October 18, 2016
Will SMEs Own the Future?
“In the next 20 to 30 years, small is beautiful and powerful. We should give small businesses, developing nations and young people more opportunities.” Jack Ma, Founder Alibaba
Drawing from Jack Ma’s comments at the recent 2nd Asian Co-operation in Thailand, our many HCC SME members pave the way for the future. Mr Ma used the event platform to rallyl against the trend of anti-globalisation commentary, and called upon the 34 nations present to focus on small businesses of less than 30.
“In the past 30 years, globalisation featured 60,000 big companies,” Mr Ma said. “What if we can make hundreds and thousands of small businesses get involved? If we can make small businesses get involved in e-commerce [and] global trade, that would help a lot.”
Formerly a teacher, Jack Ma is the founder and chairman of the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba – a company that is rapidly morphing into a media and finance conglomerate.
“The internet was invented in America, but I’m sure Asia can make full use of it.” Mr Ma reaffirmed the need for an “e-road”, akin to the Silk Road, to help small businesses flourish.
Austrade has recently entered into a ‘strategic partnership’ with Alibaba which has just opened an office in Australia this year and Westpac reports that 29 per cent of Westpac’s SME customers believe their level of business activity has been stronger than experienced in the period between 2011 and 2015, 31% reported it was weaker. 40% reported it as being the same.(Source HERE)
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