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Chinese tycoon Jack Ma set for two-day Kenya visit next week

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Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba. file photo | nmg

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, will be on a two-day visit to Kenya beginning Monday next week.

Mr Ma, who is currently Asia’s richest man with a fortune valued at nearly $30 billion (Sh3.11 trillion or nearly half of Kenya’s economic output) will visit the country to share entrepreneurial insights with young people in his capacity as special advisor for youth entrepreneurship and small businesses to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

UNCTAD Secretary- General Mukhisa Kituyi and Mr Ma will make presentations to 500 young business leaders at the University of Nairobi.

“UNCTAD will work with Mr Ma to explore opportunities with local businesses to participate in global trade,” said a brief from UNCTAD ahead of the visit.

Mr Ma has been urging developing countries to look to e-commerce to bolster their economies, instead of creating regulations and taxes that could kill the emerging sector in its infancy.

“We should not discipline the baby before even it is born,” Mr Ma told a gathering in Geneva during UNCTAD’s annual E-Commerce Week convention recently.