Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on June 18 opened a national office in Malaysia in an extension of the Chinese e-commerce giant's operations in the Southeast Asian country.

The new office in Kuala Lumpur will be a one-stop center that supports Malaysian businesses, with functions aimed at facilitating engagement with local partners, helping local businesses identify cross-border trade opportunities, and using cloud computing services in support of technological innovation. Services will include training programs for Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises on digital innovations and trade.

Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma said at the opening event: "Alibaba's focus is on three areas when we partner with Malaysia as well as other countries — to digitize our local partners, and empower small businesses and young people to go global."

The company previously launched an electronic trading hub in Malaysia, its first outside China, in November 2017 to help local SMEs conduct cross-border trade. The hub was established under the Electronic World Trade Platform initiative proposed in 2016.

Alibaba has also established an e-commerce logistics hub in the country in addition to an internet data center for its Alibaba Cloud unit.

To accompany the opening of the new office, Alibaba is holding a Malaysia Week online sales promotion for local products across its e-commerce platforms from July 6 to 12.