Alibaba invests $100 million in Chengdu`s western base project

Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba has inked a cooperative agreement with Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone on its new western base project, making Chengdu the first stop for the group's domestic distribution apart from its Zhejiang headquarters.

Thus, Alibaba will invest USD100 million to build its western base in Chengdu and the business range of this new project will cover relevant services of Alibaba Group's subsidiaries. In addition, the base will have various functions such as research, development, background operation, maintenance, disaster recovery, and training.

Meanwhile, Alisoft, Alibaba's software subsidiary, signed an agreement with Chengdu to open a new operating service center in the city. The investments in the operating service center will not be included in Alibaba's USD100 million investments in Chengdu, said Nong Jiaqing, vice president of Alisoft. The new project is expected to start operation in July 2009.

In addition, the municipal government of Chengdu gives full support to Alisoft's new project and local small and medium-sized enterprises which use Alisoft's software will gain a subsidy of CNY1,500.