He said during the one-hour meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, they had shared ideas and discussed how to lift more Malaysians out of poverty and support more young people and small businesses.

“It was a very good meeting,” said Ma, who is in Kuala Lumpur to open an Alibaba office in Bangsar South later today.

Ma was in Kuala Lumpur last year to launch the world’s first Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), designed to promote the growth of e-commerce by providing a state-of-the-art platform for SMEs and enterprises to conduct their businesses and services.

He reportedly met with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng over an informal dinner last night.

According to media reports, Ma had wanted to meet with Mahathir earlier this month, but the proposed meeting was postponed as the prime minister wanted to focus on putting together the new government.

The previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration had appointed Ma as the government’s digital economy advisor.

Ma’s meeting with Mahathir came in the wake of the new government’s pledge to review several Beijing-backed projects initiated by the BN government.

Mahathir had been reported as saying that the DFTZ project would continue as planned.