Alibaba group vice-president Brian Wong said the weeklong programme from March 23 would be hosted at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, China.
He said the second training programme would kick off from April 13 – 24.
The programme was aimed at enabling Malaysian entrepreneurs and those who operated businesses within the Malaysian market to embrace digital innovations to transform their businesses and the country’s economy, he told Bernama.
Under the eWTP agreement with Malaysia, he said, the Alibaba Group was committed to facilitate the development of eTrade infrastructure and the adoption of best practices.
“The Alibaba Netpreneur Training Programme, jointly organised by Alibaba Business School, Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation and SME Corporation Malaysia, is programmed to cater to the needs of different businesses in Malaysia when it comes to adapting to the digital ecosystem,” he said.
Wong said a maximum of 50 entrepreneurs would take part in each of the training programmes.
Asked if the training programmes would continue after these two batches, he said: “We are committed to working with the Malaysian government and businesses to share the know-how and best practices to enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to fully benefit from globalisation.
“We will continue providing training initiatives and conduct these programmes for Malaysian businesses.
“As part of our ongoing initiative under the eWTP programme, aimed at addressing various challenges facing Malaysia’s entrepreneurs, we will help both traditional businesses and digital ventures to convert challenges into opportunities to propel their business further.”
The Alibaba Netpreneur Training Programme was launched by the Alibaba Business School.
“We hope participants will share the knowledge acquired and their experiences with the wider business community in Malaysia and inspire a positive transformation of the country’s economy,” he said.
Wong said a participant must be a founder, co-founder or owner of a business venture that has been in operation for at least two years.
He said female entrepreneurs, as well as budding young founders, co-founders or business owners, were encouraged to apply.
Participants would learn and receive fundamental understanding of how new technology and the capabilities of a digital economy would enable national development.
They would obtain key insights into the evolution of Alibaba’s ecosystem within a country-wide context, including failures, mistakes and best practices through sharing from Alibaba’s founders and business leaders.
“They will garner key learnings from traditional businesses from a wide range of industries who recently went through the digital transformation in China and have the opportunity to go on field trips and interact with leading businesses within the Alibaba ecosystem.
“This will help them gain first-hand insight into current innovations and a foundation of strategic thinking that will enable them to make improvements in their own businesses, industries and ecosystem,” he said.