Alibaba is making their first investments in Malaysia, bringing Alipay and Alibaba Cloud for SMEs and consumers here. The announcement came in conjunction with the announcement of the collaboration between China and Malaysia in developing a Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ).
CIMB Bank and Maybank both announced that they will be working with Ant Financial Services Group, the parent company of Alipay, to enable the Alipay mobile wallet in Malaysia as an alternative cashless payment for Chinese tourists. Currently Alipay has 450 million users in China and beyond.
CIMB Bank will act as the settlement and merchant acquirer bank to facilitate Alipay payments in Malaysia, to enable Chinese visitors to pay for their transactions in Renminbi without concern about exchange rates, through a simple barcode-scanning method that they are used to in China.
Under CIMB’s agremeent, Alipay will be available for payment in Resorts World Genting, Digi mobile and data plans, YTL Hotels & Properties, Hutong @ Lot 10, Starhill Gallery, and FamilyMarts located in Wisma Lim Foo Yong, Mid Valley, and KLIA 2.
For the agreement with Maybank, the service will be available from May 2017 onwards and Alipay will be accepted at Maybank card merchants such as Parkson, Royal Selangor, Duty Free Zone, Eraman and Genting. Maybank notes that more merchants are currently being processed for enrolment into this program.
Apart from Alipay, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, will be building a cloud platform in Malaysia to help local SMEs take advantage of technology such as big data and Internet of Things (IoT). The cloud will provide support for startups by giving the Alibaba Cloud Certified Professional (ACP) certification program, for training local talents and supporting internet-related ecosystem in Malaysia.
This is in line with the vision of the DFTZ for helping SMEs take advantage of the internet economy and international eCommerce activities, giving support to internet companies to trade goods, provide services, innovate and co-create solutions. The DFTZ is an initiative with MDEC and will provide a end to end service for eCommerce to trade between borders, with benefits such as efficient logistics and fast tracked customs.
The DFTZ is the first e hub outside of China and is a part of Jack Ma’s vision and strategy for Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). Since early 2016, the founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group has proposed the eWTP strategy to over 30 countries, and the proposal was included in the communique of last year’s G20.
