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China's electricity consumption, an important indicator of economic activity, rose significantly in the first two months of this year, suggesting economic improvement, official data showed on Monday. Power use rose 6.3 percent year-on-year to 935.6 billion kilowatt hours in the first two months, according to data from the National Energy Administration. In the first two months, electricity use by primary industry climbed 12 percent from a year earlier. Power consumption by secondary industry went up 6.7 percent, while tertiary industry saw a 7.3-percent rise amid economic restructuring.

Inner Mongolia to invest big on roads

North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region will invest 101 billion yuan ($15 billion) in new roads in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent, the regional transportation department said. A total of 20,000 km of road, including 3,000 km of expressways, will be built this year, according to Miao Yinzhu, director of the department. By 2020, there is scheduled to be 10,000 km of trunk highways for tourism in the region. Inner Mongolia will speed up the construction of roads to the port cities of Manzhouli and Erenhot, to improve connectivity with Russia and Mongolia.

China sees robust passenger growth

China's civil aviation sector posted strong passenger growth despite a decline in cargo transportation in January this year, official data showed on Monday. Air passenger trips in January rose 17.6 percent year on year to 43.9 million, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The pace was faster than the 11.8-percent growth registered for the whole year of 2016. Passenger trips made on domestic routes rose 17.4 percent year on year to 38.96 million in January, while those made on international routes surged 19.1 percent to 4.97 million.

Mobike to push cycles abroad

China's bike-sharing war will spread beyond the country this year with Mobike planning to more than triple its coverage to more than 100 cities globally before the end of 2017. Mobike's orange-hued bicycles have become a staple of Chinese sidewalks since it started operations last year. It's attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from backers including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Warburg Pincus LLC, TPG Capital, Temasek Holdings Pte and Foxconn Technology Group. The startup officially begins services on Tuesday in Singapore, its first non-Chinese location, where rival Ofo has also expanded.

Uber rivals team up for another alliance

Uber Technologies Inc is facing another alliance of rivals as smaller operators team up across different regions to provide ride-hailing services. Careem Inc, a Dubai-based service valued at about $1 billion, will partner with China's Yidao Yongche and share resources, according to a statement. They will use London-based startup Splyt Technologies Ltd to coordinate their fleets and payments, so that passengers using the one app can travel abroad and use the drivers of the others without downloading new software.

Land port expects car import boom

Alataw Pass, China's largest land port, is expected to handle more than 1,000 imported finished automobiles this year, more than any other regular land port in China. The port, which started to import cars in September, has handled 283 imported cars to date, including 138 in the first two months this year. The automobiles, including brands such as Land Rover, Benz, Toyota and Lada, mainly came from Russia, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Honda Vietnam to recall 1,355 cars

Honda Vietnam is recalling 1,355 cars, to repair and replace air bag inflators of several models, according to the Vietnam Competition Authority on Monday. Specifically, it is recalling its Honda Civic, Honda CR-V, and Honda Accord models manufactured in 2012. The automaker will check, repair and provide free replacements for the affected vehicles through its agencies nationwide, reported the Vietnam News newspaper. Honda Civics and Honda CR-Vs were produced in Vietnam, while Honda Accords were imported from Thailand.

Onyx to pay $1.4b for euro properties

A Blackstone Group LP and M7 Real Estate Ltd venture agreed to acquire Hansteen Holdings Plc's continental European properties, as an improving economy boosts demand for logistics assets. The Onyx venture will pay about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) to Hansteen for the properties in Germany and the Netherlands, London-based Hansteen said in a statement Monday. The price represents a premium of about 76 million euros, or 6 percent, to the valuation at the end of last year.

Kiwi services growth in Feb slows

Growth in New Zealand's services sector continued to be strong in February, marking a four-month run of "stable and solid" expansion, according to the latest performance of the services index. The BNZ-Business New Zealand PSI for February was 58.8, on a scale where above 50 indicates expansion and below 50 contraction. Although it was 0.7 points lower than January, it was still the second highest level of expansion since November 2015, Business New Zealand chief executive Kirk Hope said in a statement.

Vodafone, Idea to merge in India

Vodafone Group Plc agreed to merge its Indian unit with Idea Cellular Ltd, to create a leader in the world's second-biggest mobile phone market. Vodafone Group and Idea Cellular will initially have equal shareholdings in the venture. The European carrier will subsequently control 45.1 percent of the combined company, after selling a 4.9 percent stake in the new entity to billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla's holding companies, according to a stock exchange filing on Monday. Birla's companies will take a 26 percent holding, with the remainder being held by the public.

Dangote Cement faces disruptions

Ethiopian regional officials are demanding that foreign cement producers including Dangote Cement Plc hand control of some parts of their businesses to groups of unemployed youths. The Nigerian company, controlled by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, and others such as Saudi billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi's Derba MIDROC Cement Plc, should allow the youth to run their pumice mines, according to a draft contract drawn up by Oromia state's East Shewa Zone administration.

Flipkart eyeing another $1b fund

Flipkart Online Services Pvt has completed a $1 billion fundraising and aims to raise as much as $1 billion more over the next few months, according to sources, giving India's biggest e-commerce company capital to fight back against rising competition. Flipkart secured its latest funding on Friday at a valuation of about $10 billion, the sources who did not want to be named said. Backers in this round so far included Microsoft Corp., EBay Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., but the valuation was a decline from Flipkart's $15.5 billion in 2015. The company said it doesn't comment on "market speculation" as a matter of policy.

Xinhua-Bloomberg