Hurelsukh made the remarks when meeting with a visiting Russian delegation led by Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov.

"Mongolia is interested in diversifying its export products to Russia," the prime minister told his Russian guests. "In particular, we want to increase the export of meat and meat products," he added.

In this regard, he called on the Russian side to cooperate with Mongolia on a project called "Wool" and set up a joint meat processing plant that meets Russia's requirements and standards.

Manturov, for his part, said the Russian government is willing to import highly demanded goods from Mongolia, build an aircraft assembly plant as well as a leather and hide processing facility.

Moreover, Russia plans to export agricultural equipment and helicopters to Mongolia, Manturov said. The country will also take part in the renovation and extension works of the Mongolia's 3rd Thermal Power Plant and the Ulan Bator Railway, as well as the construction of a highway, according to Manturov.

The Russian delegation arrived here Thursday to attend the "Mongolia-Russia Initiative 2018," an event aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and cooperation.

New data from the World Gold Council show retail and institutional investors in gold ETFs poured a net $771.3m into global funds in May, despite a pullback in the US, the largest market.

Global vaults now hold around 2,484 tonnes or a shade under 80m troy ounces after net inflows in May of 14.6t brought the year to date total tonnes acquired to 116.3.

US investors dumped nearly 30 tonnes in May, but the outflows were cancelled out by continued buying by Europeans and a surge in buying in Asia.

After spending $820m Asian bullion bulls added nearly a fifth to holdings in 2018. Although it's still a fraction compared to Western markets at just over 100 tonnes.

2016 was the best year for funds since 2009 with global net purchases of more than 500 tonnes, primarily thanks to European bullion investors. In dollar terms 2016 was the most successful year for the industry which first emerged in Australia in 2003.

Total global gold bullion holdings hit a record 2,632 tonnes or 93 million ounces in December 2012.

Mr. Denis Valentinovich Manturov expressed his pleasure at meeting President Battulga again and conveyed the greetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also appreciated the contribution of President Battulga in the expansion of the ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event, which is giving stimulus to Mongolia-Russia relations in all levels. The Minister acknowledged the significance of the ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event consistent with the increasing number of official delegates and representatives of business and cultural spheres attending from Russia, expressing his readiness for further cooperation on specific projects and programs.

For his part, President Battulga mentioned the agreement reached with President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Vladivostok last September on organizing the 2018 ‘Mongolia-Russia Initiative’ event, which will boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The President noted how the participation of more than 60 Russian companies in the event to build business relationships with Mongolian companies, and arrival of the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble to Mongolia after 42 years demonstrates the growth in bilateral trade, economic and cultural ties.

President Battulga also expressed his support towards the establishment of an economic corridor through Mongolia, Russia and China, which Minister Manturov mentioned, saying that the project should be put into action.

Expressing his deep gratitude to the Ambassador on his contribution to the bilateral diplomatic ties and cooperation Minister B.Batzorig emphasized that the Ministry is attaching special attention to expanding and developing ties of the two countries in fields of food, agriculture and light industry.

Ambassador Philip Malone underlined that the two countries have much potential to broaden cooperation in the abovementioned areas and expressed its intend to cooperate in cashmere industry in collaboration with Sustainable Fibre Alliance NGO, funded by the British Government. The NGO intends to oranize a designers’ conference and fair in September, 2018 in London and the Ambassador said the Ministry's support is required to ensure participation of Mongolian part.

The parties agreed to cooperate in formulation of joint program to train personnel and introduce advanced technologies in Mongolia and get acquainted with development and practice of light industry of Great Britain on the spot.

Over 500 international participants are taking part in the forum, including MPs and experts from 96 countries, as well as 19 parliamentary chairmen and 15 vice-chairmen and representatives of 11 international parliamentary associations.

The forum is conducting three thematic sections for discussions on the issues of legislative support of the world economy development in the XXI century, the role of parliaments in strengthening international security and the exchange of best practices of national legislation.

Speaker M.Enkhbold is accompanied by Chairman of Legislative Standing Committee, MP Sh.Radnaased, MP J.Batzandan, MP G.Temuulen and other officials from Mongolian Parliament.

During the event, Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin welcomed Mongolian parliamentarians in the State Duma to host a bilateral meeting. At the meeting parties underlined that the inter-parliamentary collaboration has been successfully growing in the scope of the Strategic Partnership Cooperation and underscored the importance of legislative efforts to deepen trade and economic cooperation.

Moreover, the sides exchanged views on the issues of increasing bilateral trade and economic cooperation. For example, development of the Ulaanbaatar Railway and the boost of "Economic Corridors" project, which has been discussed for several years.

Chairman M.Enkhbold put forwarded to co-celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Battles of Khalkhyn Gol in 2019, which is an important commemoration to strengthen the friendship between our two peoples and to promote the history of pride. He also expressed that Mongolia will support the Russian Federation in the promotion of the International Expo Exhibition to be hosted in 2025 and invited Mr. V.Volodin to conduct an official visit to Mongolia this year.

In the first four months of 2018, Mongolia’s central bank has purchased 3.3 tons of gold, an increase of 8% compared to the same period a year ago.

Mongolia’s long-term trend in gold reserve balance mirrors the growth in foreign exchange reserves – as of April, international currency reserves stood at 2.98 billion USD, up from 1.23 billion USD a year ago.

Despite Mongolia’s ambitions to boost gold reserves, the country’s holdings remain relatively small, even when compared to other developing nations. According to the World Gold Council, as of May, only 6% of the country's total foreign reserves is in gold. The world leader, the U.S., holds 75% of total foreign reserves in gold.

Mongolia is heavily reliant on the mining sector, with mining accounting for 20% of the country’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Providing incentives for miners could potentially raise economic security.

This wouldn’t be the first time the government has set up gold purchase campaigns. In August of last year, the central bank launched a three-month campaign called “Mongol Gold,” with a similar mandate of promoting gold submission to the bank and raising awareness of legal procedures associated with buying gold.

In the past, the major obstacle for individuals selling gold to the government was high transaction fees. Submissions rose significantly after fees were dropped from 68 percent to 2.5 percent.

Challenges surrounding infrastructure remain, as there are no testing facilities in the BoM’s rural branches which are needed to collect gold.

Copper price soars to 3-month highWorkers at the Escondida copper mine in Chile put down quite a marker in the third round of contract negotiations with part-owner and operator BHP.

The union is demanding a one-time bonus equivalent to 4% of dividends distributed to BHP shareholders in 2017.

That works out to about $34,000 per worker. It would be the biggest bonus payout to mineworkers ever in Chile.

The union also wants a wage increase of 5%, which is more than double the inflation rate in the South American nation.

Due to its size, Escondida can on its own change global copper supply dynamics.

BHP, which owns 57.5% of the mine, has spent nearly $8 billion expanding the mine (including a $3.4bn water plant) in the past five years to maintain output above one million tonnes (2018 guidance is 1.18–1.23mt).

That means Escondida is responsible for nearly 5% of the world’s primary copper supply.

Ahead of the copper industry’s annual gathering in Santiago in April, Colin Hamilton of BMO Capital Markets summed it up this way:BHP has spent some $8 billion over five years to maintain output above one million tonnes

“Put in simple terms, at more than 300kt Escondida's planned output recovery in 2018 will be the second largest year on year gain by a single operation in recent copper history, after Las Bambas in 2016.

“To have such reliance on a single operation for copper supply growth, particularly one with a history of output hiccups, clearly comes with some risk.”

Last year’s walkout lasted 43 days and ended only when workers invoked a legal provision that allows them to extend their existing contract by 18 months (to end July).

The 2017 strike at Escondida was the longest in Chile since the 74-day action at state-owned Codelco’s El Teniente mine in 1973, which took place shortly before the military coup that overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende.

The threat of copper supply disruptions due to a slew of labour contract negotiations in top producers Chile and Peru, boosted prices at the beginning of the year.

The majority of those talks quickly ended in deals.

There is little indication of that happening at Escondida.

The agreements gave the Chinese firms some access to users' data to help them build Facebook "experiences" on their own platforms.

Facebook said all the data collected remained on users' phones not servers.

The company is already under scrutiny over how it uses members' information.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009 but the company has been trying to find other ways to access the massive potential market.

'Legitimate concerns'
The New York Times reported earlier this week that Facebook had given at least 60 device-makers access to users' data - and that of their Facebook friends - without obtaining explicit consent and that in some cases the details were stored on the firms' own servers.

Facebook rejected claims that this had been a breach of privacy pledges that it had made to its members and a US regulator.

Senator Mark Warner, who sits on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said news that Huawei was among the companies getting the privileged access to the Facebook data raised "legitimate concerns".

On Tuesday, Facebook responded by saying it "along with many other US tech companies have worked with them [Huawei] and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones".

Francisco Varela, vice-president of mobile partnerships for Facebook, said the integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and TCL were "controlled from the get go" and that "we approved the Facebook experiences these companies built".

"Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei's servers," he added.

In 2012, the US House Intelligence Committee warned US companies against dealing with Huawei and another Chinese telecoms firm, ZTE.

A report by the committee asked whether the firms were too close to China's Communist Party and its military. It also suggested their products and services could pose a long-term security threat to the US.

Facebook had already come under fire over its involvement in a scandal involving consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

The firms were at the centre of a dispute over the harvesting and use of personal data - and whether it was used to influence the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election or the UK's referendum on leaving the EU.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in May apologised to EU lawmakers for the company's role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and for allowing fake news to proliferate on its platform.

Following the announcement by the Mongolian Government that 2018 is officially 'Year of Tourism', active measures have been taken in supporting green-eco tourism. Under the projects, service in restaurants and tourist camps has been improved. As we reported yesterday, a tourist hotline has been sent up providing foreign visitors with an information service, and also the possibility to complain when service standards are not up to scratch. In addition, specific rules and regulations are being developed for nature travellers.

Mongolia is definitely taking improving service standards seriously. One huge area marked for improvement is providing modern toilets to replace the ubiquitous squat loos. The country is also benchmarking best-practice models, such as the eco tourism treks of South Korea's Jeju Island.

In the first quarter of 2018, Mongolia saw 705,000 foreign tourists, up 11 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia. Government has a plan to increase to the number to 1 million by 2020.