Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice-President Mr. Ahmed M. Saeed and Alibaba Group Partner and President of the Public Affairs Department Ms. Wen Jia today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate in support of rural vitalization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Under the agreement, ADB and Alibaba will jointly support the PRC’s rural vitalization program by promoting the development of the internet-plus economy to help modernize the agriculture sector, with the aim of helping eliminate extreme poverty in the PRC. ADB will incorporate in its PRC projects new technology platforms to support the digital rural economy using Alibaba’s strong technological expertise.
“ADB and Alibaba each have unique resources and advantages they can use to support rural development, protect the urban and rural environment, improve the safety and quality of agricultural production, and increase farmers’ incomes,” said Mr. Saeed. “We believe this cooperation will demonstrate how an international financial institution and a private sector leader can work together to address rural challenges using innovative approaches.”
The cooperation will focus on three areas: promoting smart farming and internet-plus agriculture technology applications in food and agriculture value chains; promoting ecological management through forest restoration, rural financial services, and crowd sourcing solutions to distribute funds to target beneficiaries; and digitizing and generating rural solid waste value streams.
Through the MOU, ADB is also embarking on a wider knowledge partnership with Alibaba to promote sharing of the latest internet-plus and agriculture technology applications to ADB’s clients through events and meetings, consultations, training and capacity development for government personnel, publications, and joint analytical work.
Alibaba Group, founded in Hangzhou in the PRC, is a multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology.