A GLOBAL market player using the e-commerce platform has vowed to help boost small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines, including those in Negros Occidental.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, one of the largest e-commerce, retail and technology conglomerates in the world, is currently going around the country to share its expertise and best practices with local enterprises.
Michael Lee, country manager to the Philippines of Alibaba Group, was in Bacolod City Tuesday, December 12, for the Regional Interactive Platform for the Philippines (Ripples) Plus Capacity Building Seminar for information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) service sector.
Lee said the information session, initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (EMB), is the best way for them to “personally” get along with local exporters and SMEs from other industry sectors in the province.
He added that their group is planning to further collaborate with the DTI for the conduct of training and coaching sessions geared toward boosting local entrepreneurs, especially those going digital.
“Right now, Alibaba has the biggest business-to-business platform in the global market,” Lee said, adding that their company is willing to be tapped by the government and private sectors for more development endeavors for Filipino SMEs.
Based in China, Alibaba Group also provides consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales services via web portal as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines, and data-centric cloud computing services.
The conglomerate also owns and operates a diverse array of businesses around the world in numerous sectors.
Lee, in an interview with SunStar Bacolod, said Filipinos are clever and creative.
These values, he said, can be used by local SMEs to be more competitive in using e-commerce platform for international trading.
“Filipinos are very good artists, they can really come up with beautiful designs and features of the products and services,” Lee said, adding that “if the international market offers the same kind of goods, unique Filipino products have more opportunities to be chosen.”
The Alibaba official also urged local SMEs to look at the Asean economic integration not as driver of stiffer market competition.
“Instead, they should think of it as an opportunity to develop and capture more potential markets not only in the Philippines but also in other Asean countries,” Lee said.