JD and Midea deepen cooperation

JD.com Inc, China's second-largest e-commerce player, signed a 20-billion-yuan ($2.9 billion) strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group, a move aiming to promote the upgrading and transformation of the appliance industry.

The two sides will deepen cooperation in the fields of intelligent home appliances, smart homes, channel expansion, tailor-made products and big data analysis.

They said the strategic cooperation is a positive means to "vigorously promote the development of real economy and aid the transformation and upgrading of industry" - a key goal of the 2016 Chinese Government Work Report.