China’s Alibaba interested in creating e-floor for Russian exports

WUZHEN, China, 16 (PRIME) -- Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group is interested in a proposal of Moscow to create an electronic platform to allow Russian companies to enter world markets, the company’s founder Jack Ma said Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier suggested creating Internet floors to export domestic goods.

Ma said Alibaba Group paid attention to Putin’s initiative to push Russian small and medium-sized businesses to foreign markets. Alibaba Group hopes to make its input into the implementation of the idea, the Chinese businessman said during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Established in 1999, Alibaba is the largest Chinese Internet company offering a service combining certain features of the U.S.’ eBay, Amazon, and PayPal. In addition to online retail, it develops payment system Alipay.

Medvedev said that the creation of exclusive trading floors, which gives preferences only to the chosen states, contradicts the spirit of commerce.

“A number of ideas is being developed which are connected with breaking the existing trade rules and taking several countries to preferential positions, while other participants of the World Trade Organization (WTO), even as large as China, for instance and Russia as well, remain on different positions. And I think that this is bad, this does not correspond to the spirit of universal trade places including for electronic trade,” Medvedev said.

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