our species depends on urgently
improving understanding of peoples across hemispheres- none more so than east-west; two thirds of humans live on the continent of asia with a few more per cent of the world's population living in what have emerged as the extraordinary productive hi-tech islands - japan, taiwan , hk, singapore. by the late 19th century all of the people on the asian continent had been colonised or had their trading systems blocked by western empires- primarly britain's. given this, we find it extraordinary valuable to study how 3 people from the orient travelled to the west and went on to change both hemispheres: gandhi
fazle abed

jack ma
below we look at how jack ma's first trip to the usa - seattle 1995 changed the world. he was then his city hangzhou's most popular english teacher- amazon's launch of ecommerce he returned to china to form a network with energetic youth and extraordinary investors including japan's hi tech billionnaire masa son and the silicon valley founder of yahoo jerry yang- how can ecommerce and efinance create the most jobs when china's web infrasucture arrives-?
Having become one of the world's biggest marketmakers, ma was tech city host of china's g20 2016 and at the un he was invited to become worldwide youth jobs adviser;in 2017 he announced that from 2019 september he would return full time to education- according to ma he couldnt see how to impact the 4 most vital social markets with commerce- this web tracks his progress as a return to full time education and his goal of celebrating how the sdg generation can change education , health, green markets, sports and arts markets

unlike ma, gandhi and abed travelled to britain in their teens - gandhi to study law in 1880s, abed to study engineering and shipping at glasgow uni of 1950s.--all three changed the livelihoods and sustainability of hundreds of millions of people in the race to end systemic poverty. unlike gandhi, graduate abed's 10 year spent ascending to become regional ceo of royal dutch shell gave him the perfect mix of engineering and admin experience to empower the poorest to nation build
AI foci of ali- I&V: QC; sec; ML; NLP; big data
https://www.jackmafoundation.org.cn/ welcome to digital silk road plus 6 youth Belt Road Maps ... Changing Education - the most exciting times to parent or grow up sustainably. Our old versions: EW , AU ...how can web maximise sme value and job creating education? -help welcomed in compiling top 100 alumni networks of alibabauni.com -UNited fintech & edutech & 17 goals-- notes on china's greatest educators ggv podcast limebike.. sinica -notes who's helping jos number 1 educator? Kenyann, Bangla girls Tsinghua, olympians-for-all, IR4-forhumans - rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk

official alibaba (also notable apps - eg missing children )
*taobao university up to 100 million alumni in China - received training on how to taobao; as of 2017 established 1311 taobao e-commerce villages
*Damo Academy 1 2 started with 15 billion dollar investment by jack ma's as intercity top notch research on humanising livelihood advantages of major components of Industrial Rev 4 such as AI, blockchain, internet of things .. related IR4 at world economic forum: san francisco hub; wef summer china summoit
*gateway17 ma's 3000 citizens and leaders one day masterclass in ecommerce
*ma's personal mentoring (aka efounders) of first 100 entrepreneur chorts chosen with unctad and developing nations that have asked jack ma to help
+Aliresearch 1 tsinghua alumni network of Ying Lowrey's SME curriculum aligned to AliBaba model
Podcast Ant Finance

*hong kong 100 million dollar youth entrepreneur fund: AI webs 1 2 : Jumpstarter competition.-see also hk youth entrepreneur curricula YFS & MIT -- taiwan ma entrepreneur fund
*alibaba entrepreneur fund
*poverty funds 1 :: blockchain research china poverty association 1 - alibaba 0.3 revenue to green foundation 1
Breaking news 1 from


jack ma- when i first studied (e)commerce in states i was surprised to find that each market was dominated by 2 or 3 manufacturers- i decided to design china ecommerce to maxise small enterprise suppliers and local jobs

.ying lowrey is tsinghua's professor of small enterprises- her book alibaba way is eyeopening:

foreword by nobel economist edmund phelps, columbia....Alibaba uses information technology to enable mass innovation to flourish.and to improve the lives of the people

related tsinghua - innovation events
lowrey beijing coorindtaor of aliresearch whose dean at hq is Hongbing Gao

Ai in education
around grade 5 - a
around12th grade - about 50 podcasts and notes here
10th grade ai history from circa 1996?
15th grade ai earlier 2018 Kai-Fu Lee hope was us would lead ai discovery, china implementation
15th grade china top50 ai
15th grade 14 billion dollar uniciorn ai in china - wef 2018 review- speakers Speakers: - Dai Wenyuan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 4th Paradigm Data & Technology Co., People's Republic of China. - Huang Dinglong, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Malong Technologies, People's Republic of China. - Wendell Wallach, Scholar, Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University, USA. - Wang Xiaoming, Director, Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Republic of China. - Yuan Hui, Chairman, Shanghai Xiaoi Robot Technology, People's Republic of China.
.partners of ma &
..
*jack ma chairs cen 1- 2 = china's 50 most respomnsible businessmen - search curricula funds etc - location close to tsingua beijng

example founder of shanghai conglomerate fosun actively celebrates CEN, and partners in one of Jack Ma's universities at hangzhou and supports new york greatest yoth-led arts movement singforhope.com

co-sponsor: wise@beijing: Zhejiang Zhipu Foundation Founded by the six founding members of Alibaba Group, Zhejiang Zhipu Foundation supports rural education and promotes healthy and sustainable relationship between human and the society, as well as between human and the nature.
Guterres UN Digital Cooperation Panel #DigitalCooperation
The Panel is expected to raise awareness about the transformative impact of digital technologies across society and the economy, and contribute to the broader public debate on how to ensure a safe and inclusive digital future for all, taking into account relevant human rights norms.

Panel Members

Co-chairs

Panel members

  • Mohammed Al Gergawi (UAE), Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, UAE
  • Yuichiro Anzai (Japan), Senior Advisor and Director of Center for Science Information Analysis, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
  • Nikolai Astrup (Norway), Minister of International Development, Norway
  • Vinton Cerf (USA), Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
  • Fadi Chehadé (USA), Partner at ABRY Partners
  • Isabel Guerrero Pulgar (Chile), Director, IMAGO Global Grassroots and Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), Chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace
  • Bogolo Kenewendo (Botswana), Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Botswana
  • Akaliza Keza Ntwari (Rwanda), ICT advocate and entrepreneur
  • Marina Kolesnik (Russian Federation), senior executive, entrepreneur and WEF Young Global Leader
  • Doris Leuthard (Switzerland), Head of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, Switzerland
  • Cathy Mulligan (United Kingdom), Co-Director of Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency
  • Edson Prestes (Brazil), Professor, Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
  • Kira Radinsky (Israel), Director of Data Science, eBay
  • Nanjira Sambuli (Kenya), Digital Equality Advocacy Manager, World Wide Web Foundation
  • Sophie Soowon Eom (Republic of Korea), Founder of Adriel AI and Solidware
  • Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah (Australia), Secretary General, CIVICUS
  • Jean Tirole (France), Chairman of the Toulouse School of Economics and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
The deliberations of the Panel will be supported by a small secretariat, co-led by:
  • Amandeep Singh Gill (India), Executive Director, Secretariat of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation (ex officio)
  • Jovan Kurbalija, (Serbia), Executive Director, Secretariat of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation (ex officio)
..
.
  • Patrick Bolton, Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
  • Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, Princeton University
  • Bengt Holmstrom, 2016 Nobel Laureate, Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics, MIT
  • Lars Peter Hansen, 2013 Nobel Laureate, David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, Statistics, Booth School of Business & The College, University of Chicago
  • Preston McAfee, Most Recently Served as Chief Economist and Corp VP at Microsoft
  • Christopher Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Laureate, Regius Professor of Economics, LSE
  • Yingyi Qian, Distinguished Professor and Dean of School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University
  • Alvin Roth, 2012 Nobel Laureate, The Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics, Stanford University
  • Thomas Sargent, 2011 Nobel Laureate, W.R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business, New York University
  • Michael Spence, 2001 Nobel Laureate, William R. Berkley Professor in Economics & Business, NYU Stern
  • Steve Tadelis, Professor of Economics, Business and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
  • Neng Wang, Chong Khoon Lin Professor of Real Estate & Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School
  • Shangjin Wei, Professor of Finance and Economics, Professor of International Affairs, and N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy, Columbia University
  • Wei Xiong, Trumbull-Adams Professor of Finance, Princeton University
  • Chenggang Xu, Quoin Professor in Economic Development, University of Hong Kong, Professor of Economics, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
..
the wicked problem of missing curricula youth most need- as jack says this is a huge problem; correspondenmce case posted may 2018: moreover we have atended many world bank youth summits where missing curricula have been pitched and everyone cheered the value but getiing each different nation to newly cetrtify suc new learning is a fools erand
-here part of a specific example- do you know a missing peer to peer curricula that needs similar linking in

I am staying at brac in bangaldesh my favorite girls education network in the world as well as largest ngo in wortld and partnership networkwe will see dean of james grant school of public health at brac university tomorrow- do you still have any message you wanted passed to brac about the peer to peer adolescent health program you and lancet have been building? we are mainly working with brac's overall education director as specified directly by sir fazle abed when i met him in qatar 2017 - sir fazle kindly gave a lot of his time to remembrance parties of my dad norman macrae at the japan embassy in dhaka in 2012more generally brac and jack ma started fin tech partnership earlier this month with brac's BkashSMS in bangladesh but for s asia (the whole 2 billion of china's neigbors particularly poorest girls on china south and south westren borders), for sustainabiliuty generation to scale and gain from these 2 superstars we believe partnering relations will broaden into looking at skills education ; we will be trying to form team both on bangladesh and china side to monitor this however fast or slow it goesmostofa has been working on bangladesh side for very long time- he also worked with modjtabia sadria then at aga khan in london while they were in london at time muhammad yunus was at his social business peak ; i believe modjtabia is now back in iran after some years with paul at monash? ( i didnt get to pauls grn summit in jordan 2006; i believe sadria did; i note that jack ma just made donation to queen of jordans education fund)

we are trying to invite any university student to form a club to see where is the nexus between what students most want to study practically and training that sir fazle and jack ma could mooc or otherwise maximally distribute to benefit livelihoods- togther the names of jack ma and sir fazle can be a top 100 web and top 1 web for open action learning- in branding terms this is easy as long as we quickly get all best friends of ma and abed signed up at one launch summit blessed by china and on the road to ma's sponsorship of huge expo at tokyo olympics

after 8 visits to beijing i am reasonably confident that we can get as much additional support as we want from tsinghua university in beijing (over there they know thgere are half a billion undre 30s and that china cant afford any youth left legless by mismatch between jobs and what colleges like examining-- ) additionally tsinghua with aiib is heavily into belt road pitches to india this year so education can be 2 for 1 so to speak
as long as both jack ma and sir fazle have approved a subject area as being one that needs development in this type 2 pee to peer or apprentice mode i believe we can help scale missing curricula

as you think you know i first met pauil komesdroff in 2004- i love everything he was trying to create volunteer expereinces abroad around monash and medics and cultural/arts translators;I hope we can find the right way to linkin monash as this idea gains momentum
coming soon at wechatuni : difficult questions like what happens when ai or robotic intelligence is inside your phone?
- world's largest market fund Yu'e Bao Sesame Credit score

Friday, August 31, 2018

Everything You Need to Know About Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang

Wired UK takes an in-depth look at Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang's string of successes, as well as the path he may take and the challenges he faces as the group's future executive chairman.

Meet the Next Generation of Alibaba's Leaders

The South China Morning Post looks at the group of Alibaba executives born post-1970 who will take the company to the next level in its quest to do business for at least 102 years. Also, the paper earlier delved into the 36-member partnership that is the foundation of Alibaba's decision-making process.

How Jack Ma Became the Role Model for China's Startup Generation

The success of Jack Ma and Alibaba have made startups an acceptable career choice, turning China into one of the biggest technology markets in the world. Read the Bloomberg story.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Alizila News From Alibaba Group
E-Commerce News & Commentary from the Alibaba Group

WHAT IS THE TAOBAO
MAKER FESTIVAL? ALIBABA’S CMO EXPLAINS

The Taobao Maker Festival, one of the most-watched events Alibaba holds each year, spotlights the ingenuity and originality of young Chinese inventors, designers and product makers. This year, the four-day celebration (Sept. 13-16) is set to break its own record. 
Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung is the head architect of the jamboree, kindling entrepreneurs’ imagination and drawing global interest. Alizila spoke with Tung about the purpose of the festival, its ballooning appeal for Chinese consumers and innovators, the must-sees of this year’s event and why the world should pay close attention to it.
READ & WATCH MORE
Check Out More From Alizila
All Stories
- world's largest market fund Yu'e Bao Sesame Credit score

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

HELLO NOT SURE WHICH CASES WE WILL BE ABLE TO CLARIFY WITH JACK MA'S ACADEMIC RESEARCHER DURING OUR 5 DAY DIALOGUE IN BANGLADESH BUT PLEASE ASK MOSTIOFA IF YOU WANT HIM TO TRY TO  CONNECT SOMEONE FROM THIS ALIBABA PROGRAM WITH YOUR PROGRAMS

‘THE LAST MILE’ OFFERS SAN QUENTIN INMATES ROAD TO NEW START

JENNY W. HSU | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

FOR PETER STERN, WORK IS ALL ABOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT. AT ALIBABA GROUP’S SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE, HE SPENDS HIS DAYS COMBING THROUGH POTENTIAL ACQUISITIONS TO MAKE SURE THE COMPANY GETS THE BIGGEST BANG FOR ITS BUCK. BUT OUTSIDE THE OFFICE, WHERE HE TEACHES INMATES AT SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON ABOUT E-COMMERCE, HE’S AIMING FOR A RETURN RATE OF EXACTLY ZERO.

Zero because that’s the rate of recidivism he hopes he continues to see among his students. And the work he does with The Last Mile, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that teaches computer skills to prisoners at San Quentin State Prison, has helped to deliver that return consistently.
The Last Mile
last mile
Chris Redlitz speaks at this year’s Demo Day in which The Last Mile students presented their business plans to a panel of Silicon Valley investors.
Established in 2011, The Last Mile was founded by two Silicon Valley veterans, Chris Redlitz and his wife Beverly Parenti, who are prominent venture capitalists and philanthropists in the Bay Area. They started a business-accelerator lab at San Quentin after Redlitz’s first visit to the facility in 2010, when he was invited to talk about entrepreneurship. The caliber and passion of his audience took him by surprise, he says.
“These were smart and knowledgeable men who were asking really smart questions. There was no question whatsoever that they wanted to turn their lives around,” said Redlitz, who still gets red-eyed and emotional when recalling the visit, which he described as “life changing.”
Parenti said the more they learned about the plight of the U.S. prison population, the more their desire to help. “Somethings got to be done,” she said.
America Behind Bars
With 327 million people, the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world’s population. But the country houses 20% of the world’s prisoners, according to a 2015 report by Institute for Criminal Policy Research.
Keeping people in prison is a costly burden on American taxpayers. The Federal Bureau of Prison under the Department of Justice reports that the annual cost of incarceration per federal inmate is $32,309. For some states, the cost is even higher.
In California, the state government spends approximately $71,000 on each prisoner per year. That’s higher than the annual average cost of living for a single person in San Francisco ($69,072) the most expensive city in which to live in the U.S. It is also 38% higher than the yearly average cost to live as a single person in New York City ($51,323).
Trapped in a Vicious Cycle
Redlitz won’t make excuses for his students. They are living the consequences of the crimes they committed. But he stresses that a crime shouldn’t define a person for the rest of his life, not when many repeat offenders “have no other way to take care of themselves or their families,” he said.
The most recent report by Prison Policy Initiative puts the unemployment rate among former prisoners at about 27%, higher than the U.S. unemployment rate during the Great Depression. According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report released in May, 68% of released state prisoners were arrested within three years, 79% within six years and 83% within nine years.
“So why not teach them a skill so that they can do something good with it? It takes them off the streets, and they can contribute to the society,” Parenti said.
By reducing the rate of recidivism, the money that would have otherwise been spent on housing prisoners could go toward education and programs that help people stay out of prison, she added.
With Redlitz and Parenti lending their voices to the issue, The Last Mile has attracted a number of other Silicon Valley names as well, such as those from Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Facebook, celebrities such as MC Hammer and a handful of local volunteers such as Stern to lend a helping hand. That includes giving donations, serving as guest lecturers and what the nonprofit wants most: giving the program’s graduates a chance to try out their new skills on the outside.
Code for Life
last mile
Chris Schuhmacher (standing in the middle) offers his insights to students currently enrolled in the Code 7370 program.
The Last Mile’s signature program is Code 7370, which teaches prisoners about coding languages, such as HTML, Javascript, SCC and Python, as well as data visualization and user-interface, web and logo design. The program is a collaboration among The Last Mile, the California Prison Industry Authority and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
For Chris Schuhmacher, the program was the lifeline he never dreamed possible, especially when he was dealing marijuana and getting high on the streets of Los Angeles more than two decades ago. One day, in a heated altercation, Schuhmacher killed a man. The judge handed him a life sentence.
“Prison was hard, but it was the wake-up call that I needed,” he said.
Inside his windowless cell, day after day, month after month, he was forced to face his demons and figure out a way to undo the damage he’d done, including hurting his mother and sister, who never gave up on him. His decided that he may not be able to change his past, but he could build a new future.
By enrolling in the The Last Mile and putting in thousands of hours of hard work, grinding away on the computer and devouring one coding book after another, Schuhmacher was able to discover a new talent for programming, math and building algorithms, which ultimately led to him to build his own app.
Called “Fitness Monkey,” the app was designed to help people kick addiction through physical exercise. It won him accolades and financial backing from real investors. Moreover, it paved the way for his current job as a software engineer at Fandom, a San Francisco-based content-creation company.
Thanks to early parole, Schuhmacher is one of many dozens of The Last Mile graduates to find a job after serving their time. For him, it was 16 years.
last mile
Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal, a graduate of The Last Mile, shared his life-changing journey with TLM students at this year’s Demo Day at the San Quentin State Prison.
Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal was a high school dropout who served 19 years of a life sentence, which came as a result of California’s three-strikes rule. But now he works at shared-workspace provider Rocketspace. He started doing “campus service,” which meant scraping gum off the floor. His hardworking attitude was recognized and eventually he was promoted to business-development manager. His current job: the reentry manager at The Last Mile, which helps ex-convicts adjust to life on the outside after time in prison.
Another success story is Anouthinh Pangthong or Choy, as he likes to be called. The Laotian refugee, who spent 22 years in San Quentin for murder, said learning how to build and design a website has taught him about actions and consequences. Each part of the website-building process will impact what comes next, he said, so it forced him to think a few steps ahead.
“I was so impulsive and reactionary before. So hot headed,” he said. “But now, I learned to dissect my actions and process each of my life’s choices.”
Currently, Choy works as an Outreach Associate for Re:store Justice, an NGO that promotes prison reform, and as a hip-hop choreographer.
Re-Programming the Mind and Heart
the last mile
Peter Stern speaks to a participant of The Last Mile during one of his volunteer sessions.
The skills that Stern and his fellow lecturers teach are giving the marathoners in the The Last Mile program a pair of high-performance running shoes. Plus, there’s an aspect of cheerleading to the work, too.
“I teach about Alibaba, e-commerce and China. But maybe more important than classwork is demonstrating belief and sincerity to instill confidence,” Stern said.
Parenti said when Stern speaks to the inmates, whether in a group or one-on-one, “he is not just telling what they can do better. He is talking to them about owning who they are and being proud of their accomplishments.”
The Last Mile students are not stereotypical prisoners, Stern said. They may have made terrible mistakes, but they have taken responsibility and now show a “powerful determination to make amends.”
Shared Values
The Last Mile’s belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed is also a conviction deeply rooted in Alibaba, an internet and e-commerce giant known for being the champion of small businesses in China. The company’s culture emphasizes standing with “the little guys,” Stern said. And Alibaba employees are required to donate time each year to a social cause of their choice.
Similar to The Last Mile, Alibaba’s education arm, Taobao University, also holds regular courses at the Qiao Si Prison in Hangzhou, where the company is headquartered. The classes teach inmates about e-commerce and how to run an online business after they have served their time.
A representative from the prison said that for many ex-convicts in China, even though they were able to gain a job skill during their incarceration, still have a hard time finding employment because of their prior record. That leads many of them to e-commerce as an ideal way to get a fresh start.
“There are many shared values between The Last Mile and Alibaba. [Alibaba Group founder] Jack Ma frequently says that Alibaba stands for the underdogs. The Last Mile students are the ultimate underdogs,” said Stern.
Giving Back and Looking Forward
the last mile
Rapper MC Hammer congratulates a Code 7370 graduate.
For many of The Last Mile’s graduates, the program has opened doors that were once closed to them because they came from communities that didn’t inspire a future in the tech world.
“Growing up, many of [the inmates] didn’t have any professionals to look up to. There were no doctors or lawyers or computer programmers,” Parenti said. “All the ones with cars and the bling were the guys on the streets dealing drugs. They were the people others aspired to be.”
To break that cycle, many alumni have gone back to their old neighborhoods to be the positive role model that they didn’t have when they were growing up.
“These graduates are in a unique position because they can go back to the neighborhood as successful people and impact others,” said Redlitz.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

East Meets West at New York Fashion Week's 'Tmall China Day'
Thanks to Alibaba, three Chinese designer labels made their runway debut at New York Fashion Week: The Shows. Alizila digs deeper with this story on the brands and the event.

Monday, August 13, 2018

update founding members of LUOHAN

he Luohan Academy’s current academic committee members include Nobel Prize laureates and prominent scholars around the world:
  • Patrick Bolton, Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
  • Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, Princeton University
  • Bengt Holmstrom, 2016 Nobel Laureate, Paul A. Samuelson Professor of Economics, MIT
  • Lars Peter Hansen, 2013 Nobel Laureate, David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, Statistics, Booth School of Business & The College, University of Chicago
  • Preston McAfee, Most Recently Served as Chief Economist and Corp VP at Microsoft
  • Christopher Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Laureate, Regius Professor of Economics, LSE
  • Yingyi Qian, Distinguished Professor and Dean of School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University
  • Alvin Roth, 2012 Nobel Laureate, The Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics, Stanford University
  • Thomas Sargent, 2011 Nobel Laureate, W.R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business, New York University
  • Michael Spence, 2001 Nobel Laureate, William R. Berkley Professor in Economics & Business, NYU Stern
  • Steve Tadelis, Professor of Economics, Business and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
  • Neng Wang, Chong Khoon Lin Professor of Real Estate & Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School
  • Shangjin Wei, Professor of Finance and Economics, Professor of International Affairs, and N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy, Columbia University
  • Wei Xiong, Trumbull-Adams Professor of Finance, Princeton University
  • Chenggang Xu, Quoin Professor in Economic Development, University of Hong Kong, Professor of Economics, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

dear friiends at BRAC you may want to wechat/whatsapp with ying about this- for example are they interested in sharing the 300 trillion dollar sdg challenge that ,mark introduced concurrently with head of un general assembly and to brac/ with bangladesh a potential lead solution  sdg zone - can this news be circulated to various parts of brac including brac uni and bkash

For me the fact that ying lowrey currently is both in with aliresearch team at alibaba in hangzhou and with relevant people and brilliant  youth learners movements out of tsinghua is unique opportunity to ask her questions as well as to build knowledge exchanges; in fact as her first book was foreworded by the only us nobel economics laureate of sme value chains (phelps at columbia) i have to assume he helped connect this new academy; this come 2 weeks after Guterres asked jack and melinda gates to lead a team updating all tech practice possibilities by march 2019 ahead of beijing biggest yet summit on new development banking and trading partnerships across world's geographical corridors (where the sino-bangladesh-s asia corridor remains where over 3 billion people's sustainability needs to be mapped)

thanks chris




Patrick Bolton, Barbara and David Zalaznick professor of business, Columbia Business School, Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford professor of economics, Princeton University, Bengt Holmstrom, 2016 Nobel Laureate, among others.


During the first conference held in Hangzhou this week, the committee of the Luohan Academy convened and signed the mission statement. The Louhan Academy aims to get societies well-prepared for the unprecedented structural transformation brought by advanced technologies, such big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics. It will study the coming digital revolution to benefit societies and individuals both domestically and internationally.

As a member of the academic committee of Luohan Academy, Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, Princeton University commented, "I think we live through a big watershed moment, we see big technological changes happening. We have to think about how our society will deal with these changes and find different ways to regulate the economy. We need to think carefully about how to use insights from tech and social sciences in order to achieve better outcome for humanity. We should not say no to new opportunities simply because they come with challenges."


Alibaba Group this week formed the Luohan Academy, a global research program that aims to address the emerging economic consequences and social disruptions of a digital economy.
“Luohan” is a Buddhist term for “perfected beings,” or “those who have achieved nirvana.” In the Chinese language, it is often used to describe “those with extraordinary skills and talent.”
True to its moniker, the academy has attracted a lineup of 15 of the world’s leading thinkers and researchers. They include six Nobel Laureates, as well as renowned economists, social scientists, tech pioneers and professors from prestigious higher learning institutes, such as Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and China’s Tsinghua University.
At the academy’s launch event, Alibaba Executive Chairman and founder Jack Ma said Alibaba has the “responsibility to use our resources, technology, people and everything we have to help the world embrace the change and solve the challenges.”
“If we don’t pay attention to the technology revolution, it will cause a social revolution, especially that this technology is coming in a such huge wave that is changing every aspect of human lives,” he said to the researchers at a private meeting held at Alibaba’s global headquarters in Hangzhou.
Ma, an English teacher turned entrepreneur, has maintained a lifelong passion for education, innovation, problem solving and working with individuals who share the same passion. In fact, the 18 original partners who created Alibaba with Ma nearly 19 years ago are known as the 18 luohans.
WATCH: Jack Ma speaks with Luohan Academy researchers  
净版马云罗汉堂

The launch of the Academy follows the establishment of another global research program—the DAMO Academy—in October last year.  While DAMO focuses on the developing the most cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, robotics, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to fulfill Alibaba’s commitment to serve two billion customers and create 100 million jobs in 20 years, Luohan’s purpose is to study the implications of such technology advancement and “build an inclusive community for systemic and in-depth research,” the company said.
The academy also seeks to discuss questions such as how societies can harness the power of technology while ensuring a fair distribution of power, what the future of work and leisure are, what the appropriate regulations and politics to foster fair competition without impeding innovation are and how digital technology can contribute to a greener planet.
“We are living through a big watershed moment. We see big technological changes happening. We have to think about how our society will deal with these changes…how to use insights from tech and social science in order to achieve better outcome for humanity,” said Markus Brunnermeier, an economics professor at Princeton University.
The academy, headed by former head of strategy at Alibaba’s fintech arm, Ant Financial, Dr. Chen Long, will hold regular meetings and recruit additional researchers with different backgrounds to expand the academy’s scope.
During a two-day workshop, the academy’s committee discussed the potential negative impacts that digital technology has on the economy, job replacements, platform governance, the future financial infrastructure, as well as hot topics, such as privacy protection and how to keep the use of data in check. The Academy will produce an annual white paper to present its findings.
“New technologies are revolutionizing economic growth. New platforms keep emerging with innovative operating models. This completely overhauls our understanding on corporations,” said Wei Xiong, a professor of finance at Princeton University.
“As many platform companies are cross-industry, which is a challenge for regulations and laws to keep up, this makes it a long-standing issue in the future,” he added.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

eFounders links

efounders by belt road  br9 africa  ::: br1.2 asean  :: br1 south of china br6 and 10 americas

Introduction

When Jack Ma visited Africa in 2017, he saw a continent facing many of the same challenges that Alibaba had managed to overcome in the last 15 years in China. eCommerce operations flanked by payments, logistics, tourism and big data platforms are starting to take shape and create value in unique markets across Africa and the rest of the developing world.
As a Special Advisor to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Jack recognized that by applying ideas from China’s most innovative businesses to their own ventures, participants will have the opportunity to innovate in their home countries. With this opportunity in mind, the eFounders Fellowship was created to find and empower 1000 platform builders who can leverage Alibaba’s experience in China.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018



Thirty-seven e-commerce entrepreneurs from Asia have enrolled on UNCTAD and Alibaba Business School's eFounders Initiative at the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, China.
The 11-day course is part of a commitment by Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group and UNCTAD special adviser, to empower 1,000 e-commerce entrepreneurs from developing countries in five years.
The launch of the first programme for Asian entrepreneurs comes after the success of the inaugural class for 24 African participants last November.
Following a rigorous selection process, the final candidates from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam will study e-commerce innovations from China and around the world, and become eFounders Fellows.
The aim is that these young entrepreneurs will become catalysts in their home countries for the digital transformation of their economies.
Smart partnerships
"We want to reach out to youth and include them in the work we do for inclusive and sustainable economic growth," Arlette Verploegh, Coordinator for the eFounders Initiative at UNCTAD, said.
"The initiative is about bridging the digital divide for young entrepreneurs and unlock their potential. It is part of a set of smart partnerships UNCTAD is creating to reach the Sustainable Development Goals."
All the participants are founders of start-up companies in e-commerce, big data, logistics, financial technology, payment solutions and tourism.
"We are excited to extend this fellowship to entrepreneurs from Asia for the very first time as part of our commitment to empower digital champions and communities around the world," said Brian A. Wong, Vice President of Alibaba Group, who heads the Global Initiatives programme.
Alibabba eFounders
"Our goal is to inspire entrepreneurs to serve as pioneers for building a more inclusive development model that is not just good for their business, but also good for society by creating platforms that all can participate in and benefit from."
Under the auspices of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the initiative is aligned with the wider call to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital economy, and to help bridge the digital divide faced by businesses in emerging markets.
Jointly organized by UNCTAD and Alibaba Business School, the eFounders Initiative also supports Alibaba's mission to help small businesses succeed in their home markets and beyond. It was first announced in 2017 by Jack Ma in his capacity as the UNCTAD Special Adviser for Young Entrepreneurs and Small Business when he, together with Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, visited Africa.
E-commerce ecosystems
The participants in the eFounders Initiative will learn first-hand the transformative impact e-commerce and technology has had on society in China and participate in lectures and discussions with local practitioners and executives to identify the lessons that can be applied to their own markets.
Topics covered will include e-commerce, payment, logistics, big data and tourism from Alibaba Group and other successful companies in the e-commerce value chain, with sessions touching on digital finance, smart logistics and rural e-commerce development, among others.
Upon graduation, participants will officially become Fellows of the eFounders Initiative and make formal commitments on how they will apply what they learn from the programme.
As part of the wider eFounders Initiative community of promising young entrepreneurs around the world, UNCTAD and Alibaba Group will also continue to advise on and provide support for the creation of e-commerce ecosystems jointly with other stakeholders.
The first class of eFounders Fellows - 24 entrepreneurs from Africa - completed the programme in November 2017 after a similar two-week intensive workshop in Hangzhou.
To continue the impact of the initiative, UNCTAD and Alibaba have already completed a full round of follow-up meetings with the fellows, each of whom are actively applying what they have learned to their own enterprises, as well as sharing insights with their home communities. Fellows are working toward achieving their commitments and will continue to check in with UNCTAD and Alibaba every three months.