Asia’s richest man Jack ma is in nairobi to hunt for business deals.
The billionaire arrived together with 38 billionaires who include Internet tycoon Bob Xu, Alibaba’s founding partner Lucy Peng, founder and chairman of Mengniu Dairy Niu Gensheng and real estate tycoon Huang Youlong.
Ma is currently Asia’s richest man with a fortune of nearly $30 billion (Sh. 3.11 trillion or nearly half of Kenya’s economic output).
The 38 men and women, from the Beijing Chamber of Commerce, will be looking to cut multi-billion shilling deals with the government and local businessmen.
The Chinese tycoons are expected to scout for business opportunities in East Africa’s largest economy where Chinese influence has been rising rapidly, with the balance of trade highly in favour of China. Mr Ma, a special adviser for youth entrepreneurship and small businesses for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is expected to share insights on entrepreneurship with Kenyan youth before flying out to Rwanda for a similar engagement.
Ma is this afternoon expected to address 500 young business leaders at the University of Nairobi and meet business leaders. A champion of global trade, Mr Ma has been urging developing countries to use e-commerce to bolster their economies, instead of creating regulations and taxes that could kill the emerging sector.