An agreement has been signed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd with the Belgian government, as said Alibaba on Wednesday December 5.
Including investments in logistics infrastructure, Alibaba, to launch a project of e-commerce trade hub, has signed the agreement with the government of Belgium.
Similar agreements has already been made by Alibaba in Rwanda and Malaysia, and now Belgium after signing the agreement will be the first country in Europe joining the project which is part of Alibaba’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP).
Under the agreement, Cainiao, logistics arm of Alibaba, will be investing 75 million euros ($85 million) in the lease of 220,000 square meter of logistics port at Liege airport in Belgium to build its world-class smart e-commerce trade hub, first phase of which will become operational in 2021. Overall logistics efficiency of SMEs, for better and in pace management of their exports in global e-commerce, will be enhanced by this smart trade hub.
CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, has been in strong feelings that eWTP will be providing, to European Businesses, vast opportunities to get their shares of benefits from global cross-border trade including from the markets in China.
Alibaba has developed its eWTP with a view point to assist the countries for reduction of trade barriers for e-commerce trade, by speeding up customs clearance and lowering or even eliminating the hurdles of tariffs.
To eWTP project, previously Alibaba referred it as designed to “compliment” the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In the midst of trade tensions between China and United States, forcing the company to withdraw or hold back its efforts to defeat players in U.S. market, Alibaba has been expanding its project into the Europe.
According to Chinese state media, Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba, has recently stated the trade tension being the cause to setting aside its plans for creating a million job in United States.
