, but this is the first time Ma has discussed specific targets.
Trump and Ma emerged from their meeting at Trump Tower in New York together.
The president-elect told reporters they had a “great meeting” and would do great things together. Ma called Trump “smart” and “openminded”.
Ma said the two mainly discussed supporting small businesses, especially in the Midwest, such as farmers and small clothing makers, who could tap the Chinese market directly through Alibaba.
The company has in recent years been aggressively courting foreign brands to set up Tmall stores to sell to China’s vast middle class by smoothing out Chinese sales, payment and shipping processes.
Trump often targeted China in the election campaign, blaming Beijing for US job losses. “It’s important, given the anti-China rhetoric that has been coming out, to innoculate the company and himself from that,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of investment advisory firm BDA China, of Ma’s meeting with Trump. – Reuters