Alibaba's Jack Ma tells Donald Trump about US store plan for China e-shoppers

Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma met US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday (Jan 9, 2017) and laid out the Chinese e-commerce company's new plan to bring a million small US businesses onto its platform to sell to Chinese consumers over the next five years, an Alibaba spokesman said.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd expects the initiative to create a million US jobs as each company adds a position, company spokesman Bob Christie said in a phone call.

Trump and Ma emerged from their meeting at Trump Tower in New York together. The president-elect told reporters they had a "great meeting" and would do great things together.

Ma called Trump "smart" and "open-minded". He said the two mainly discussed supporting small businesses, especially in the Midwest.

Ma said that businesses such as farmers and small clothing makers could tap the Chinese market directly through Alibaba.

He called the meeting with Trump "very productive".

"We mainly talked about small business and young people and American agriculture products to china. And we also think, that the China and US relationship should be strengthened, should be more friendly," he said.

(REUTERS)