Medical supplies donated by Jack Ma Foundation, Alibaba Foundation arrive in Malaysia to combat COVID-19

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Medical supplies donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation arrived here and were handed over to Malaysian government on Thursday in a bid to help Malaysia fight against the COVID-19 spread.

The shipment, including face masks, test kits, protective suits and face shields, arrived in Malaysia in two batches since late Wednesday.

Deputy Director General of National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) Khairul Shahril Bin Idrus took receipt of the donation from Leo Chow, CEO of Lazada Malaysia representing the Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation. NADMA has been entrusted to distribute the supplies throughout the nation.

This shipment is part of a wider donation initiative to four Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The four nations will collectively receive a total of 2 million face masks, kits for testing 150,000 people, 20,000 protective suits and 20,000 face shields, according to the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation.

This donation is among a number of aid initiatives from the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation to support the areas of the world most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, the two foundations said.

"We hope our donation will help the ongoing national effort in Malaysia to curtail spread of COVID-19. Even though transportation of the medical supplies is becoming ever more challenging by day, we leveraged the strength of the Malaysia electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub to get it done as fast as we could," said James Song, secretary general of the eWTP office (Electronic World Trade Platform).

Tapping on the cross-border logistic capabilities of the eWTP hub at Malaysia -- the first overseas eWTP hub in the world -- medical supplies were able to be delivered promptly despite the challenge in movement of all goods worldwide due to the pandemic. The hub continues to play an instrumental role in the shipment of goods and medical supplies to various countries in the region since the outbreak.

The eWTP initiative is a not-for-profit initiative first proposed by Jack Ma in 2016 to help foster a more integrated and inclusive environment for cross-border electronic trade.