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BEIJING, January 27  (TMTPOST)— Alibaba insists its origin and base always to be China amid global expansion in response to news about its relocation of headquarters.

Image of Lazada One regional headquarters from Alibaba

Alibaba was recently said to invest RMB8.4 billin (US$1.2 billion) in Singapore to build an office tower for its new global headquarters. With the scheduled height of 305 meters, the headquarters building is set to be the highest iconic skyscraper in Singapore and expected to complete construction in 2028, according to the news circulated online without confirmed sources.  

Recent news about headquarters in Singapore is “untrue and misunderstanding”, an official at Alibaba Group told Chinese media outlets including QianJiang Evening News, a newspaper backed by the provincial government of Zhejiang, on Friday. Since Alibaba was born in and developed in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, the eastern, coastal province of China, it is natural and inevitable that Alibaba"s global headquarters should always be located in Hangzhou, the official stressed. With China as the root, Alibaba hopes to expand globally, actively promote its own globalization, and become a Chinese company founded by Chinese people with competitiveness in the global playing field, the person added.

The official clarified that Alibaba worked with Singaporean partners to create and develop a building there in 2019, and the project is simply designed as offices for some of the company’s Southeast Asian businesses including Lazada, its flagship e-commerce platform in the region.

Through ten-year working, construction of Alibaba’s global headquarters located at Xixi campus in Yu Hang District, Hangzhou, has entered the final stage and is projected to be completed and available for use by the end of 2023, Qianjiang Evening News also learned on Friday.

Earlier this month, Alibaba reached a strategic agreement with Hangzhou municipal government to deepen cooperation, which was deemed as support for the platform economy"s growth in a healthy, regulated way by the state media Zhejiang Daily.

Alibaba officially opened Lazada One, its regional headquarters and Singapore office, in last April. Spanning 109,000 square feet, Lazada One is located near higher institutions of learning in the central Bras Basah district. Establishing the office building in Singapore, the gateway to Southeast Asia, “reinforces our commitment to support the growth of the digital commerce industry,” Lazada’s CEO Chun Li commented that month.