Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire businessman Jack Ma has finally made his Twitter account on Friday, and his verified account already has over 32,000 followers over the last few days.
And the first set of tweets coming from his account talk about the need to donate test kits and masks to countries where there is severe shortage. The US government has come under heavy criticism for the slowness of testing for the virus, and public health officials have rebuked President Donald Trump for playing down the seriousness of the fast-spreading pandemic.
In a statement on Twitter, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba said, "drawing from my own country's experience, speedy and accurate testing and adequate protective equipment for medical professionals are most effective in preventing the spread of the virus." "We hope that our donation can help Americans fight against the pandemic!”
Ma also tweeted photos of shipment from Shanghai airport on their way to the US, and wishing the country ‘all the best’ which has garnered over 16,000 retweet and 90,000 likes since then.
Ma offered the United States 500,000 coronavirus test kits and a million masks, as the country faces a shortage of kits for diagnosing the potentially deadly disease. Jack Ma’s debut on Twitter was also welcomed by Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter, who thanked the Chinese billionaire for his valuable effort.
Ma, who is China's richest man, said that over the past weeks, his organisations had helped provide similar supplies to virus-hit countries such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Spain.
"The pandemic we face today can no longer be resolved by any individual country," Ma said. "We can't beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons," Ma said.
(With IANS inputs)
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