Alibaba's Jack Ma to visit Kenya

Alibaba's Jack Ma to visit Kenya

Founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce Alibaba Group, Jack Ma is set to go on a two-day visit to Kenya, to share entrepreneurial insights with the country's young people.

Last year, Ma was named special advisor for youth entrepreneurship by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business. Ma is also said to be the richest man in Asia with a fortune valued at nearly $30 billion (nearly half of Kenya's economic output).

He, together with UNCTAD secretary general, Mukhisa Kituy will be making presentations to 500 young business leaders at the University of Nairobi.

Ma has been urging developing countries to look to e-commerce to bolster their economies, instead of creating regulations and taxes that could kill the emerging sector in its infancy. "We should not discipline the baby before even it is born," he said at a gathering in Geneva during UNCTAD's annual E-Commerce Week convention recently.

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