Jack Ma in Rwanda

Your Excellency Mr. President, ministers, Clare Akamanzi and your team, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is my great honor and also it is Alibaba's great honor to be able to partner with Rwanda. And today it is a very, very important day to me internally. I think it's a historical day. Thank you so much for, within such a short time, Clare, you and your team, to make this thing happen. We never thought it could be happening that quickly. You have gone through a lot of things because we are spending time and efforts for the future of Rwanda and the future of Africa. And I hope from today, the eWTP Rwanda can be able to support small business, young people, women here in Africa, and sell their things to enable them to buy global, sell global, deliver global, pay global, and travel global. I've been waiting for this day for almost 10 years. 10 years ago, when I started Alibaba, I believed the internet is gonna change the world. I believed e-commerce is gonna empower millions of small business. And I wish someday if the e-commerce can help enable African small business, African farmers, if they can sell their products across the world, that is called success of the Internet age. And I never thought they would happen in Rwanda. I never thought within 12 months I came to Rwanda for two times. And people ask me, 'Why Rwanda? There are so many countries in Africa and it is so difficult. We have a lot of criteria to pick up a country to be the eWTP hub.' And my answer is, 'Why not Rwanda?' Rwanda is a great country. A country when I first came here, I was shocked and surprised by its safety, by its cleanliness, and by the power, the magical power, to embrace the change. When last year was my first trip to Africa, before I came I heard about Africa: poverty, disease, and all the things. When I came here I changed my mind. Especially when I arrived in Rwanda, it is so different from what I think. And I told my team, my people, at that day, if every African country were like Rwanda, how powerful Africa would be. Last year I knew that I did not know Africa. The best thing to know about Africa is coming here more and visiting them all and getting involved more. So I decided I will come to Africa every year from now, every year for at least three to four countries. And I hope in the next 10 years or 15 years I can finish visiting almost all the African countries. And Rwanda is so different. A lot of people talk, Rwanda is making things happen. Rwanda is the first, one of the very few countries that banned plastic bags. People in many countries doubt, they talk, but Rwanda made this thing happen. And I visited the genocide memorial last time, and your country has suffered so much from this tragedy, but in such a short time Rwanda recovered and stood up. And the other thing I want to say is you've got a great, charming leader, the president. I'm not saying this in front of him. By speaking to many of my friends, I feel so proud of myself being able to know him. The first time I saw him was at the United Nations. At that time we did not talk to each other. I saw him there, sitting there surrounded by many presidents, and I said, 'People say that's the President of Rwanda, and I wish that someday I could be able to meet him and talk to him.' And this is my fourth time meeting him and talking. Every time I am amazed by his courage, leadership, and care for his people and care for his country. Most people in this world believe seeing is believing; very few people believe what they see. Your president is the person who believes in the future. And most countries talk about supporting small business, supporting young people, supporting farmers, but very few of them really take the actions. When I talked to him in Davos, he said, 'Jack, let's do it.' And we made the arrangement, and his team moved so fast. And now not only Davos but also New York. Every time I talked to the president, we talked about technology, we talked about environment, we talked about jobs. And every time I'm very impressed, and not only talk, he makes things happen. This eWTP is such a milestone in Africa; it's amazing. People also say, 'Well, Rwanda, how can it be an eWTP hub? You don't have sophisticated internet, logistics, market, payment; all the things are not ready.' I said, 'This is why we came here.' 19 years ago when we started Alibaba in China, nobody believed the internet would work, nobody believed e-commerce would work. People said, 'China has no internet, no e-commerce, no trust, no credit, no banking, no knowledge; it's nothing.' But we say yes, because there is no, that's why we need entrepreneurs. We make things happen. There's no logistics? That's a beautiful opportunity. There's no payment? That's a great opportunity. When other people complain, we take this as a great opportunity. And today's Africa is much better than 19 years ago China. At that time, there were no people with a mobile phone; today so many people have mobile phones, and a mobile phone is much more powerful than a computer 19 years ago. So we tested it. We're very excited to see that we are selling Rwandan coffee. In such a short time, we sold more than 1,000 packages of Rwandan coffee. You've got the greatest coffee in the world, but the other thing is the demand for coffee in China is increasing. And what impressed us is not only the products you have, it's the team you have, the government efficiency. Today when I arrived in Rwanda from the airport, my team kept on telling me they are moved and touched by the government's efficiency, their transparency, they want to make things happen. And I've been talking for half an hour now, and I said we should make all the Chinese government officers come here to learn, and all the other governments to come here to learn. Because of that, we are making things real. And I want to say, the president last time told me that coffee selling from here, a farmer selling coffee from Rwanda, the USA normally, a farmer picks eight dollars, and then they can sell for 16 dollars. But through the eWTP, we tested it, a farmer can collect 12 dollars. Consumers happy, farmers happy. And this I think the four dollars difference is the value that eWTP brings to Africa. And the third thing we want to work together is we want to prove if Rwanda can, why not the other countries in Africa? I think this is what we believe. In the past year, Rwanda convinced and changed the Alibaba people; you changed our vision, you changed our view of Africa. And together from today, we will make the world change the view of Rwanda and Africa. And I think I always believed small is beautiful and small is powerful. If Rwanda can be successful, 80% of the countries in the world can be successful, because most of them don't have logistics, they don't have payment, they don't have the technology, they don't have the talents. Because we don't have them, let's start to build up these things. This is what we think. And trade is changing, ladies and gentlemen, because of the technology, the trade formula is changing so fast. In the past 300 years, global trade was controlled by a few kings and queens, and then for the last 30 years, global trade was controlled by 60,000 big companies. What if we can make 16 million small businesses in the world? They can change, they can do the business. In the past, IT was to make 20% of companies succeed. In the future, we want to use the internet technology, the eWTP, to make 80% of the business to be successful. In the past, trade was done by containers; in the future, trade is conducted by packages. In the past, business is B2C; in the future, business is C2B. In the past, we say it's 'Made in China' or 'Made in America'; in the future, it's 'Made in Internet'. So any young people, any small business, using a mobile phone can buy global, sell global, deliver global, and pay global. And I think we have to prepare for the future. Nobody is happy, a lot of people are unhappy about the trade today, but complaining does not solve anything. Let's build up a system that can support more, 80% of the countries, especially developing countries and poor countries. Let's support young people, let's support small business so they can benefit from globalization. This is what we think. So finally, we think today we are not helping. eWTP and Alibaba is not helping Rwanda to globalize; it is Rwanda helping to improve globalization. Rwanda's courage and vision, in joining together with Alibaba and eWTP, we are making new rules for the future. We are improving the world of trade. So in order to face the future, we need to build up the new facility, the new infrastructure for global trade: eWTP, Electronic World Trade Platform. What does it mean? Trade, training, technology, tourism. So we think through this, for the trade, training, technology, and tourism, we can enable all the small business. Today we just finished that agreement. And I think agreement is good; it is not easy to sign, but it can be signed within 12 months. But we have to make things reality. Whether this agreement is good or not depends on whether we get a good result. If we can make and empower the small business, farmers, young people in Africa, in Rwanda, succeeding, then this eWTP concept really makes sense. So thank you very much again. I think today's agreement: 10 years later we will all be proud of this. And finally I want to say this: Africa has huge potential. The more I come here, the more I feel proud and the more I'm convinced in it. Let's spend time on education, let's spend time encouraging entrepreneurs, let's spend time making the government to be efficient. Education, entrepreneurs, and government: we will make Africa different. And I'm sure Africa is the future of the world, and it is the future, and the sample of inclusive trade and inclusive globalization. Thank you very much, Mr. President.