Jack Ma: Make Philippine internet faster

Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma met with President Duterte at Malacañang to discuss bringing in platforms to boost mobile technology, Internet banking and e-commerce industry in the Philippines, officials who attended the meeting told The STAR.
Ma, who came to the country to accept an honorary degree from the De La Salle University, expressed an interest to help boost the Philippines’ slow internet services.
Duterte underscored the importance of technology in helping develop the economy.
Noting Ma’s rags-to-riches story, Duterte recounted how it took him seven years to graduate from high school and that he was an ordinary student all throughout his younger years but he eventually got a law degree and became president.
Ma is a former school teacher who now heads the largest e-commerce enterprise in China. He expressed his intent to invest in the Philippines by tapping the youth using Internet and mobile service as a platform for free trade.
He also discussed how his firm’s third party mobile and online payment, Alipay, can be expanded in the Philippines.
He is open to expand e-commerce in the country through Alibaba.com, which provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales services via web portals.
Duterte and his economic team were receptive, and thought that products made in the Philippines could be traded through the Internet platform.
Ma also advocated the use of mobile applications to open bank accounts to make services available to a wider audience, especially the youth.