Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, said that the company's business-to-customer site Tmall will be merged with its digital marketing unit Juhuasuan.

The decision aims to bring synergy among the company's business, marketing and operation units and explore all kinds of opportunities to digitalize existing businesses and make new businesses out of data, a move intended to better empower retailers.

Zhang made the announcement in an internal memo that was later made public on Friday. "We need to unify the service strategies for our customers and make sure the entire retail group can coordinate and act smoothly like one person," he said.

China's biggest e-commerce player earlier announced its plan of repositioning itself as a service provider to build digital and physical infrastructure for the future of commerce.

"With e-commerce itself rapidly becoming a traditional business, pure e-commerce players will soon face tremendous challenges," Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group, said in mid October.

"This is why we are adapting and it's why we strive to play a major role 

The seizure this month is just the latest round in a decade-long dispute between the company and one of its previous business partners, Konstantin Ponomaryov.

The Smolensk court ruled in favour of Ponomaryov, who has been trying to recover 9.3 billion rubles in what he says are unpaid fees from IKEA’s operations in Russia.

The ruling forbids Russia’s Federal Tax Service from registering any reorganizations or mergers of the company. The order is likely to prevent IKEA’s Russian subsidiary from ignoring the ruling.

IKEA has said it considers the court’s decision “unfounded and illegal.”

“We are already disputing [the ruling],” the Swedish company’s press service told the RBC news site Friday, adding that Ponomaryov’s actions amounted to a form of extortion through the courts.

IKEA’s lawyer Viktor Stepanov accused Ponomaryov of operating a scheme in which the company’s money will “immediately be removed from Russia into an offshore account.”

IKEA and Ponomaryov have a long and acrimonious history. From 2006 to 2010, the two parties were locked in a payment dispute over electrical generators for IKEA’s St. Petersburg stores. In 2008, Ponomaryov accused IKEA of ceasing to pay rent for the generators. IKEA agreed to pay Ponomaryov 25 billion rubles ($390 million) two years late.

Ponomaryov launched a new case against the company in August 2016.

IKEA has rented generators for its Russian stores ever since local authorities abruptly shut off electricity to their inaugural Moscow store shortly before its opening.

Sources say the 2 companies agreed to develop a system for data exchange involving vehicles and transport infrastructure. Huawei is the third largest smartphone maker in the world.

The system will utilize next-generation mobile networks called 5G. A venture firm that originated at the University of Tokyo will also take part in the project.

Softbank and Huawei plan to develop technologies, including one to stop vehicles by remote control as well as exclusive frequency bands for auto-driving.

Softbank is the first major Japanese telecom firm to join hands with a multinational in this field.

In April, Softbank set up a company dedicated to the development of self-driving. It plans to expand tie-ups with other companies.

US IT giant Google and other companies have been developing self-driving technology. A number of auto firms are also working to commercialize the technology.

Washington should stop using its own market economy assessment to deny China's "rights," Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters.

"China advises the United States to stop mixing things and escaping its international obligations. China calls for the United States to fully comply with the rule promptly, and push for healthy development of China-US trade relations," the official said.

US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said last month the time was "not ripe" for the United States to change the way it assesses whether China has achieved market economy status. She added there were no international trade rules requiring changes in the way US anti-dumping duties are calculated.

According to Shen, China should enjoy its rights as a WTO member and all other members should fulfill their obligations.

As a condition of joining the WTO, China agreed in 2001 that other WTO members could treat it as a "non-market economy” till the agreement on membership expires. They had the advantage of using a third country's prices to gauge whether China was selling its goods below market value.

As the deadline draws near, some WTO members are disputing the automatic recognition of China as a market economy.

Washington warned China in July that it had not done enough to qualify for market economy status, especially in the steel and aluminum industries.

The Chinese envoy at the WTO reportedly said the ending of the agreement would eliminate the legal basis for countries to continue using "discriminatory anti-dumping methodology" against China.

Low Chinese export prices have become a stumbling block in trade relations with the US, the EU, and the WTO countries. They are accusing China of unfair trade practices in overseas markets such as dumping products at low prices. Steel producers complained that China was distorting the global market by exporting excess aluminum and steel.

Last month, the US Commerce Department began a formal investigation into Chinese steel companies accusing them of shipping steel through Vietnam to avoid US import tariffs.

The move aims to put an end to Switzerland's long-protected banking secrecy practices as well as stopping wealthy foreigners from hiding their undeclared income in the country.

The AEOI system is a global standard introduced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to fight tax evasion. As part of the regulations, all banks are obliged to send client information to national tax authorities with data on foreign residents to be shared with tax authorities in the customers' home countries.

Switzerland has been the focus of debate on black money allegedly stashed by foreign residents behind its strong banking secrecy walls.

Consultations will be held next March with the accords expected to come into force by January 2018 and information exchange to start a year later, according to the statement.

The government says, “This will contribute to strengthening the competitiveness, the credibility, and integrity of Switzerland's financial center.”

Switzerland has already agreed to automatic information exchange agreements with 38 other countries, including all of the EU, Gibraltar, and Australia. Data sharing will start as soon as the next year.

The Swiss parliament is currently contemplating similar pacts with Canada, Japan, South Korea, Iceland, Norway and the British crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.