The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation will donate 1.8 million masks and 100,000 testing reagents to Europe, said Jack Ma on Weibo, a leading Chinese social media platform, on Wednesday.

He said that the donations will be made to Italy, Spain and some other countries that have seen rising cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

"It's lucky that our eWTP hub at Liege airport still operates well at this difficult time. More medical supplies can get to where people need them the most through this lifeline," he said.

eWTP is an Alibaba-led initiative that helps small and medium-sized enterprises do business globally. A key element in the agreement between Belgium and Alibaba as part of this initiative is the investment in a smart-logistics hub at Liege Airport in the Wallonia region of Belgium.

The new smart logistics hub will be the cornerstone of the eWTP infrastructure collaboration, with Alibaba playing a key role in facilitating trade, particularly for accessing the Chinese market.

Cainiao Network, Alibaba's logistics arm, will be operating the logistics hub which aims to help more merchants in Europe to sell their products to China and the rest of the world by improving logistics with innovative technology and lower costs.