HONG KONG: The chairman and CEO of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group praised Chinese regulators Monday in a possible attempt to repair ties after the stock market debut of its former financial services arm was suspended following criticism of them by billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

Beijing’s announcement of proposed guidelines to regulate internet companies is timely and necessary, Daniel Zhang said in a speech at the government-organized World Internet Confe­rence in Wuzhen, a town in Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai.

While Zhang did not specify which regulations he was referring to, China on Nov 10 announced proposed guidelines on how anti-competition would apply to internet companies. They highlighted potential areas regulators might target, including exclusive contracts, which are common practices used by e-commerce and internet companies.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2020