Jack Ma Sets Up Entrepreneur Training Institute in Indonesia
During the 2018 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group on Oct. 13, Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group, stated that he plans to establish a “Jack Ma Entrepreneur Institute” to train thousands of tech entrepreneurs. He currently serves as an adviser to the Indonesian government steering committee for e-commerce.
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According to Jack Ma, the institute is expected to cultivate 10,000 tech entrepreneurs from both public and private sectors in the upcoming decade. It will focus on educating developers and engineers in cloud computing, which is the area Indonesia struggles with the most.
Indonesia has always been a strategic market for Alibaba. Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing department of Alibaba, launched a data center in Indonesia in March. Alibaba will continue to invest in various areas of e-commerce, cloud computing, logistics and infrastructure in Indonesia, assisting local enterprises in tech development and in elevating their level of digitalization.
“I believe that investing in people is investing for the future. Cultivating talent is one of the most significant things the Alibaba ecosystem can do. My hope is that emerging markets will benefit from the individuals that are nurtured by this new 10×1000 Tech for Inclusion program and thus be able to embrace a brighter future through the digital economy,” said Ma. “Only when people improve, when people’s minds change, when people’s skills improve, only then can we enter the digital period”.
Ever since 2015, Alibaba has made huge investments in personnel training in developing countries and has set up multiple training programs at home and abroad. In August this year, Alibaba set up the Africa Netpreneur Prize to encourage young African entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. On Dec. 4 2017, Jack Ma proposed his B200 plan in Geneva, promising to help empower 1,000 entrepreneurs in developing countries over the next five years.
