The proposal was submitted to the speaker of the parliament Miyegombo Enkhbold after reports were made public late last month that some members of the Mongolian parliament and their relatives have obtained a number of loans with low interest rates from a fund aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises.

Issues relating to the fund were frequently discussed in the country this month.

"A total of 27 lawmakers signed the proposal on dismissing the government," Khayankhyarvaa, former parliamentary faction leader of the ruling Mongolian People's Party, told reporters after submitting the proposal.

He was dismissed from his post last Tuesday following his demand for the lawmakers involved in the financial irregularities be brought to justice.

According to the country's Constitution, a proposal on dissolving government should be considered within 15 days.

Ukhnaa Khurelsukh's government that formed a year ago will be dismissed if the proposal is supported by over 50 percent of lawmakers in the 76-seat parliament.

The sudden closure of the border crossings comes as an unwelcome shock in Mongolia; already 91 km long queues of coal trucks have formed since China suspended imports. A total of 86 coal trucks had already crossed into Chinese territory at the crossings, but Beijing is refusing to received the coal. A team has been working on the ground for providing health, food and assistance for the unfortunate truck drivers.

During the discussion, authorities of the Cabinet Secretariat of Government, Governors of Bayan-Ulgii, Gobi-Altai, Khovd, Uvs and Zavkhan aimags, heads of citizens’ representatives meetings of the aimags, chairman of Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of the local chambers of commerce and industry, Asian Development Bank’s Country Director for Mongolia Yolanda Fernandez Lommen and specialists of corresponding ministries were introduced with the strategy to develop private sector in western region and some survey reports.

The Asian Development Bank has been implementing a technical assistance project ‘Fostering value-added activities in western Mongolia’ since 2016. Within the project, competitiveness assessment report and institutional readiness assessment report were carried out in five western aimags over the past three years and business plans were worked out for meat factory in Bayan-Ulgii aimag, ‘Narlag Khulemj’ in Gobi-Altai aimag, seed farm in Khovd aimag and grain farm in Uvs aimag. Moreover, information rooms of governor offices were furnished with required equipment and a series of trainings were provided to staffs of private and public organizations.

The ADB recommended the Cabinet Secretariat of Government that it needs to create favorable environment of governance, empower private sector and develop infrastructure within short period in order to foster local private sector.

Ms. Yolanda said, “The technical assistance project has implemented successfully. It fulfilled its objectives sufficiently. Long-term regional assessment on the state of public and private entities will be a baseline document for government policy to develop rural areas and be useful data for businessmen to find their directions of activities and choose future paths.”

U.Byambasuren, deputy head of the Cabinet Secretariat, said “This baseline document is very important for government to define its development policy that fits territorial and regional features. We have expressed our interest to the ADB to realize this project in other aimags.”

Enkh-Amgalan, also head of the Mongolia-Russia inter-parliamentary group in parliament, made the remarks while meeting with a visiting Russian delegation led by Andrei Klishas, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building.

"The potential of trade, investment and economic cooperation between Mongolia and Russia is not being used at full strength. Thus, our two countries need to make more efforts and improve the business and legal environment in order to further strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in these sectors," Enkh-Amgalan said.

Klishas expressed Russia's willingness to promote the development of Russia-Mongolia ties in all sectors.

He also stressed the important role of the Mongolia-Russia interparliamentary group in parliament in expanding cooperation between the two legislative bodies.

Last year, the trade volume between Russia and Mongolia amounted to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 46.9 percent compared with 2016.

The Germany carmaker said Friday that it would invest €44 billion ($50 billion) by 2023 to develop electric cars, self-driving vehicles and other new technology.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the company's supervisory board, CEO Herbert Diess described the company's strategy as an "electric offensive."
Diess acknowledged that increased spending on new technology could initially harm earnings growth. The investment is roughly €10 billion ($11.4 billion) above what the company set aside for new tech in last year's budget plan.
"Volkswagen must become more efficient, more productive and more profitable in order to finance the high expenditure in the future and in order to stay competitive," Diess said during the press conference.
Volkswagen's stock, which declined roughly 12% so far this year, dropped another 1.3% on Friday.

Volkswagen and Ford

Diess said that talks with US automaker Ford (F) about working together were "progressing positively."
So far the only alliance firmly in place between Ford and Volkswagen involves an agreement to work together on commercial vehicles. But Diess sees potential in more cooperation.
"We can solve the transformation of our business more easily with partnerships," he said Friday.
Automakers are spending billions of dollars as they try to develop the electric and self-driving vehicles they believe are the future.
They're also facing more competition from tech companies, including Uber and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG). Upstarts like Tesla (TSLA) have proved formidable too.
Production changes
Volkswagen said that the first model built under its new strategy, the ID, will begin rolling off the assembly lines in 2022. Diess said the car will have a range of up to 550 km (340 miles) and cost the equivalent of its current diesel Golf.
The car group, which owns the Porsche and Audi brands, said it would attempt to increase the productivity of its plants 30% by 2025. It plans to build vehicles from different brands on the same production lines as part of the effort.
It will also relocate production of the Passat from Germany to the Czech Republic.
Diess said that Volkswagen (VLKAF) was considering whether to build its own battery cells, a key component in electric vehicles.
China shift
The carmaker also announced leadership changes in China, the world's largest car market.
Diess now has direct responsibility for the China business, a move that Volkswagen said reflects "the growing importance of the Chinese market and the high pace of technological development in China."
Stephan Wöllenstein, who currently oversees the passenger car division in China, will handle business operations in the country going forward.

The coal exports are worth USD2.4 billion, the National Statistics Office said.

Coal, which has been one of Mongolia’s main exports, accounted for 41 per cent of Mongolia’s total exports in the period.

The landlocked country exported 33.3 million tonnes of coal in 2017 and has set a goal to increase its coal exports to 40 million tonnes in the coming years.

Representatives led by Sh.Batsaikhan, deputy director of the National Auto Transportation Center of Mongolia, and Liu Peng, head of the Transportation Bureau of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, exchanged views on bilateral cooperation in transport.

The parties discussed the Intergovernmental Agreement on Road Transport between Mongolia and the People's Republic of China, implementation of its protocol, the 2017 meeting protocol, freight and passenger transport between the two countries and the use of permission letter.

As of November 1, 2018, a total of 52,496 vehicles crossed the Mongolia and Xinjiang border, with 93,236 passengers, traveled by 1120 passenger cars and 1,098,922.7 tonnes of freight passed by 50,166 heavy trucks.

In addition to transportation, border crossing and customs issues of the Bulgan-Takashiken border, the sides discussed the schedule for the passenger transportation service between Bulgan soum of Khovd aimag and Takashiken village of Xinjiang and signed a protocol.