Trusting suppliers and products is paramount when conducting trade electronically. With the intention of bolstering trust in international trade on the Internet, the World Chambers Network (WCN), the official web portal for chambers of commerce, and Alibaba.com, the global leader in B2B e-commerce, signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on a range of activities and projects at the 6th World Chambers Congress in Kuala Lumpur. The agreement stands to strengthen the long-term collaboration between WCN – a partnership between the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Chambers Federation and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris –  and Alibaba.com.
“WCN’s intensified cooperation with Alibaba.com plays testimony to the growing importance of the Internet for the chamber community and small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Georges Fischer, Chair of the World Chambers Network. “Our confirmed commitment will promote international electronic trade by contributing to a trustworthy source of information for traders and provide more exposure for our two organizations in the global marketplace.”
“Trust is the number one issue in B2B e-commerce,” said Maggie Choo, Director of Alibaba.com in the EMEA region. “We work hard every day to provide a safe environment for our buyers and suppliers so they can trade online with confidence and we look forward to collaborating with WCN in this ongoing effort. We are delighted to open Alibaba.com’s community to WCN members and make global trade easier for even more SMEs.”
Alibaba.com and WCN consider stringent authentication and verification processes essential to providing a safe trading environment for members as well as a way to improve the credibility of the Internet as a tool for doing business. 
As part of the increased cooperation WCN and Alibaba.com are also working towards using WCN’s ChamberTrust as an additional validation tool on Alibaba.com.  ChamberTrust is a standardized chamber of commerce and industry international registry of locally verified companies which helps establish trust for SMEs as they enter the global electronic marketplace and overcome issues they face such as lack of exposure.About WCN
A partnership between the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the World Chambers Federation (WCF) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris, WCN helps to foster an open and comprehensive exchange of business information. The WCN web portal links over 14,000 registered chambers of commerce and industry, ultimately representing over 40 million member businesses worldwide and promotes Chamber trust tools for e-international trade.

About Alibaba.com
Alibaba.com (HKSE: 1688) (HK.1688) is the global leader in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and the flagship company of Alibaba Group. Founded in 1999, Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers around the world to do business online through three marketplaces: a global trade marketplace ( www.alibaba.com ) for importers and exporters, a Chinese marketplace ( www.alibaba.com.cn ) for domestic trade in China, and, through an associated company, a Japanese marketplace ( www.alibaba.co.jp ) facilitating trade to and from Japan. Together, its marketplaces form a community of more than 40 million registered users from 240 countries and regions. Headquartered in Hangzhou, Alibaba.com has offices in more than 40 cities across Greater China as well as in Europe and the United States.

For further information please contact:

Alibaba.com
Christina Splinder
Email: csplinder@alibaba-inc.com
Tel: +852 2215-5130  

WCF
Anthony Parkes
Email: anthony.parkes@iccwbo.org
Tel   : +33 (0)1 49 53 2967