Alibaba taps intothe new Silk Road

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is strengthening its position along the Silk Road Economic Belt. It has signed agreements with Gansu province, Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to develop e-commerce, cloud computing and big data in China's western region.

"From here we see an opportunity, an opportunity to sell produce from Xinjiang to the entire country and the world," said Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, at Xinjiang E-commerce Forum. "Cross-border trade will be our next priority."