Alibaba Group Holding said it will help nurture the e-commerce market in Vietnam to create jobs for young people in the country.
Alibaba Chairman and founder Jack Ma Yun told a forum in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, on Monday that Alibaba will help Vietnam create an ecosystem to assist local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is Alibaba's "strategy and vision," according to a press release the company sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
Alibaba will help young people in Vietnam start businesses and find jobs through e-commerce, Ma told the forum.
Alibaba aims to ensure every SME in every country can use the Internet to achieve sales, payments and deliveries around the world.
Ma told more than 3,000 Vietnamese college students the same day at a meeting in Hanoi that "about 54 percent of the people in Vietnam have smartphones, but many of them use their phones to play online games. You should start to play the best online game - doing business online," said the press release.
Vietnam has 94 million people and 54 percent use the Internet, but only 4 million people shop online and more than 90 percent of transactions are made in cash, the document said.
Ma noted that Vietnam has not built up credit card, mobile payment and logistics systems, but these are opportunities for young people.
Ma said that Vietnam is expected to focus initially on the establishment of e-commerce infrastructure and support the growth of the sector.
