Alibaba cooperates with Belgium

New logistics hub in Europe

The online trader Alibaba and the Belgian government want to jointly support and expand the Electronic Trade Platform initiative. This was announced by the companies in a press release via the news service provider Business Wire.

Both companies want to intensify their work together and thus develop a comprehensive, innovative trading platform that offers better trading opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises in particular.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister, Kris Peeters, and the Alibaba Group’s Senior Director, James Song, signed a letter of intent on Wednesday. The Electronic Trade Platform was founded in 2016 by Jack Ma, CEO of the Alibaba Group. The initiative aims to help smaller companies “realize their economic potential” and expand their trading capacity.

By cooperating with the Belgian government, Alibaba intends to promote integrative world trade in Europe and thus continue the success of existing partnerships with Asian and African countries.

The agreement includes the development of a new logistics infrastructure to support cross-border activities. The logistics division of the Alibaba Group and Liège Airport have therefore also concluded a deal and jointly rented a 220,000 square meter area on which an “intelligent, top-class logistics hub” shall be built. The companies are investing around 75 million euros in the project. The plant is scheduled to start operating at the beginning of 2021.

The project will also increase Belgium’s attractiveness, said Pierre-Yves Jeholet, Minister for Economic Affairs of the Walloon Region of Belgium. Among other things, it could result in other Chinese companies investing more in Belgium. “This agreement will improve the infrastructure so that it can cope with the increasing exports of Belgian products to China,” the Minister said.