China technology giant Alibaba Group is setting up an e-commerce and logistics hub in Malaysia as part of a Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), projected to promote trade worth US$65 billion by 2025.

The DTFZ aims to create 60,000 jobs and double the export growth of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak launched the DTFZ on Mar. 22 with Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire who owns Alibaba. Ma was appointed as Malaysia's digital economy advisor last year.

Four months was all it took for Ma's proposal to become a reality.

Ma was surprised at the speed of implementation.

He met Najib in Beijing last November during his official visit to China, and had told Malaysia to “act fast”. He said it was a plan which took "only 10 minutes" for Najib Tun Razak and him to agree on.

“My team and I thought, ‘Is this possible? We have been discussing it (for longer) with many European and other Asean countries. But Malaysia is very business-friendly and much more efficient than I thought”

The DFTZ, reported to be the first outside China and only second in the world will also see the creation of a new Kuala Lumpur Internet City (KLIC) in Bandar Malaysia

The KLIC aims to house at least 1,000 Internet-linked firms and 25,000 tech professionals.

See the video of the launch:

Top photo from Getty Images

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