Jack Ma’s talent scheme lands in Hong Kong as Ant Group joins hands with government to train fintech professionals
- Ant Group and InvestHK have agreed to collaborate on ‘10x1000 Tech for Inclusion’, a global fintech training platform that launched in 2018
- The Hong Kong government is trying to lure back talent that has left the city amid Covid-19 travel restrictions and a changing political environment
The two sides have agreed to collaborate on “10x1000 Tech for Inclusion”, a fintech training platform jointly created by Alipay, the e-payments unit of Ant Group, and International Finance Corp, a World Bank arm focused on the private sector in developing countries, according to a press release, which did not mention Ma.
The project was first launched in 2018 at the World Bank conference in Bali, Indonesia, where Ma was a speaker. Since then, the billionaire entrepreneur has largely faded from public sight, following the last-minute cancellation of Ant Group’s mega initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai in November 2020.
Ant is an affiliate of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
Ant Group and InvestHK, a government agency, aim to recruit and train at least 1,000 “emerging talent and tech leaders” annually for at least 10 years, Ant Group senior director Jason Pau said on Tuesday during Hong Kong FinTech Week.
The Hong Kong scheme will expose participants to “the best case studies from China” and around the world, Pau said, adding that 160 professionals in the city had either joined or completed the training programme by last week, while more than 1,060 people from 66 countries and regions took part last year.
