Jack Ma's Alibaba acquires Pakistan e-commerce retail firm Daraz

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday said that it had purchased leading Pakistani online retailer Daraz, continuing its overseas expansion by gaining a foothold in the growing South Asian consumer market.

The move came after Alibaba announced in March a doubling of its investment in Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada.

China is seeking closer economic ties with Asian neighbours including Pakistan through its Belt and Road initiative, a strategy to increase trade links that is led primarily by infrastructure projects.

Daraz, founded in 2012, was purchased from Rocket Internet, a Berlin-based incubator of online startups.

Its key markets are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal, claiming 30,000 sellers and 500 brands on its platform, according to a statement by Alibaba.

China forges 'strategic' ties with Djibouti after opening base, grants aid

China on Thursday offered loans to Djibouti, the site of its first overseas military base, as the Horn of Africa state's leader told President Xi Jinping he considered himself a great friend of the Asian giant.

With a population of less than one million, Djibouti has long punched above its weight, thanks to a strategic location on the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes linking Europe to Asia and the Middle East.

China formally opened the base, which it calls a logistics facility, on August 1, the 90th birthday of the People's Liberation Army. Djibouti also hosts large US and French bases.

Djibouti was politically stable, Xi told its president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, at a meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

"China sets great store by its relations with Djibouti," he added.

Guelleh, who has been in power since 1999, said he considered himself a "great friend of China's" and could not count the number of times he had visited.

"Djibouti is known for being a country of peace, exchanges and meetings," Guelleh said.

"I would like to recall the geostrategic position of Djibouti and its importance in this part of the world as an island of stability for Asia, Africa and the Middle East."
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China to benefit more from CPEC than Pakistan will: Report

The multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's 'Belt and Road Initiative', will benefit China more than Pakistan due to lack of Pakistani input in the project.

The lack of Pakistani input into the CPEC, which the government said would drive economic growth to a targeted 6 per cent this financial year, adds to concerns that its benefits might not be as widely distributed as initially thought, the South China Morning Post reported, adding that it runs the risk that Islamabad will be left paying interest on loans to Chinese banks way into the future.

According to the news report, Chinese banks are keenly waiting to get their share of the pie, holding more than $20 billion for potential financing, much of it has already been filled by the Chinese, with Pakistani lenders getting a little look in.

"As of now, around $6 billion to $7 billion worth of projects are likely going on. Out of that, 10 per cent, or around 50 billion rupees ($470 million), can be local financing," the South China Morning Post quoted Saad Hashemy, research director at Karachi brokerage Topline Securities, as saying.
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