TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia not despairing over losing Jack Ma to Malaysia: Minister
Change Size
Alibaba's founder and executive chairman Jack Ma delivers a speech at a conference announcing cooperation between Alibaba and Suning in Nanjing, eastern China's Jiangsu province, on Aug. 10, 2015. (AFP/-)
C
ommunications and Information Minister Rudiantara has expressed his regret over Indonesia losing e-commerce giant Alibaba founder Jack Ma to Malaysia although President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had visited Alibaba headquarters and met Ma himself in Hangzhou, China, in September.
“We made a lot of fuss about it but eventually we lost and Malaysia got to him first. There’s already a picture of Jack Ma shaking hands with Malaysian Prime Minister [Najib Razak],” Rudiantara said Thursday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Last week, Malaysian paper The Star published a statement by Najib that Ma had agreed to act as an advisor to the Malaysian government for its digital economy aspirations. "We will be in partnership with Jack on the path and route to the future," said Najib as quoted by The Star on Nov. 4.
In September, Rudiantara said he had proposed that Jack Ma serve as an advisor to Indonesia’s e-commerce steering committee, which consists of 10 ministers led by Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution.
Read also: Alibaba's Jack Ma agrees to become RI e-commerce adviser
The Indonesian government has just released its 14th economic package on the transition period toward ironing out the legal framework related to e-commerce.
Rudiantara said Indonesia did not despair and the steering committee handling the transition period would still communicate with Ma to ask for his advice about what Indonesia should do to push for the success of Indonesian e-commerce. “They could receive advice from anyone, in or outside the country. It could be from anybody, including Jack Ma,” Rudiantara said. (evi)
