Alibaba and the government of Thailand have signed a deal that will speed up the e-commerce development in the country.

The agreement was signed between Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak and Alibaba Group’s executive chairman Jack Ma in Hangzhou, China. It covers four key areas of development.

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“The Prime Minister has earlier assigned responsibilities to a taskforce made up of government agencies and private enterprises to work with Alibaba in a joint effort to lift the export capabilities of Thai businesses, starting from the grassroots and community level and extending to mid-tier businesses operating locally and SMEs hoping to engage in export trade,” said Deputy Prime about the deal.

The deal will involve Thailand’s leading e-commerce site Lazada to provide training to 30,000 small- and medium-sized Thai businesses. In addition, Lazada Group will share their experience and expertise with the Thai government in developing Thailand’s own National E-Commerce Platform. 

The deal also states that Alibaba will advise the country’s postal service regarding the shipping and logistics of items. Lazada Group will help in expanding the coverage of domestic delivery services to all Thailand’s provinces by 2017. Thailand Post will also take Alibaba’s inventory management systems and international e-commerce fulfillment services.

Moreover, Alibaba and Thailand will work together to develop a nationwide People and Talent Development Program, with a goal to train roughly 10,000 persons to be proficient in digital technology. They will also nurture software developers who will be given access to the China market using Alibaba Cloud’s marketplace for their software apps creations. In addition, Thailand Digital Government Academy will give training for senior government officials regarding big data and artificial intelligence technologies.

The deal will also allow the two parties to explore cooperation opportunities under the Eastern Economic Corridor Development project as well as to establish Thailand as a hub of digital technology and regional data centers in Southeast Asia.  

TagsAlibaba, lazada, Lazada Group, e-commerce, Thailand, SME, Jack Ma, online commerce