Alibaba Group's e-commerce training program Global Digital Talent (GDT), hosted its first hybrid event in three years last week, welcoming a delegation from Mexico to learn about digitalization in rural economies.

E-commerce is empowering rural Chinese residents to become entrepreneurs by selling local products online, turning these communities, including a pearl-harvesting village visited by Mexican officials, into hubs of innovation.

"It's mind-blowing. We saw people so hardworking and passionate about their businesses, and they use a lot of technologies," Miguel Cuevas, Strategic Projects and Innovation Chief at Ministry of Education of Guanajuato, Mexico, told Alizila in an interview.

Located in central Mexico, Guanajuato state is a center of industry with an economy rooted in mining and agriculture.

In recent years though, small handicraft operations and SMEs have become a growing source of employment with local candymakers and farmers trying their hand at selling over social media, according to Cuevas.

He hopes to glean insights on e-commerce and entrepreneurialism to apply back home.

"We want to encourage our universities to learn from [Chinese] companies and entrepreneurs. We want to take what China is doing [well] to Mexico," said the official, who led a delegation of nine Mexican e-commerce instructors to Hangzhou as part of the GDT conference.

Open to universities and learning institutions all over the world, GDT is a flagship training program under the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) initiative pioneered by Alibaba Group, which strives to create equitable access to cross-border trade opportunities for youth, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and women globally. It is also part of Alibaba’s talent incubation endeavor to promote inclusive development in the digital economy.

In the last five years, GDT's training programs have fostered 1,400 educators and tens of thousands of students worldwide, according to James Song, Secretary General of Alibaba's Globalization Office and Secretary General of eWTP.

Bridging Worlds

The Mexican arm of the GDT training program has built strong ties between local and Chinese business communities since launching educational courses on entrepreneurship three years ago.

To incubate digital talents while helping revitalize Mexico's rural economy, Alibaba and local partners established eight digital innovation hubs in six states with 400 instructors and 8,000 students.

But visiting one of Alibaba's Taobao Villages is a lesson in itself.

"Seeing with our own eyes and learning about the real impact of the economy here is really striking," said Cuevas. 

On a global level, around 10,000 local students will benefit from the GDT program's training of 400 college teachers in the coming year. 

"[We] hope to continue working closely with more aspirational partners to move the needle in grooming young talent for the flourishing digital economy worldwide," said Song in a statement.

The GDT program will resume offline training this year after suspending activities due to the pandemic.