CII-Alibaba to build b2b global online platform for SMEs

To facilitate greater economic engagement between Indian and Chinese SMEs, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has signed an MOU with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba to build business-to-business linkages through global online platform.

CII Shanghai has signed an MOU with Alibaba.com to build business-to-business linkages between SMEs from India and the rest of the world through better utilisation of digital services for cross border and domestic trade, Chief Representative of CII Shanghai Madhav Sharma, who signed the agreement at Hangzhou city.

CII and Alibaba.com will also work jointly towards providing trainings, promoting Industry clusters for SMEs in some key business sectors.

Alibaba will work with CII to run their e-certificates programmes in India, Sharma said.

The MoU is a step forward in forging greater partnerships, engagement between Indian and global business especially among SMEs, he said.

India's manufacturing and services sector will be able to achieve the objectives of building greater India-China SME engagement by benefiting with the expertise of Alibaba.com in the digital space - especially on the B2B area, and CII through its network of 64 offices in India - with 8000 direct members and more than a lakh indirect members through its affiliated sectorial association, he said.

It fills the need to strengthen cooperation between Indian and global SMEs to support the integration of Indian SMEs into the global supply and value chains of large enterprises across all markets.

The MoU helps to support the transfer and expansion of knowledge and technology for forging strategic partnerships, collaborations, joint ventures, joint research and development leading to new innovations and help Indian SMEs build brand image at B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) levels leading to increased trust, confidence and business engagement, he said.

Alibaba made global headlines last year by winning $25 billion Initial Public Offering.

Through Alibaba.com, small businesses can sell their products to companies in other countries. Sellers on it are typically manufacturers and distributors based in China and other manufacturing countries such as India, Pakistan, the United States and Thailand, he said.

"India is one of the key markets for Alibaba.com. We are confident that the CII and Alibaba.com partnership will support greater business engagement between Indian SMEs to the rest of the world," head of Global Business Development for Alibaba Timothy Leung, said.