Jack Ma, digital economy adviser to the Malaysian govt, is now China s richest man

BEIJING: Jack Ma, Alibaba Group’s chairman, has unseated Dalian Wanda boss Wang Jianlin to reclaim his crown as China’s richest man.

As of yesterday, Ma’s net worth was US$31 billion (RM134 billion), narrowly outstripping US$30.8 billion for Wang, the property-toentertainment mogul who controls the world’s largest cinema chain AMC Entertainment and China’s largest private developer, according to Forbes.

The technology tycoon’s wealth has been boosted by a solid rally in Alibaba’s share price, which has soared 37 per cent so far this year.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Ma was appointed as the digital economy adviser to the Malaysian government during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s official trip to China in November last year to assist Malaysia in spearheading the country’s move towards a digital economy.

Najib said Ma could help spearhead the country’s e-commerce development and would help open new fields for the Malaysian economy.

On March 22, Najib and Ma launched the world’s first Digital Free Trade Zone, which was aimed at providing physical and virtual zones for small and medium enterprises to capitalise on the convergence of exponential growth of the Internet economy and cross-border e-commerce activities. Agencies