The Alibaba Corporation has announced that the Ali Institute, its related training organization, will invest 50 million yuan to build the first "talent bank for small businesses" in China in 2010, to ameliorate the lack of talent in the e-commerce industry and promote the employment of university graduates.

On September 10, 2004, the Alibaba Corporation announced the establishment of Ali Institute at its fifth anniversary celebration. Considering the shortage of e-business talents, it aims to train professionals in that field timely and rapidly, meeting the demand of small businesses.

Deng Kangming, vice president of the Alibaba Corporation and general manager of the Ali Institute, said that as the business civilization develops, e-business talents were urgently demanded. And they need to achieve a certain amount in terms of talents reserve within a short period, so they planned to train nearly 50,000 e-business talents in two years.

Alibaba has carried out a new way of paying training fees, which is "Employment before Paying." After an investment of 50 million, every student will receive a subsidy of 1,000 yuan, which means they only cost 480 yuan, while all other fees are paid by the Ali Institute and other enterprises.

By Li Cheng & Luo Jiao