Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is embarking on a US$16 billion investment plan that will try to bolster connections with China’s burgeoning interior markets, Reuters reported. With an extra US$15 billion or so in its pocket from a likely IPO, Alibaba and partners such as delivery service firms and life insurers will pump cash into revamping China’s fragile supply chains and big new data centers to process reams of consumer information. The company’s chief executive Jonathan Lu says Alibaba expects to nearly triple the volume of transactions on its marketplaces to about US$490 billion (RMB3 trillion) by 2016.