Jack Ma—founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and currently Asia’s richest man—has committed to send 500,000 face masks to the Philippines this month while the country grapples for ways to stop the COVID-19 disease from spreading.
In a statement on Thursday (March 19), the Department of Finance (DOF) said Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Ma talked on the phone, during which Ma said the masks would start delivery later this week or early next week.
The masks will be donated by the Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations.
“I want to personally send my best regards and hope we can do something for the Philippines to fight this virus. I hope that I can do something more. For now, we have decided to give 500,000 masks to the Philippines,” the DOF quoted Ma as telling Dominguez.
“Thank you very much, Jack. This is very, very much needed here, and I will tell our President right away of your generosity and your desire to help,” Dominguez told Ma.
Also, Ma provided Dominguez with a downloadable electronic handbook (https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com), which Ma claimed “could help Philippine doctors, nurses, and other health workers remain safe and avoid infection while treating COVID-19 patients.”
“Ma informed Dominguez that with the handbook as a guide, ’96 percent of the patients recovered, and none of the doctors or nurses got infected. So, I’m putting it online and I hope you can share it with the doctors and nurses and the hospitals in need,’” the DOF said.
“The handbook, published by the Jack Ma Foundation, draws on China’s lessons learned from fighting COVID-19 and is co-authored by several medical experts who served at the frontlines of China’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus,” the DOF added.
In 2018, Dominguez and other top Philippine economic officials visited the Alibaba Business School in Hangzhou, China, upon invitation by Ma himself.
Ma was undisputedly the richest man in China, but had been switching in Asia’s top spot with Indian energy tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
As of March 19, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index placed Ma (18th overall) ahead of Ambani (20th), with their net worth of $41 billion and $36.3 billion.
Since markets crashed worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, $5.6 billion were shed from Ma’s wealth.