A workshop convened by the government in partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has concluded in the capital, marking a professionally executed effort to equip local entrepreneurs with the tools to engage global markets. The one-day event drew approximately 600 participants and signalled a strategic step in the nation’s digital commerce agenda.
Held at the Barceló Nasandhura Malé, the workshop was jointly organised by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Alibaba Group, and the Business Center Corporation (BCC). Officials described the initiative as integral to the country’s broader efforts to integrate Maldivian producers into global supply chains via one of the world’s largest online sales platforms.
Keynote addresses from Mohamed Saeed, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, and Kong Xianhua, Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives, framed the collaboration as both diplomatically significant and economically strategic.
Senior representatives from Alibaba led sessions focused on onboarding sellers and deploying the platform’s artificial intelligence tools to optimise product visibility. Training also covered website-based promotion strategies, tailored to the needs of state-owned enterprises, private firms, and independent entrepreneurs.
Participants responded with optimism, citing the initiative’s potential to unlock new revenue streams and facilitate access to previously untapped markets. Many viewed Alibaba as a vital conduit for Maldivian products that currently face distribution barriers.
To support this commercial expansion, the workshop addressed logistical and financial dimensions of cross-border trade. Representatives from the Bank of Maldives (BML) and Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) offered guidance on international payment systems, while officials from Maldives Post Limited outlined procedures for overseas shipping and delivery.
The programme aligns with the government’s objective of expanding the “creative industry” to comprise 15 percent of national gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Exporting Maldivian goods to foreign markets is considered essential to achieving this target, and officials see Alibaba as a strategic platform for enabling such growth across enterprises of varying scale.
Alibaba’s global footprint reinforces this outlook. With operations in more than 200 countries, the platform hosts 40 million registered sellers and offers over 5,900 product categories. Company data indicates that users conduct searches for more than 400,000 distinct products daily, underscoring the vast commercial potential available to Maldivian exporters.