Jack Ma, founder of China's Internet giant Alibaba, was addressing the audience during the Africa Netpreneur Prize final competition in Accra, capital of Ghana, Nov. 16, 2019. The Jack Ma Foundation had given a total cash prize of one million dollars to support the enterprises of 10 young African entrepreneurs, who were winners out of the more than 10,000 participants in this year's competition. (Xinhua/Zhang Yu)
The Alibaba Business School in partnership with the Ethiopian government will open a training program targeting Ethiopia's entrepreneurs and business owners in March 2020. The program targets business leaders who are committed to harnessing digital technology to transform local businesses for lasting success.
ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Alibaba Business School in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology will be hosting the first Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program for entrepreneurs and business owners from Ethiopia in March 2020.
The Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last month with Ethiopia for the creation of Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), which is expected to be a game-changer initiative for the digital economy of the East African country.
As part of the agreement signed between Ethiopia and Alibaba Group, the application for the first Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program opened on Wednesday for applicants and will last until Jan 19, 2020.
The 10-day program to be held at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, China, is targeted at ambitious entrepreneurs and business leaders in Ethiopia who are committed to harnessing digital technology to transform local businesses for lasting success.
The program aims to teach attendees to accelerate the digital development of their business and work with related parties to build success cases that will become the building blocks of their local communities and, ultimately, the larger digital economy.
Jack Ma took a selfie with honor guests during the conference "The Rise of Africa's Digital Lions" in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 8, 2018. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)
Speaking to a high-level gathering that deliberated primarily on the private sector and digital economy last week here in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian State Minister of Trade and Industry, Mesganu Arga Moach, hailed the eWTP to have a pivotal role in availing global market opportunities and linkages for Ethiopian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The state minister, who described Ethiopia's latest electronic world trade platform as the second in Africa after Rwanda, "will enable Ethiopia to provide smart logistics and services, conduct cross-border trade with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises."
The Alibaba Netpreneur Training Program will allow trainees to learn about the evolution of Alibaba's ecosystem and the best practices from Alibaba's founders and business leaders, meanwhile, gain a fundamental understanding of how new technologies enable the business environment.
It also includes joining field trips to meet leading businesses within Alibaba's ecosystem to gain first-hand insights into technology innovation; and gaining a foundation of strategic thinking that will enable entrepreneurs to make improvements in their own business and industry.
The eWTP was proposed by Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, in 2016. It aims to set up an open platform for private enterprises and coordination among international organizations, governments, and social groups which focus on the development of SMEs as well as trade. It was included in the communique of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou. ■
