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Beijing is seeking to steer the economy toward a
consumption-driven model and reduce its reliance on government
investment and export-led growth, but its attempts to arrest a
stock market slump this summer met with little success and have
raised doubts about its commitment to financial and economic
reforms.
"Consumption is not done by government. Consumption is done by
entrepreneurship and (a) market economy. So I think people like
us have a great opportunity. Now it's our turn. Not the
government's turn," Ma said in a videolinked talk at the
Stanford Business School in California.
"After 30 years, the government pushed the economy in their way,
and now it's our way. I consider this as an opportunity for a
real market economy."
He said that with infrastructure investment and exports slowing,
it was down to consumer spending to drive growth and that for
the e-commerce giant, which accounts for 12 percent of retail
spending in China, "consumption is still going up, healthily and
aggressively".
"Especially when the economy's bad, people start to buy online
because it's cheaper," he said.
Alibaba reported gross merchandise volume climbed 34 percent in
the three months through June to 673 billion yuan ($106
billion), though that was slowest growth in more than three
years. It has also trimmed its forecasts for the quarter to
end-September.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI and Paul Carsten in
BEIJING; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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