Thai Minister of Commerce presents gold pillow durian to Ma Yun

Alibaba has signed a series of agreements with the Thai government to sell 3 billion yuan in gold pillow durian for Thailand in the next three years. The two sides also signed four memorandums of understanding.

Wen/World News reporter Zhang Feifei

“80,000 durians a minute, 400,000 kilograms in total!” On April 19th, at 34 degrees Celsius in Bangkok, Ma Yun, Chairman of Alibaba’s Board of Directors, and Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak jointly announced this Shocked figures.

Tmall's gold pillow durian is pre-sold to the line for only one minute, and 80,000 gold pillow durians that add up to more than 400,000 pounds have been looted.

This is the one-minute sales performance of Thai gold pillow durian after landing on Tmall supermarket on April 17th. In the afternoon of the strategic cooperation announcement between Alibaba and the Thai government held in the afternoon, Songji was more excited to become a salesman: We also have rice, bananas and many agricultural products!

At the same time, in the Chanthaburi Province, where Thailand's golden pillow durian is the main producer, workers are busy picking, loading, and sending fresh gold pillow durians to the durian factory. The professional chefs tap and screen, clean and dry. After 2 sorting, weighing and packing, reaching the border, customs clearance, arrived in the national warehouse. The rookie opened a fresh direct channel between China and Thailand for this purpose. The gold pillow durian was sent to China from its original place for 120 hours.

Workers in Thailand’s gold pillow durian’s main Chanthaburi province are carrying freshly picked durians.

In addition, Thailand's official rice flagship store has been on the line two days ago, Tmall, Meng Qianlong, KoKo, Lama Gong, Diamond Code, Golden Axe and other well-known Tami brand settled. Taimi will also enter Omron, Retail, Village Amoy and other omni-channel sales, and unsold rice machines will also be stationed in RT-Mart stores.

This is just an early harvest of a series of agreements between Alibaba and the Thai government. In the next three years, Ali will sell 3 billion yuan in gold pillow durian for Thailand. In addition, Ali will also build a smart logistics system to promote Thai fruit exports to China.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Song Ji and Ma Yun witnessed the Thai government signing a contract with Alibaba to carry out strategic cooperation.

At the press conference on April 19, Alibaba also signed four memorandums of understanding with the Thai government, including a strategic cooperation framework between the Ali Group and the East Thailand Economic Corridor Office; Caino Logistics and the Office of the East Thailand Economic Corridor and Thai Customs regarding “EEC “Smart Logistics Hub” cooperation; cooperation between Alibaba Business School, Thailand Industrial Promotion Agency and International Trade Promotion Agency on SMEs and digital talent training; and a memorandum of cooperation on smart and digital tourism signed by Flying Pig and Thailand Tourism Bureau.

This is another comprehensive strategic layout of Alibaba.com in Southeast Asia after the pilot of the first digital free trade zone for the Alibaba eWTP project overseas was launched in Malaysia in early November last year.

Ali's bond with Thailand

Before the signing ceremony, Thai Prime Minister Pak Yoo and Ma Yun met. In the meeting, Bayu said: Meeting with Ma Yun is not just about business discussions but about how to develop Thailand as a whole. Thailand must establish partnerships with Alibaba to accelerate change, so that low-income people and farmers in Thailand can increase their income and improve their quality of life. Bayu believes that Ma Yun is really concerned about thousands of grassroots people in Thailand.

At the same time, Bayu believes that the East Asian Economic Corridor put forward by the Thai government can connect China's Belt and Road. The cooperation with Alibaba this time is also Alibaba's deep implementation of China's One Belt One Road strategy.

At the press conference, Ma Yun personally showed great interest in referring to Thailand.

“Thailand is the most visited country for me and my family to go abroad.” Ma Yun said with a smile, the Thai smile and the smile on the Alibaba logo are also very similar. From scenery to food to culture and religion, few countries in the world like Thailand have such a unique charm.

Alibaba’s official engagement with the Thai government will also begin with the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit. Ma Yun recalled his experience with Thailand’s Prime Minister Pak Uk at the signing ceremony. Before leaving China to return to China, Prime Minister Batuar had a meeting with Ma Yun to discuss the cooperation between Thailand and Alibaba. He also specifically postponed the special plane to take off.

“We discussed the changes in the countryside. He said that Thailand needs more such technologies to help Thai farmers. Through these bits and pieces, I saw the Thai government’s concern for SMEs and farmers.” Ma said.

In October 2016, Ma Yun was invited to speak at the second summit meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Thailand. He discussed the concept of future business in the face of the heads and representatives of 34 ACD member countries in Asia. At the meeting, Ba Yu directly said in English with Ma Yun. We believe Ma Yun believes in China.

Two months later, in December 2016, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Song Ji led a nearly 100 political and business delegation to visit Alibaba’s Hangzhou headquarters and spent nearly 20 minutes in front of the big screen in rural Taobao.

Songji recalled the scene at the press conference. He said that Teacher Ma showed us a map of China with many flags on it. This is China's "Map of Taobao Village." Alibaba has the technical strength and resources to support the economic development of China's poor rural areas, allowing farmers to sell locally or directly export their products. This is what the Thai government needs. “Most of Thailand’s population are poor farmers and there is an oversupply of agricultural products every year. If there is an international market to support this, it can help Thai farmers increase their income and have a better quality of life,” said Sonki.

Ma Yun: Did not do this cooperation as a business

In addition to the “two agriculture” issue, Thailand also has a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. Songe stated that he hopes that these companies can use e-commerce and the Internet to achieve digital transformation. He also hopes that Ali can help Thailand’s support of big data to enable these small companies to obtain financing. Loan opportunities. At the same time, the upgrading of the tourism industry and product customization, the young middle-class entrepreneurs in Thailand need Alibaba to provide digital infrastructure.

Songji believes that Alibaba will bring development of "expanding, exploding and explosive development" to Thailand in the digital era. He said that part of the Thai population's income is still at a low level, and the income of SMEs and grassroots must be raised to create new industry opportunities for the new generation of people. Alibaba can help Thai SMEs to achieve the transformation of the Internet and help Thailand to carry out the agricultural revolution, thus helping Thai farmers increase their income, improve their living conditions, and obtain a better quality of life.

It was in 2016 that the Thai government began to implement the “Thailand 4.0” strategy of transitioning from an agro-industrial economy to a smart economy. Deputy Prime Minister Songji was one of the main designers of this strategy. An important component of the Thailand 4.0 strategy is the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) program.

It is understood that the plan is expected to invest a total of 43 billion U.S. dollars within five years. It will build Bangkok, Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao into an industrial hub connecting Southeast Asian Peninsulas. Top ten industries such as information technology, aviation, automotive, agriculture and biotechnology, food processing, and tourism.

Ma Yun said that if the cooperation between our two parties is only business, procurement, and sales, then the discussion between the two sides may take less than a month to complete. However, we have chosen a harder road to explore new ways of trading in international trade and the better business models that the common people have benefited from.

After more than a year of preparation and efforts, in March 2018, Zhao Ying, head of the Alibaba Global Leading Group, paid a visit to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Song Qi. After the talks, Alibaba confirmed that it will invest in the East Thailand Economic Corridor Project (EEC). In addition, it built a digital logistics hub in Thailand.

“When many countries are full of concerns and fears about global trade and new technologies, the Thai government and people firmly embrace the Internet and embrace the future. This same philosophy and reform courage have touched me.” Ma Yun said when he eventually fell to Thailand. "I did not regard this cooperation as a business, but as a future. Alibaba hopes to help SMEs, young people and farmers more. Only when they succeed can we succeed."

Ma Yun, chairman of Alibaba Group's board of directors, announced in Thailand that he will bring Thai gold pillows such as durian, rice and other quality fresh products to Chinese consumers.

Full cooperation

In July 2017, Ma Yun announced at the online conference that the goal of establishing Ali's terminal is to achieve global buying, global selling, global payment, global shipping, and global travel. The current cooperation with the Thai government embodies the concrete realization of this "five global" goal.

In terms of global sales, according to the 2017 Thai e-commerce report of Southeast Asia's eCommerce Price Aggregation Platform iPrice, Ali's cross-border e-commerce platform, Lazada and AliExpress, jointly occupy the largest cake in Thailand's e-commerce market.

Among them, Lazada, which is controlled by Alibaba, has a long-term stability and holds first place in Thailand's e-commerce market share. AliExpress, on the other hand, ranks fifth among Android applications for mobile shopping in Thailand.

According to estimates from Thailand's Ministry of Industry, Thailand's e-commerce market will reach 186.5 billion baht (about 37.45 billion yuan) in 2020, which is nearly 65% ​​higher than the 11.3 billion baht (about 22.77 billion yuan) in 2018.

In terms of global payment, in November 2016, Alibaba and Thailand's Chia Tai Group, Ant Financial and the Thai payment company Ascend Money signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Ascend Money will refer to the business model of Ant Financial Services to expand offline payment and small loan application service scenarios. At the same time, Ascend Money will also access Alipay's "Global Payment Worldwide" network, where users can use their mobile phones to buy around the world.

It is understood that Ascend Money owns the two major financial service license platforms of True Money and Ascend Nano. Among them, True Money provides debit cards and e-wallet services. By the end of 2017, the business expanded to 100,000, and in June 2018, it launched microfinance and personal loan business in Thailand.

In terms of global operations, the Thai Ministry of Industry recently told Thai Media that Alibaba will launch a smart digital logistics hub project. Established logistics facilities in three provinces of Thailand to handle logistics data, cooperated with Thai Customs to simplify and upgrade customs clearance procedures, promote cross-border trade between China and Thailand, and also radiated to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. According to Thai media reports, the project will be completed by 2019.

In terms of global travel, Piggy has reached a strategic cooperation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and the two sides will jointly promote the experience of Chinese tourists in Thailand through technology and data. In order to adapt to the consumption habits of Chinese tourists, the Thai Tourism Administration will also use this cooperation to upgrade the overall level of Thai tourism technology, popularize e-tickets, scan code admission, mobile payment, etc., and will try to use Alipay in tax rebates.

“Today’s cooperation is only the first step for Alibaba to invest in Thailand. We believe that Thailand’s potential will also be rooted in Thailand’s development for a long time. In the future, we will continue to search for suitable investment opportunities in the areas of logistics, digital infrastructure, trade and tourism.” When answering questions from the world's network operators, Ma Yun said so.