Jack Ma invites Bill Gates to dinner for charity funds consultation

Bill Gates posts on his twitter account that he had a talk with Jack Ma about philanthropy. (Photo: screen shot from Twitter)

Ren Zhiqiang posts a photo about the philanthropy dinner, with Gates and Ma in, on his Weibo account. (Photo: screen shot from Sina Weibo)

(ECNS) – Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said on his Twitter account that he met with Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, in Beijing to talk about philanthropy on Tuesday evening.

Ren Zhiqiang, president of Huanyuan Property Co., Ltd., revealed on his Weibo account that other Chinese entrepreneurs also attended the philanthropy dinner hosted by Ma.

It wasn't the first time that Gates talked about philanthropy with rich Chinese people in person. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett invited 50 of China's richest people to a philanthropy dinner in Beijing, and about two-thirds accepted the invitation.

In early April, Gates urged wealthy Chinese to make philanthropy a common practice and donate to the poor.

Jack Ma resigned as Alibaba's CEO last year and announced he would dedicate much of his time to charity work. He took a post on the Nature Conservancy's board of directors and helps kung fu star Jet Li's One Foundation.

On April 24, Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba, announced they would establish a private foundation. The funds will come from their shares, which is expected to be about 2 percent of the company's equity.