Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Chinese mega-company Alibaba Group, has displayed enthusiasm over on-going efforts between China and Canada to work on a Free Trade Agreement, saying both sides will benefit greatly when it is concluded.

"I am enthusiastic about it (FTA) even if it is not signed yet, as we can still encourage our small businesses to trade with China," said Ma at a meet-the-press session on the sidelines of Gateway 17 in Toronto, an event that brought together business owners and entrepreneurs from across Canada to discuss the opportunities that China presents for Canadian small businesses on Monday.

Asked what areas of opportunities there are for Canadian businesses in the absence of an FTA, Ma said that China is a massive market whose growing middle class is hungry for quality and high-end Canadian products like seafood, fruits, meat and healthy lifestyle items.

"For Canada, these past 50 years, the USA was the market. Today, China is the market. It has a middle class of 350 million people, bigger than the total American population, and it's just the beginning," said Ma." They have a strong appetite for your Canadian products such as lobsters, maple syrup, ice wine and blueberries."

"You have a community of 1.5 million Chinese here. These are the ambassadors of your products," Ma told a capacity crowd of 3,600 assembled for the event. "We should leverage that."

Ma said China and Canada enjoy a special relationship, one that could pave the way for business success.

"If you can't do business with the Chinese, it's going to be difficult to do business with other nations," he said.

Ma said his initiative to give one million US small businesses entree to the Chinese market via his online sales platform could create spin-off effects and indirectly benefit small businesses in Canada, Ma said Alibaba Group is in North America to help create opportunities and jobs for Canadians.

"The Canadian market is not a small market with 37 million people and it is big on its own. It is a global market everywhere," he said, adding people would use his products and platform to trade whether they are in Africa, Europe, US or Asia.

Echoing Ma, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadian companies to seek their fortune in China's trillion-dollar market.

"As Canadians, we tend to be a little more modest, private. We need to get over that hump," Trudeau said. "The government is so focused on working with Alibaba, with e-commerce giants, to realize opportunities for entrepreneurs to succeed and create an environment in which people can take chances, dream, innovate, try something new."

Trudeau and Ma have met serveral times before, including at the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, China, where the company was founded in 2016. Trudeau, who was on an official visit to China, joined Ma to announce the launch of a Canadian "pavilion" on its Tmall platform, a virtual shopping mall where brands can sell to Alibaba consumers.

Canadian brands already using Alibaba to sell to Chinese customers include Ocean Spray Cranberry, Clearwater Seafood and Jamieson Vitamins.