Alibaba is collaborating with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) in a deal aimed at strengthening trade opportunities by expanding the variety of Australian products sold to some of Alibaba’s Chinese consumers through its e-commerce platforms.
Alibaba Australia and Austrade have signed a strategic collaboration agreement that gives Australian companies exposure to Alibaba’s hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.
Under the deal, Alibaba will provide dedicated services for Australian products and leverage digital content to build “brand Australia” abroad.
Businesses to be explored by Alibaba and Austrade include the introduction of an annual “Australian Fresh Food Week” sales promotion and education event on Alibaba’s Tmall Fresh food channel, advancing the interests of Australian companies that export dairy, meat, seafood, fruit and other fresh produce.
{loadposition peter}Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Alibaba Group’s founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, attended the signing ceremony at Alibaba’s corporate headquarters in Hangzhou.
Ma said the next chapter of trade between China and Australia would require “closer co-operation and this agreement provides a new framework to ensure more businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, can benefit through the partnership between Austrade and Alibaba”.
“Together we can all work jointly to support Australian jobs and shape a new future for many people and businesses through the co-operation forged today.”
Turnbull said Alibaba “enables the smallest businesses, the mom-and-dad businesses, in the regional part of Australia to have access to the biggest part of the world, something that hitherto only a very large company with enormous resources, with enormous representation would be able to do. It’s a liberating force for small business. And because so many of the services are available on the cloud, again it reduces the cost of business and levels the playing field between the big company and the small company.”
Maggie Zhou, managing director of Australia and New Zealand for Alibaba, said Australia is a key market for Alibaba Group.
“We are excited to extend our collaboration with Austrade to cultivate successful Australian exporters that are capitalising on China’s expanding middle class. With Alibaba Group’s new Melbourne office opening later this year, our local team will be dedicated to providing businesses the information and tools they need to advance their international growth,” Zhou said.
Michael Clifton, senior trade commissioner, said in addition to supporting Australian companies already succeeding in China, a key focus of the partnership would be targeting first time exporters, particularly SMEs, and facilitating access to Alibaba assistance in commercialising new digital technology and services in China.