Alphabet Inc's Google said on Thursday it renamed its business-to-business cloud computing brand and enhanced some enterprise applications using artificial intelligence, the company's latest gambit to better compete with Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp. in the lucrative cloud business. Discussing the rebranded Google Cloud, Diane Greene, senior vice president of Google's enterprise business, said the company has made good progress courting customers and improving its technology. Cloud computing uses remote internet servers to store, manage and process data, and Google offers a range of apps like word processing and email, as well as the ability to host data and offer resources for developers. The new name replaces the Google for Work brand. "We are closing the gap incredibly fast" with competitors, Greene, a former CEO of VMware who joined Google last year to ramp up its cloud business, told experts and journalists at an event. Analysts say Google trails Amazon and Microsoft in market share but is gaining under Greene. Although the business is not big enough to break out separately in its quarterly earnings statement, Google reported a 33 percent surge in "other revenue" in its most recent quarter, which analysts said was probably due largely to gains in cloud computing. Greene has moved quickly to streamline engineering and appointed new leadership to beef up the company's cloud business. This has helped improve sales, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said during the company's latest earnings call. Earlier this month, Google acquired cloud software company Apigee Corp in a deal valued at about $625 million. The company on Thursday also announced a partnership with consultant Accenture to develop cloud services for clients in industries such a retail, healthcare and finance. In addition, the company said it had woven more artificial intelligence into its apps to help employees work more efficiently. Using machine learning to crunch troves of data, Google says its apps will prompt users to, say, open files at certain times of day or propose meetings based on their habits. Google recently added a U.S. data center in Oregon in order to speed up service and next year will open more in Virginia, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, São Paulo, London, Finland and Frankfurt.

Czech automaker Skoda Auto has become a shareholder of SAIC Volkswagen which has been localizing its cars since 2007, said its CEO Bernhard Maier. Maier told this to a small group of reporters on Sept 29 in Paris, but refused to offer details, including the percentage of its equity it now holds, saying the parties have signed a deal to not reveal the figures. A source close to the matter told China Daily that Skoda's intention to hold the equity materialized around one month after it signed a memorandum of understanding with existing shareholders SAIC Motor and Volkswagen AG in late March. Analysts believe Skoda's equity was from Volkswagen, who bought Skoda in 1991, because foreign automakers are not allowed to have more than 50 percent of shares in a joint venture. The change has been reflected in the trademark of Skoda cars produced in China. Starting in July, the words they bear on the rear have changed from "Shanghai Volkswagen" into "SAIC Skoda". According to Chinese law, the appearance of "Skoda" would be impossible if it had not become a shareholder of the joint venture. Maier said Skoda's shareholding status is paving the way for its independent operation in China. The brand has suffered from an obscure image in the country; with many believing the brand was merely the name of a model from SAIC Volkswagen. Analysts said the move is helpful for Skoda's sales performance in China, which is its largest single market worldwide. Maier said Skoda is expected to sell 300,000 units this year in China, and it has set a goal of doubling the figures by 2020. Besides equity change, SAIC Volkswagen is planning to invest 2 billion euros in five years to localize Skoda cars. It now has six models available in the market, and the latest edition will be a seven-seat SUV called Kodiaq, which is expected to make its Chinese premiere in November and hit the market in April. The model will be the spearhead of Skoda's SUV offense, said Maier, adding that it will be followed by updated Yeti, an SUV already sold in China, and a crossover. SUVs are now the most popular cars in China. Statistics from the China Passenger Car Association show that China sold 3.85 million SUVs in the first half of the year, surging 44 percent year-on-year.

HONG KONG - China is expected to launch a commercial operation of 5th generation (5G) mobile networks in 2020, and to realize a large-scale application in 2022 or 2023, an expert with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China said here in a recent interview with Xinhua. Wang Zhiqin, an expert with the China Academy of Telecommunication Research of MIIT, said China started 5G research and development as early as other countries. In 2013, the Chinese government established IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, to boost systematic promotion of 5G. As one of the leaders of the group, Wang said MIIT coordinated to conduct the worldwide biggest experiment of 5G technology research and development in January this year, and completed the phase 1 test in September. "China is willing to formulate a unified global 5G standard with other countries," She said, adding that the global research on 5G standard started in March, and it is estimated that the first version will be completed in June, 2018. "We started early and have accumulated a lot of experience," Wang said. "I hope China can be one of the 'dominant players' in standard formulation." She explained that telecommunication is a globalized and huge industry, and customers are looking forward to a unified standard, "we need to be more responsible and cooperate with the international mainstream enterprises." She said 5G is designed for Internet of Everything (IoE), and 4G offers mobile Internet to people. As the increasing need for low delay and high reliability, 4G faces big challenges. "Time delay of 4G is from 10ms to 20ms, but some application scenarios with low delay and high reliability requires less than 0.5ms," Wang said, "and 5G can do that." She took automatic drive as example - "to realize automatic drive, vehicles should be connected with each other and have the ability to avoid crashes in high speed, which needs a very low time delay." China has attached great importance to 5G in the 13th national Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and has set the goal of 5G commercialization by 2020.

Goldman Sachs failed to make it to the upper echelon of Asia's equity market fee earners for the first time in more than a decade, hit by a squeeze in fees that is prompting the U.S. bank to cut back jobs in the region. Goldman has shared dominance of the Asia Pacific equity capital market arena with UBS and Morgan Stanley since clinching the mandate for China's first privatization in 1997. But increased competition from Chinese rivals and a dearth of the blockbuster deals it has previously relied on to make money in Asia are putting pressure on global investment banking powerhouses such as Goldman, quarterly Thomson Reuters data shows. "The value, the opportunity in the market has vaporized," said Keith Pogson, EY Asia Pacific financial services senior partner. "You cannot sustain a big-hitting team with seven-figure salaries if you are not going to hit the ball out of the stadium." IPO activity in Asia Pacific fell 13.2 percent in the first nine months of the year to the weakest level since 2013. While maintaining its leadership in terms of volumes in M&A advisory in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, Goldman slipped to No. 4 in the equity capital market (ECM) Thomson Reuters league table in the first nine months of the year, from first in 2015. The New York-based bank saw a 73 percent slump in the volume of Asia Pacific ECM deals it worked on, the sharpest fall among the top 10 equity underwriters in the region, closely followed by UBS with a 71 percent tumble. China's CITIC Securities Co Ltd clinched the top slot in the ECM rankings, followed by Morgan Stanley and UBS. In terms of fees, a key gauge of investment banks' revenue prospects, Goldman sank to No. 11, the first time it has been out of the top 10 rankings since at least 2000, earning an estimated $83.8 million in the first nine months of this year, according to Thomson Reuters/Freeman & Co estimates. CITIC Securities also topped the fee table in the period, pocketing an estimated $216 million, followed by Morgan Stanley with $195 million. Seven Chinese players, including GF Securities and Guotai Junan Securities, muscled into the top 10 group, while UBS receded to No. 8. Reuters reported last week that Goldman was considering cutting nearly 30 percent of its investment bankers in Asia. Other investment banks may follow suit with staff reductions in the region, senior bankers said. By moving first with the big job cuts, Goldman will however turn itself into a more nimble player and could keep its powder dry for when the market eventually rebounds. "It's just a matter of prioritizing and deciding where the revenues are going to be from, and in a way realigning or right-sizing the team accordingly," one person familiar with Goldman's Asia business told Reuters. In the first six months of 2016, Goldman's revenues in Asia more than halved to $1.7 billion. Its pre-tax earnings plunged 71 percent to $404 million, accounting for 10 percent of global pre-tax profit from 25 percent a year ago, its filings showed. SMALLER PIE Equity capital market fee rankings are the most important benchmark for banks operating in Asia. But the pie for Western banks is getting smaller as they have limited access to a growing number of domestic listings in China and fees are increasingly divided up among an ever larger number of banks. This week's listing of state-owned Postal Savings Bank of China in Hong Kong, at $7.4 billion the world's biggest IPO in two years, involved 26 banks who earned a combined $118.4 million, or 1.6 percent, in fees. An average IPO in the United States would have earned 7 percent fees, with far fewer players involved, earning each of them a much larger revenue, according to consulting firm Freeman & Co. The shrinking fee pool is more painful for global banks because there is regulatory pressure on them to deploy less of their own capital, which limits their ability to dabble in IPOs. Damien Cleris, head of coverage and global transaction banking at France's Natixis, told Reuters his bank was focusing on select Asian markets such as M&A and financing, but not ECM. "The volumes have decreased this year and as a result people are more aggressive in competing for the transactions. This is driving overall revenues down in Asia," said Claudio Lago de Lanzos, a partner with Oliver Wyman. "None of the relevant banks in the region are really thinking of exiting Asia, but they are really thinking hard about where to place resources."

The boss of Nissan has warned that Brexit uncertainty and possible tariffs could damage investment in the UK's biggest car factory. Chief executive Carlos Ghosn said the firm would need "compensation" for tax barriers that might result from Britain leaving the European Union. Nissan's plant in Sunderland produces about a third of the UK's car output. The comments come amid warnings from the UK car industry about the risk of EU tariffs from Brexit. "If I need to make an investment in the next few months and I can't wait until the end of Brexit, then I have to make a deal with the UK government," Mr Ghosn, who also runs France's Renault, said at the Paris Motor Show. "You can have commitments of compensation in case you have something negative," he said. Nissan is due to decide early next year on where to build its next Qashqai sport utility vehicle. Compensation The plant at Sunderland is Nissan's biggest factory in Europe, employs 6,700 people and has the capacity to produce around 500,000 cars per year. "We would like to stay. We're happy, we have a good plant, which is productive but we cannot stay if the conditions do not justify that we stay," he added. Mr Ghosn told the BBC that the Sunderland plant would "lose competitiveness" if Brexit meant the UK had to pay 10% tariffs to import into the EU.

As low crude prices have taken a toll on the budget of Saudi Arabia, the government has decided to ditch its two-year policy of allowing unlimited output by its producers.

Japan's Justice Ministry will introduce a new system to speed up immigration procedures at 3 airports to deal with the increasing number of foreigners visiting the country. This year, more than 16 million foreigners came to Japan from January through the end of August. That's up nearly 25 percent from the same period last year. The new system will begin operation in October at Kansai Airport in Osaka Prefecture, Naha Airport in Okinawa, and Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa. A device will take photos of travelers' faces, and scan their finger prints and passports as they wait in line for immigration checks. The data will be transmitted to the immigration officials in the booths. Ministry officials say the time for checks at the booths will be reduced to two-thirds of the current time.