Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has praised Malaysia for being the first country to implement a digital free trade zone (DFTZ) that focuses specifically on small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“So many countries say they want to do something for small businesses.

“Malaysia is the country that made the first move to actually make this happen.

“We’ve been shouting everywhere that every government should do it, and this is the first hub designed only for small businesses to export and import,” Ma said during the live launch of the DFTZ at the Sepang International Circuit today.

He added that he hopes this will not be the last and that he will work to set up other similar DFTZs.

The DFTZ will benefit small businesses as it will enable them to access the global market, he said.

“If you only sell in your own township, I don’t think your business will survive.

“You have to sell to China, Russia, Europe and other countries,” he said.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was also in attendance at the event, said that he was very impressed by his visit to the e-fulfillment hub at KLIA Air Cargo Terminal 1 (KACT1) earlier today.

“I just had a look at the warehouse. It’s an incredible state-of-the-art warehouse where we saw robots at work.

“When we have all these technologies there, what happens?

“Malaysians can now occupy higher paying jobs,” Najib said in his keynote address at the event.

He said that the new free trade zone is expected to create 65,000 new jobs by 2025.

The DFTZ will also contribute to Transformasi Nasional 50 (TN50) as part of the aims include becoming one of the top 20 high-income countries in the world.

“I hope that the digital economy will provide us with the double-digit growth we need,” he said.