A memo outlining the deal was signed last week at a ceremony at Alibaba's Hangzhou, China headquarters by Alibaba Group president Mike Evans and José Rogelio Garza, the undersecretary of industry and commerce of Mexico's Ministry of Economy. Ma and Peña Nieto also attended the ceremony.
This agreement focuses on small and mid-sized businesses in Mexico that want to sell their products abroad. Under the agreement, Alibaba will help train Mexican businesses in best practices in e-commerce, digital payments, logistics, and analysis, according to Alibaba.
Alibaba is roughly China's equivalent of Amazon in that it offers a popular online retail site that sells almost anything as well as a cloud computing unit that businesses can use to outsource their information technology requirements. Aliyun, or Alibaba's cloud, is Alibaba's counterpart to Amazon Web Services.
China is Mexico's third largest trade partner. This news comes at a time when the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. has been stressed by the Trump administration's proposed changes to immigration and trade policies.
