On Wednesday, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stated that the e-commerce giant of China has signed an agreement with the government of Belgium so as to launch a trade hub which will be e-commerce based and will also include in the infrastructure of logistics.
This project is a part of the Electronic World Trade Platform of Alibaba. Belgium becomes the first company to join this project and Malaysia as well as Rwanda will be joining soon on similar agreements.
Cainiao, which is the logistics arm of Alibaba will be leasing logistics port which is 220,000 square meters at the Liege airport of Belgium.
The company stated that this is a part of the deal and it will be investing about 75 million euros which is equivalent of $85 million initially thereby beginning the project by 2021.
The CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang stated in a statement that they strongly believe that under the eWTP, the company will be opening up a huge potential for the businesses in Europe.
This in turn will help them grasp the benefits of trade that is done globally cross border. This aspect is considered especially for the China market.
The eWTP of Alibaba has been so designed to be able to help the countries reduce the trade barriers that come in the e-commerce trading. This includes lowering as well as eliminating the tariffs along with speeding up the clearance of the customs.
Earlier the company has stated that this project has been designed so as to compliment the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Amid the increasing trade tensions, Alibaba is expanding its project to Europe. This has urged the firm to drop the efforts of tapping the sellers of the United States.
Source: Reuters, BusinessInsider
