Jack Ma urges developing countries to nurture e-commerce

“I hope we have regulation to encourage entrepreneurs, to encourage infrastructure investment, to reduce tax policies for e-commerce companies,” Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group, told a United Nations gathering that was recently held in Geneva. 
Ma is also a special adviser to the UN Conference on Trade and Development for youth entrepreneurship and small business.
Ma’s comments came during Unctad’s annual E-Commerce Week convention, which this year focused on ways to make cross-border e-commerce more inclusive and accessible for countries lacking the technology, infrastructure and know-how to reap its benefits. 
He called on policymakers to propose regulations for e-commerce that specifically support small businesses and their development.
Ma has spent the past year calling for more inclusive e-commerce by way of an electronic World Trade Platform, which would make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the global economy. 
The eWTP would offer SMEs simple and straightforward regulations, lower barriers to entry in new markets and easier access to financing, giving them competitive support against much bigger multinational companies.
Ma has also repeatedly touted the benefits that e-commerce can bring to developing countries, whether by levelling the playing field between large and small companies, allowing those small companies to transcend geographic boundaries or allowing for more flexible and inclusive employment. 
Within China, Alibaba has said it created 30 million job opportunities, most notably among young people, rural communities and disadvantaged groups. 
For example, 126,000 disabled e-merchants made sales of 12.1 billion yuan (Bt60.7 billion) on Taobao last year, according to the e-commerce giant.