Jack Ma was seen in Indonesia over the weekend, watching several matches before attending the Asian Games closing ceremony. The Alibaba founder also met with president Joko Widodo and several ministers to discuss collaboration opportunities in e-commerce.
The topics that came up included ways to bring more small businesses online, and how to learn from the November 11 shopping festival that has built so much momentum for e-commerce in China, local media reported (link in Indonesian).
According to Reuters, Indonesia’s IT minister Rudiantara later said that one key topic he discussed with Ma was talent development and how to increase exports from Indonesia. He also told Reuters Ma is due for another visit in October to finalize the discussions.
It’s not Ma’s first visit to Indonesia. Last year, he was appointed as an e-commerce advisor to the country. Alibaba has a strong foothold in the Indonesian and even Southeast Asian e-commerce landscape through its platform Lazada, which operates across the region.
Editor: Ben Jiang