Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen recently attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou, which is aimed at increasing Danish exports to China and promoting Denmark as a tourist destination for Chinese travelers.
According to Street Insider, the new Denmark Pavilion was also unveiled on Alibaba's TMall Global imported marketplace during the event.
The new pavilion will enable Danish products to reach more than 440 million users of Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, as well as introduce Chinese consumers to unique products from Denmark.
TMall's country pavilions were designed to help TMall Global customers to learn other culture and products from countries around the world.
The pavilion was launched together with 20 brands that sell Danish products in the home, food, fashion and lifestyle sectors. Major brands also held live-streaming sessions on the TMall mobile app to present their products to Chinese consumers. Some of the leading Danish brands that joined the event included Jacob Jensen Design, Bang & Olufsen, ONLY, ECCO and Vero Moda.
Alibaba and the Danish Government also pledged to increase cooperation against counterfeit goods and protect intellectual property.
Travel destination for Chinese tourists
Aside from providing access to Danish products, an official Danish Pavilion was established on Fliggy, Alibaba's travel booking platform, which promotes Denmark as a travel destination for Chinese tourists with travel information from the Danish Embassy, Danish Consulate and Visit Denmark as Fliggy's second Nordic European tourism board strategic partner.
Denmark will also create an official visa information platform on Fliggy, becoming the first country to participate in Fliggy's visa innovation program.
In addition, Fliggy and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) signed a strategic cooperation, with a new SAS flagship store in Fliggy, bringing the total number of airline flagstores on Fliggy to more than 20.
Both Tsai and Minister Samuelsen underscored the importance of collaboration between Alibaba and the Danish government, which is expected to expand China-Denmark trade.
"I am pleased to formalize our efforts with Denmark and open the Denmark Pavilions on Tmall Global and Fliggy, allowing Alibaba to serve Danish businesses of all sizes with direct access to the growing Chinese middle-class market," Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group executive vice-chairman, said.
"Danish design, art and lifestyle are admired all over the world for their sophistication and minimalism, and there is no doubt that Danish products will become even more popular amongst Chinese customers, enticing an ever-growing number of them to want to travel to the country themselves," Tsai added.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said: "China is a very promising, but also a challenging market for many Danish companies. Chinese consumers have often limited knowledge of Danish products and with the opening of an official Danish pavilion on China's leading e-commerce market place Tmall Global, we hope to draw attention to Danish products and brands."
"More and more retail is happening online and more in China than anywhere else--it is, therefore, important that the Danish Foreign Ministry can support Danish companies' success in this particular area. I believe the establishment of an Official Danish Pavilion on Tmall Global is an important step in that direction," the minister said.