Shanghai, China - 22 July 2003 At 3pm on 22 July 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair braved the 38 degree temperatures to attend a meeting at the Westin Hotel, Shanghai; "Chinamoney EntrepreneursSummit. China and UK: looking to the Future.” After a twenty minute address, Blair took time to talk individually with a number of local business figures, including Alibaba CEO Jack Ma.


Blair delivers a speech at the "Chinamoney Entrepreneurs Summit China and UK: looking to the Future" meeting in Shanghai July 22, 2003.


In their discussion, Ma told Blair that Alibaba has a representative office in London, and stated his hope to do more business with UK, and increase dialogue on ecommerce.

The British Prime Minister congratulated Ma on Alibaba’s achievements, and said that Alibaba was a well known name in the UK. He expressed appreciation for Alibaba’s plan to expand British operations in the near future, and pledged full support


Alibaba has strong relations with the UK. `In May 2003, CTO John Wu was an invited speaker at the China Britain Business Council’s “China: Looking to the Future” conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Hall in London.