Alibaba ventures into Pakistan

Pakistan has signed a deal with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba in a bid to boost the country's small and medium-sized enterprises.

On Tuesdaa, Alibaba, together with its financial affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, the first agreement of its kind to explore business opportunities with the South Asian nation.

Under the agreement, the three parties will work on fostering growth of worldwide exports from Pakistani SMEs through e-commerce.

Alibaba will provide online and offline training programs to help the country's SMEs better navigate the e-commerce landscape and make use of Alibaba's platforms. The trio will also work together to grow online payments and cloud-computing services in Pakistan.

The signing ceremony in Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou was witnessed by its founder and chairman Jack Ma and Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing that ended on Monday.

The MOU follows a series of initiatives by Alibaba to empower SMEs globally via digital commerce and online transactions. Ma's vision to build an electronic world trade platform could lower trade barriers and provide easier financing to micro and smaller merchants, who struggle to navigate sophisticated trade rules and accessing loans.