Ant Group forges strategic cooperation with eastern China’s Hangzhou, signalling fintech giant’s positive outlook

Ant Group and the municipal government of Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, have entered into a wide-ranging collaboration that is expected to speed up the city’s digital transformation, as the financial technology affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding draws closer to completing its lengthy restructuring process.

While speculation swirls on the potential amount of the fine that Beijing could impose on Ant Group after its two-year “business rectification”, the fintech giant asserted its positive outlook at Tuesday’s signing of an agreement with Hangzhou for a “comprehensively deepening strategic cooperation”.

Ant Group chairman and chief executive Eric Jing Xiandong said at the signing ceremony that the company “is now standing at a new starting point”, according to a joint statement released by the company and the Hangzhou municipal government.

The company will invest in artificial intelligence, blockchain and database technologies in Hangzhou under the pact, Jing said. In addition, the firm expects to help develop the city into China’s prime showcase in terms of digital economy, technology innovation and talent, and the universal benefits delivered by broad tech application.

The Communist Party secretary of Hangzhou, Liu Jie, credited the two sides’ symbiotic relationship at the ceremony, pointing out that Ant Group has grown big because of the city and that the city has “become glorious” because of the company, according to the joint statement.