KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 — Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma said today he was inspired by Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to start his global e-commerce platform.

In his speech at the opening of the group’s first Southeast Asian office here, Ma said that he was impressed by the initiative that began during Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first tenure in office.

“So Malaysia inspired me on Alibaba, and this morning, I thanked the prime minister for his great inspiration for the MSC.

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“How can this thing happen? How this thing could happen? So I watched for many years. I did not see it work out, and last year, when I came up with this idea for eWTP Malaysia.

“This is a 20 years ago dream. We should implement it here, and this will make a real Multimedia Super Corridor, to empower most of the small and medium companies, empower the young people,” he added.

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