Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding said that it will nurture the e-commerce market in Vietnam and help create employment for young people in the country. Speaking in a forum in Hanoi on Monday (Nov 6), the company’s chairman and founder Jack Ma Yun said that Alibaba will help Vietnam create an ecosystem to assist local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As part of its strategy and vision, Alibaba will assist young people in Vietnam in starting businesses and finding jobs through e-commerce. Jack Ma said that Alibaba aims to ensure every SME in every country across the globe can make use of internet technology to achieve sales, payments, and deliveries around the world.

Speaking to more than 3,000 Vietnamese college students at the same day at a meeting in Hanoi, Jack Ma stated that while about 54 percent people in Vietnam own smartphones, unfortunately many of them use their phones only to play online games. While in fact, they can do better by starting to play the best online game – doing business online.

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The population of Vietnam has 94 million people, and 54 percent of them are using the internet. However, only 4 million people shop online, while more than 90 percent of transactions in the country are made in cash, Global Times reports.

Regarding to this, Jack Ma pointed out that while Vietnam has not built up credit card, mobile payment and logistics systems, these could be good opportunities for young people to develop. Vietnam is expected to focus initially on the establishment of e-commerce infrastructure and further support the growth of the sector.

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