Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed who attended the Belt & Road Forum in Beijing has visited Alibaba headquarters and met the group's chairman Jack Ma. The East African nation is hoping to benefit from the BRI in a number of ways, one of which is technology. CGTN's GIRUM CHALA has more.

This visit to Alibaba headquarters here in China's Hangzhou city is both symbolic and inspiring for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his delegation.

This headquarters of the e-commerce giant Alibaba is where it leads its miraculous 1 trillion dollars yearly transactions.

GETAHUN MEKURIA ETHIOPIAN MINISTER OF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY "As we have heard Alibaba was a company with no transaction in 1999. Now after twenty years, the company holds more than 1 trillion dollars worth of transactions. A company that had no produce or commodity in 1999 now has 3.4 billion commercial products. On the day we have visited the headquarters alone, we have seen the introduction of 24 million items under it. Alibaba pays more than 10 million US dollars tax per day for this city of Hangzhou. That is more than 3.6 billion dollars per year. We also have heard it has created 40 million jobs too. That is amazing."

This is high-level visit was held following Prime minister Abiy Ahmed's meeting with Alibaba group founder and chairman Jack Ma earlier this year in Davos, Switzerland. And now on the margins of the second Belt and road forum, the two have met to share their dreams here in China. For Ethiopia, this will open doors to use technology create its youth jobs.

GETAHUN MEKURIA ETHIOPIAN MINISTER OF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY "So what we need is in line with the success story of Alibaba. We would like to create more jobs for our youth through the use of technology. We want to use technology to grow our country. We want to use technology to generate wealth. These all our are visions of our Prime minister even before. Our prime minister of a known person of technology. And he wants the miracles of technological advancement like that of Alibaba to be repeated in Ethiopia."

Jack Ma said he has been inspired by the reforms that Ethiopia has been undergoing, confirming that Ethiopia is now a key strategic partner.

He said he will visit Addis Ababa this year.

GIRUM CHALA BEIJING "The meeting between Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed who also served as minister of science and technology once before and that of the globally renowned Alibaba's Jack Ma is said to be part of the what is known as the digital belt and road initiative. China's president Xi Jinping time and again said connectivity through IT and innovation is key under the BRI."

GIRUM CHALA, CGTN, BEIJING.