CHENGDU, Feb. 27 (NBD) -- The signing ceremony for strategic cooperation between Southwest China's Sichuan Province and e-commerce giants Alibaba Group, Ant Financial was held Sunday in its capital city Chengdu. 

Sichuan Province will join hands with Alibaba and Ant Financial for comprehensive and in-depth cooperation, in areas covering cloud computing, big data, e-commerce, logistic network, tourism promotion and credit development.

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, expressed at the ceremony that major investments are planned in Sichuan for the next three years. Alibaba has, after strenuous exploration in Sichuan Province especially over past three years, built up the businss foundation and collected talents in the area.

Alibaba and Ant Financial have, by the end of 2016, spent up to 3.158 billion yuan (459 million US dollars) for establishment of five subsidiaries and three branches of over 1,000 employees in Sichuan.

Email: zengyunheng@nbd.com.cn