Alibaba, Foshan Government Ally on E-commerce

Yesterday, the government of Foshan City, Guangdong Province signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba (1688.HK) to make Foshan the key e-commerce development base in South China. This follows Alibaba's earlier plan to invest USD 200 mln to create a Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan e-commerce operations and development center headquartered in Guangdong. In addition, Alibaba also hopes to jointly launch a "Guangdong SME's E-commerce and Online Management Software Start-up Fund" with the provincial government, which would be used to support small and medium enterprises. Investment in the fund would come from the government, enterprises, and Alibaba, with each party contributing 1/3 of the total.