Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma announced the creation of a US$10 million African Young Entrepreneurs Fund, during the Youth Connect Africa Summit co-hosted by UNCTAD and the Government of Rwanda. UNCTAD is working with Mr. Alibaba's Jack Ma to explore opportunities with African businesses to participate in global trade, as well as to raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by the international community in 2015. In addition to his role as an adviser to UNCTAD, Mr. Ma also serves as a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. Mr. Ma underscored the importance of internet access in all nations, saying it was an even more important raw material for economies than coal and electricity were in the past. In light of that, Mr. Ma said that he planned to roll out a partnership with African universities to teach internet technology, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce.
Key Points
- African entrepreneurs should not be asking successful businesses, 'How can I distribute your products?' Africans should be saying, 'I have an idea I want to grow – how can you help me to grow it? How can you help me market it?
- Unlocking Africa's e-commerce is a key priority for UNCTAD, given the potential of online trade to power development.
- Not being connected to the internet today is worse than not having electricity 100 years ago
- The Internet & Big Data is the future. You can never stop it. You like it or don’t like it. But you will never stop it.
- Every time you have a technological revolution, it will kill a lot of jobs and it will create a lot of jobs.
Source: UNCTAD News
