Sharjah-China Businesswomen Forum Convenes as Alibaba Plans UAE Data Centre Expansion

The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) hosted the Sharjah-China Businesswomen Forum at its headquarters on September 22, 2026. Organised in partnership with the General Women's Union and the UAE Embassy in Beijing, the forum gathered 15 Chinese women corporate executives and local Emirati business counterparts.

SCCI officials stated that China is the UAE's largest global trading partner, accounting for approximately 11% of the UAE's total non-oil trade. The event featured dedicated B2B matchmaking sessions intended to support market access, technology sharing, and cross-border commercial partnerships in sectors including industrial manufacturing, digital innovation, logistics, and supply-chain integration.

Separately, Chinese technology firm Alibaba announced an international data centre expansion plan that includes expanding its data centre footprint in the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Germany, France, and Hong Kong over the next 12 months. The company also announced plans to launch its first cloud regions in Turkey, Finland, and the Netherlands.

According to Alibaba Chief Executive Eddie Wu at the firm's annual conference in Hangzhou, the company aims to reach more than 20 gigawatts of global data centre capacity by 2032. Alibaba also introduced its Zhenwu V900 artificial intelligence processor and outlined plans to train an AI model containing five to 10 trillion parameters.