Investments of 2 billion dollars are launched in Turkey by the AlibabaChina’s largest e-commerce company, as its head announced after his meeting with the Turkish president in Istanbul.

The so-called “Chinese Amazon” said through Michael Evans that it trusts “Turkey’s solid economic foundations” and has already invested $1.4 billion in the country through Trendyol, the country’s largest e-commerce platform, where Alibaba has a 76.1% stake.

Evans supported Trandyol’s plans for international expansion and stressed that Turkey has what it takes to become one of the leading electronics exporting countries.

No timetable was given for the investments, and Evans said only that the plan would be implemented within the next period.

He explained, however, that a data center and a high-end logistics center will be established in Ankara, as well as a leading export activity center at Istanbul Airport.

Trandyol was valued at $16.5 billion in 2021, drawing funding from investors including SoftBank, General Atlantic, Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ.

Turkey launched an antitrust investigation into Trendyol’s activities in 2021, and this July the relevant court ruled in favor of tightening rules on e-commerce companies. In particular, the country’s constitutional court ruled that the law, which limits companies’ advertising spending and the use of user data if their sales exceed a certain threshold, was constitutional. The decision aims to boost smaller companies operating in the sector, following the huge growth of the market in Turkey after the pandemic.

Also in July, Turkey’s competition commission fined Trendyol 61.3 million pounds, alleging it used data collected by third parties to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Turkey’s e-commerce industry swelled 109 percent last year to more than 800 billion pounds, with nearly a fifth of all purchases made online, according to trade ministry data.