(Ecofin Agency) - On October 31, 2018, in Kigali, Paul Kagame, president of the Republic of Rwanda and Jack Ma, executive president of Alibaba group, launched the first African hub of the Chinese company’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP).  This platform will let Rwandan SMEs offer their products and services to millions of potential clients on the world market.

The investment of Alibaba Group in Rwanda is the result of many meetings between Jack Ma and president Kagame, the last being on September 23, 2018, in New York during the telecommunications conference.

According to the co-founder and executive president of the Chinese e-commerce group, the idea to create a eWTP hub in Rwanda raised many negative comments. Jack Ma indicated that many people doubted Rwanda’s capacity to be an eWTP hub. They said the country had no "sophisticated internet, logistics, market, payment and all the other related things" and “I said this is why we came here",  Jack Ma said.

"When other people complain, we take this as opportunity and today's Africa is much better than the 90 years ago China," he added.

The African hub of the eWTP is the second the company set outside China. The first having been installed in Malaysia in November 2017. "I have been waiting for this day for almost ten years. 10 years ago when I started Alibaba, I knew that internet was going to change the world", Jack Ma commented delighted.