Alibaba partners Exabytes to support Malaysian exporters, empower SMEs

PENANG: Alibaba.com partnered with Exabytes Network Sdn Bhd. (Exabytes), malaysian-based web hosting and cloud service provider, to accelerate exports from small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia.

As a part of this partnership, Alibaba.com will appoint Exabytes as an authorized Global Gold Supplier (GGS) membership Channel Partner. The appointment will enable Exabytes to promote GGS memberships in Malaysia and enroll Malaysian SMEs in the states of Kedah, Penang, Perak and Perlis into the platform to help them tap into millions of buyers worldwide and to discover new business opportunities.

The partnership was announced during its launch in the presence of Penang's Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, Alibaba.com head of operations Eric Zhang, and Exabytes chief executive officer Chan Kee Siak.

Chow commented: “Malaysia's digital economy, with e-commerce being one of the key components, is at its fast-growing phase. Against this backdrop, I strongly encourage SMEs and local businesses to innovate and make the most of the benefits available out there. The development of SMEs in tandem with the technology change is crucial, given that SMEs provided two thirds of total jobs in Malaysia and contributed 37 per cent of the total GDP in 2017.

“I am hopeful that this partnership between Alibaba.com and Exabytes will further encourage local SMEs to digitise their businesses and achieve bigger goals by making their business successful beyond Malaysia.”

Alibaba.com Malaysia Country manager Joey Zhu added: “The growing volume and potential of cross-border trade for SMEs makes this partnership very valuable to the local business traders in the Northern region (of Peninsular Malaysia).

“It not only helps them tap into newer markets, but also takes away some of the pain of digitizing their business. Our partnership with Exabytes will help us better serve the needs of local SMEs and businesses as they accelerate and excel in cross border e-commerce.”

Chan said: “This partnership is a great opportunity for us to continue on with our mission to make it easy for SMEs to grow business online. We can now introduce to them Alibaba.com, an easy and convenient way to reach to buyers located around the world on a single platform. In addition, this partnership can help strengthen Exabytes' position as a leading cloud service provider for SMEs in Malaysia.

“Going global isn't just for large enterprises. Our team plans to carry out various programs including organising workshops to share knowledge about global e-commerce trends and we'll invite local SMEs to attend.”

The partnership represents the latest initiative by Alibaba under the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) to help Malaysians SMEs seize global cross-border trade opportunities by taking advantage of the Alibaba ecosystem.

Alibaba.com is committed to help SMEs play an important role in nation building, currently making up over 90 per cent of business entities in Malaysia. With digital economy being the growth engine of the nation's economic growth, Alibaba.com is committed to help these businesses accelerate cross-border e-commerce trade.

Alibaba rolled out its first overseas eHub in Malaysia under the eWTP initiative in 2017, with an emphasis on facilitating exports for Malaysian SMEs and creating the infrastructure to support global trade with services encompassing e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile payment and talent training.