The Bayankhoshuu border crossing was established in 2014 and operates on a seasonal basis. Officially it can operate throughout the year. Why Beijing has taken the decision to close this particular crossing has not been explained and is currently a subject of speculation.

Mongolia has 13 border crossings with China; seven of them operates regularly.

Toyota officials say they're teaming up with Ford Motor to form the group. It will also involve French automaker PSA Group and Japanese firms, including Fuji Heavy Industries, Mazda Motor, Suzuki Motor and Panasonic.

The consortium will develop technology enabling drivers to use smartphone apps and voice commands on vehicle dashboard screens.

They say the group aims to "give consumers more choice in how they connect and control their smartphone apps on the road".

Automakers are racing to develop connected cars that provide a wide range of services.

Observers say Toyota aims to set an international standard by forming the consortium.

The group is viewed as an attempt to counter Google and Apple technologies for connected cars.

Sogou, whose name means "search dog," plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year, Chief Executive Officer Wang Xiaochuan said in an interview. The company, which is backed by social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sohu.com Inc, hasn't formally hired banks to run the listing. Sohu shares rose the most in 10 months on Wednesday.

While Baidu remains the biggest provider across all platforms in China, it's under siege after a scandal over medical advertising, as smaller rivals including Sogou and Qihoo 360 Technology Co win mobile users. Wang said he planned to use part of the IPO proceeds to improve search results by backing companies developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies.

"Over the past year, we've seen a trend where people are finding themselves not trusting Baidu as much and some are even seeking a replacement," he said at the company's Beijing headquarters.

"So over the next year or two, as more people feel more comfortable with Sogou, they'll realize it is able to replace Baidu."

Shares of Sohu rose 4.9 percent to $35.54 in New York, the biggest gain since March 4. The stock has declined 34 percent in the past year.

Baidu accounted for 44.5 percent of mobile search queries in the third quarter, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed Shenma had 20.8 percent and Sogou was third with 16.2 percent, according to research from iiMedia.

Other independent researchers, including Analysys International, reported that Sogou was China's second-largest provider to the country's mobile users while some surveys have the company as the nation's second-largest overall.

Wang said Sogou could match Baidu in mobile search within three years. Baidu declined to comment.

Bloomberg

SoftBank has said it is investing at least $25 billion in the fund and has been in talks with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for an investment that could be as much as $45 billion.

"We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple," company spokesman Josh Rosenstock told Reuters.

SoftBank has also said that it plans to make future large-scale investments via the tech fund, rather than on its own.

Reuters reported in December, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Apple had held talks with SoftBank about the investment.

SoftBank confirmed that Apple invested, said Benjamin Spicehandler, an outside public relations representative for SoftBank. He added that Foxconn, Oracle founder Larry Ellison's family office and chipmaker Qualcomm also have said they intend to invest in the fund.

(Reuters)

Cutbacks will be focused on smaller mines in north and east China, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.
Despite reversing in November some of the restrictions imposed to local coal miners in early 2016 due to a spike in prices for the commodity, Beijing announced late last week it will continue to cut the capacity of its coal mines by 800 million tonnes a year until 2020.

Unveiling the plan’s details, the country’s top economic planner said the goal is to eliminate “outdated” and inefficient coal capacity every year while adding 500m tonnes of “advanced” capacity. The cutbacks will be focused on smaller mines in the north-east, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

Main producers, mostly based on China’s western regions such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, are expected instead to boost supplies. As a result, the NDRC expects total coal output to increase to around 3.9 billion tonnes by 2020, compared to 3.75 billion tonnes in 2015. It also anticipates that the country will burn around 4.1 billion tonnes compared to 3.96 billion tonnes last year — quite a modest growth rate.

The fresh measures come on the heels of an International Energy Agency's (IEA) report that estimates China's coal use is likely to have peaked in 2013.

Coal generated 84% of all electricity in Asia’s richest economy in 2014, but the IEA's forecasts that figure will drop down to about 54% in 2040.

Beijing has also made public its intention of modernizing its coal-fired power plants by 2020 in an effort to cut “polluting” emissions by 60%. The government also aims to add over 20 million kilowatts of installed wind power and more than 15 million kilowatts of installed photovoltaic power by the end of the decade.

The bill, which is being currently drawn up, will regulate all types of mining activities, from identifying mining resources, opening and closing of mines and include provisions towards the engineering and technological activities and safety of miners.

Swiss-British commodities trading firm Glencore and the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund have closed a deal to purchase 19.5 percent of state-controlled Rosneft, according to a statement on Glencore’s website.

The news was followed by an announcement that Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo bank would provide a loan of up to 5.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) – half the cash required for the deal. The bank had previously wavered on its involvement with Rosneft's privatization.

Intesa will seek to involve other banks in financing the deal. Each member of the proposed syndicate will take on part of the loan, an Intesa spokesperson told Reuters.

The developments bring a modicum of clarity to Rosneft’s otherwise opaque privatization deal.

After months of struggling to find a foreign investor for Rosneft, Russian President Vladimir Putin and CEO Igor Sechin announced in December that the Glencore-Qatar consortium would purchase the share packet. The unexpected deal reportedly came after talks with 30 different potential investors.

Putin termed the sale “the largest on the global energy market in 2016.”

Since then, however, many have cast doubt on the honesty of this “privatization.” In the deal’s wake, Glencore and Rosneft announced that the 19.5 percent share had been valued at 10.2 billion euros ($10.6 billion). The Glencore-Qatar consortium would pay 2.8 billion euros ($2.9 billion) and Intesa Sanpaolo and several unnamed Russian banks would provide a loan of 7.4 billion euros ($7.7 billion) — with Intesa providing more than 50 percent of the financing.

Shortly thereafter, however, Intesa seemed to reconsider its role in financing the sale due to EU sanctions against Rosneft.

At the time, several economic analysts interviewed by the Moscow Times said that the privatization scheme more resembled sophisticated accounting than true privatization. The real money, they suggested, was probably coming from Russian banks backed by the Russian Central Bank – with Glencore and the Qatari Fund serving as cover for the process.

The problem, analyst Boris Grozovsky said, was that the Russian banks had gone into debt to finance the deal, and were partially relying on money from Intesa to come through.

Those funds now appear to have arrived.

According to the bank’s analysts, emerging markets have derived enough to become more resilient to international conditions, including political uncertainty tied to Brexit, a European banking crisis or Donald Trump's plans to shake up US trade policies.

“Emerging markets have a lower exposure to an export-driven growth model than is generally assumed. They have a better, balanced-type of growth model,” said Hechler Fayd'herbe.

She stressed that the vast majority of emerging market countries have only a third of their GDP dependent on international trade.

Broad emerging markets in Asia and Latin America are at an advantage due to a huge domestic consumer base, while China and India are rising at twice the pace of global growth.

According to Credit Suisse, the US dollar, euro, yen and the British pound despite post-Brexit losses are among the hard currencies due to their relative stability and acceptance for international financial transactions.

Indonesia is seen as one of the stronger-performing emerging markets with bid yield on the 10-year Indonesian government bond note is 8.07 percent versus a 2.43 percent bid yield on the US 10-year Treasury note.

Chinese markets began last year with a massive sell-off but later recovered up to a point after government reforms to stabilize the economy and open China's financial markets to global investors.

Chinese equities, as well as Hong Kong shares, will lead regional equities this year, due to positive valuations, recovery in earnings and buoyant liquidity are able to boost north-south inflows, according to Credit Suisse. Exporters are expected to gain from a gradual depreciation of the yuan, the bank added.

The only way to play in the oil trade will be to estimate energy-related currencies, such as the Norwegian krone and the Russian ruble. Russian currency is expected to fight against absolute dollar strength, said Heng Koon How, senior foreign exchange investment strategist at Credit Suisse.

The bank expects financial markets to remain challenging this year, with global GDP to grow to 3.4 percent from 3.1 percent in 2016.