Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, launched the China Gateway program on Thursday at the Alibaba Cloud APAC Summit with eight local partners.

"The program leverages the accumulated technological knowledge and experience of Alibaba Cloud to help local businesses capture and capitalize on growth opportunities in Asia and China," said a press release from Alibaba Cloud.

It added that through the local partners in Singapore, including the Info-communications Media Development Authority, Enterprise Singapore, DBS SME Banking and Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and around the Asia-Pacific region, Alibaba Cloud will provide firms of all sizes with an in-depth immersion program on doing business in China, connecting them to Chinese companies and consumers via the Alibaba ecosystem.

Chee Hong Tat, Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said at the summit in his speech that Alibaba Group had been a strong partner in Singapore's digital transformation journey, and beyond digital transformation, Alibaba Cloud's China Gateway program could also be a valuable channel for Singaporean small- and medium-sized enterprises to access China as they think about internationalization.

"With the support of our partners here, we are confident of supporting local businesses of all sizes and from all backgrounds to grow beyond Singapore, especially into China's market." said Yuan Qian, President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International, delivering a speech at the summit.

She told Xinhua that the China Gateway program is a global program launched in Singapore, and Alibaba's partners in China will also join in the program and help overseas enterprises enter the Chinese market.

She said Alibaba Cloud would like to share its cloud-related technologies and business practice experiences with the partners, and contribute more to the digital transformation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Also at the summit, Alibaba Cloud unveiled more than 10 new products and features that are available for the first time outside of China and can now be accessed by customers worldwide, including the PolarDB relational database, the Alibaba Log Service and the SaaS Accelerator.

Meanwhile, it launched an upgraded service support campaign designed for SMEs that enables SME customers to benefit from greater access to resources and support from Alibaba Cloud.