BANGKOK, Nov 12 (TNA) — Jack Ma, the co-founder and executive chairman of the E-commerce giant Alibaba has been approached by the Ministry of Commerce to help adapt the Taobao Village Model to improve the livelihood of local communities.
Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said that he had met with Jack Ma and had discussed the possibility of having the Alibaba helping to develop rural businesses in Thailand through the use of technology and Online commerce.
In response, Jack Ma gave his support for the proposition and stated that he was very willing to support Thailand’s grass-roots economies.
Alibaba’s own Taobao Village Model which was launched as a centre to develop commerce at the community level has seen tremendous success and has helped to dramatically reduce property levels from an earlier 30 per to 8 per cent.
Mr Jack Ma stated that he Alibaba is ready to support the idea to let the officials to learn the Taobao Village Model so that they can benefit from the Chinese experience.
Under the plan 15-20 officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and the Ministry of Interior will be given the opportunity to take part in the Taobao Village Model to see for themselves how the model was able to effectively combat rural poverty.
These officials will be taught the invaluable lessons that were learned by the Chinese and how to realistically approach the issue of poverty and then adapt them to help poor communities in Thailand. (TNA)
