Alibaba Group announced it would set up a HK$1 billion fund to support young Hong Kong entrepreneurs

Alibaba announced that it has created a $129 million non-profit organization to help young entrepreneurs in Hong Kong looking to start up on the e-commerce giant’s online marketplaces. The Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation is likely to benefit benefit Alibaba in two ways. For one, it can get more sellers onto Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, its main shopping sites.

The Foundation could also potentially boost Alibaba’s reputation in Hong Kong, where students and young talents have been frustrated by economic policies that believed to only have mainland Chinese tourists and investors in mind. This frustration, coupled with the ever soaring real estate prices and thinning of local job opportunities, indeed fuelled last fall’s Occupy Central movement calling for a more democratic composition of the political structure and in turn better government.

However, this may indeed be the caveat that comes with receiving support from the Foundation.

Jack Ma Yun, founder of the online giant, when prompted by the fact that some young Occupy protesters had had their travel documents to the mainland revoked by the authorities, noted that, "When I was young, my dad cancelled many of my activities and didn't give me pocket money. Some discipline is needed, I'm sorry," he said, adding that young people should "believe in our country". Despite expressing this view, he also reassured that the Foundation does not carry out assessment of potential beneficiaries in this regard.