Alibaba of China has announced that it will invest 100 billion yuan  (€13bn) to build the technical backbone for a smart logistics network. Alibaba operates its own logistics business, Cainiao Network, in which it acquired a controlling stake last September for ($800m). Plans were unveiled to open five new global Cainiao hubs in Asia, Europe and the Middle East: Dubai, Hangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Liege, and Moscow are among the first batch of cities being considered. Currently processing 100 million packages a day, cross-border shipping time has been brought down in some countries from 70 days to 10 days. The founder and chairman says that in the future, it aims to process one billion packages a day. Alibaba and Cainiao recently led a group of investors to acquire a 10% stake in Chinese delivery company ZTO Express to further support the group's ambitions.

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