Alibaba Cloud Strengthens Public Cloud Capabilities to Serve Local Customers

New collaboration to support accelerated digitalization across sectors

Hong Kong, November 29, 2023 - Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, today announced its strategic plan to strengthen public cloud capabilities in Hong Kong to better serve local customers and to support their business expansion in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and beyond.

The cloud leader has maintained its strong business momentum throughout 2023. At its annual Alibaba Cloud Summit Hong Kong, the company reiterated its commitment to supporting digitalization across sectors.

Leo Liu, Vice President of International Business, and General Manager of Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, delivering keynote presentation at Alibaba Cloud Summit Hong Kong 2023

“We are deeply encouraged by the support of our customers. Leveraging AI technologies and public cloud capabilities, we enable our customers to benefit from more scalable and high-performance public cloud services,” said Leo Liu, Vice President of International Business, and General Manager of Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “As Hong Kong speeds up integration into the national development and fosters a headquarters economy, it is becoming an important hub for businesses that are looking to Go-GBA and Go-Asia. Building on our sound public cloud infrastructure, we are well positioned to support their digitalization and help them achieve their ambitions.”

AI-powered public cloud offering to enable regional business expansion

According to “The Next-Generation Cloud Strategy in Asia” survey commissioned by Alibaba Cloud, more than half (58%) of cloud-adopters in Hong Kong plan to increase investment in public cloud in the next 12 months.

In response to the surging demand, Alibaba Cloud made available a series of innovative AI-powered cloud products to its Hong Kong public cloud customers. For example, the enhanced AnalyticDB with vector database engine, a one-stop solution for enterprises to access large language models (LLMs) for building their customized generative AI capabilities; and Platform for AI (PAI), which provides high performance and easy-to-scale capabilities for use in various industry scenarios as well as tools to develop specific AI models. The platform provides over 140 built-in optimization algorithms for enterprises and developers.

The survey also finds that a majority (55%) of respondents from Hong Kong expect expansion into the Greater Bay Area will lead to increased demand for cloud services. The Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address also announced plans to develop a "headquarters economy" to attract enterprises from outside Hong Kong to set up headquarters in the city to tap into the opportunities brought about by the national and international dual circulation. Alibaba Cloud’s compliance consultation services will be able to help businesses grow in GBA and beyond.

Accelerating digital transformation across sectors

At the summit, Alibaba Cloud announced new collaborations with organizations including The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) and Global Virtual Design and Construction Limited (GVDC), a subsidiary of Yau Lee Holdings Limited (Yau Lee).

HKCSS will adopt Alibaba Cloud’s technology to assist local NGOs in addressing challenges faced in the digital era through training, consultation and building a dedicated platform to facilitate resource sharing and cross-sector collaboration.

“HKCSS serves as a co-creative platform powered by its members and multiple stakeholders within and outside the social service sector. With the support of Alibaba Cloud, we can further empower NGOs big and small to maximize their social impact, better serving the needs of the local community and fostering a more inclusive society in Hong Kong,” said CHUA Hoi Wai, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

Leo Liu, Vice President of International Business, and General Manager of Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence (right), and CHUA Hoi Wai, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Council of Social Service (left), signed a Memorandum of Understanding

A technology company delivering AI BIM (Building Information Modelling) full lifecycle management solutions, GVDC has joined forces with Alibaba Cloud to embark on a transformative journey that will revolutionize its operations. GVDC has been focusing construction innovation and developed Hong Kong’s first blockchain multifunctional platform namely BEANiE in 2018 to monitor and facilitate lean construction and just-in-time delivery of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) projects built by Yau Lee. In addition to the AI Full Lifecycle Management Course provided by GVDC and Alibaba Cloud, both parties entered into an MoU enabling strengthened collaboration on the development of a construction cloud by leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s AI and cloud computing services and GVDC’s BIM expertise particularly in Common Data Environment (CDE) and ISO19650.

Rosana Wong, Founder and CEO of GVDC, is thrilled about the collaboration and looks forward to maximizing productivity and competitiveness of the construction sector and ultimately contributing significantly to the sustainable ecosystem worldwide.

Leo Liu, Vice President of International Business, and General Manager of Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence (left), and Rosana Wong, Founder and CEO of Global Virtual Design and Construction Limited (right), signed a Memorandum of Understanding

Committed to tech talent development in Hong Kong

Leo Liu, Vice President of International Business, and General Manager of Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Philippines, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence (left) and Kenneth Chan, General Manager of KORNERSTONE (right), announced a talent empowerment program to establish Alibaba Cloud Academy Training Center.

Alibaba Cloud also announced a joint talent empowerment program with KORNERSTONE to establish local Alibaba Cloud Academy Training Centers focusing on cloud computing and AI talent development, with the aim to create physical learning space to bring together people of all ages, professions, and walks of life to discover the power of cloud computing and the latest technological advancements.

Earlier this year, Alibaba Cloud and the HKU Business School jointly announced the first cloud computing credit course for undergraduate students. Over 50 undergraduate students from different majors including computer science, finance, law and design, have completed the course so far.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba maintained its position as the third leading public cloud IaaS service provider globally since 2018, according to IDC. Alibaba is the world’s third leading and Asia Pacific’s leading IaaS provider by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner.