Toyota, Mazda to open plant in Alabama www.nhk.or.jp

Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda have officially announced that they will jointly build an assembly plant in the southern US state of Alabama.

State and local government agency property assessment to be carried out www.gogo.mn

An assessment of state and local government agency land permits and registered properties will be carried out in 2018. The Government Agency for Policy Coordination on State Property, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Construction and Urban Development, Capital Property Agency, and the Agency for Land Administration and Management, Geodesy, and Cartography will cooperate on conducting the assessments.

Young Mongolian woman invited to meet Bill Gates www.news.mn

The World Economic Forum will be held in Davos, Switzerland on 23-26 January. Foreign Minister D.Tsogtbaatar and Mining and Heavy Industries Minister D.Sumyabazar will represent the Mongolian government at the event. Another Mongolian, A.Urgamal from the ‘Oddariya’ foundation has also been invited to Davos. She is one of fifty young 'Global Shapers' who have come to Davos and won the chance to meet US billionaire Bill Gates.

Erdenet Corporation declared as public company www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Erdenet Mining Corporation is becoming a public company, as declared by the Government.

The IMF staff team to arrive Ulaanbaatar on January 25 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) staff team will arrive Mongolia on January 25 for working trip.

CES 2018: Kodak soars on KodakCoin and Bitcoin mining plans www.bbc.com

The US firm said it was teaming up with London-based Wenn Media Group to carry out the initial coin offering (ICO).

It is part of a blockchain-based initiative to help photographers control their image rights.

Kodak also detailed plans to install rows of Bitcoin mining rigs at its headquarters in Rochester, New York.

Details of this second scheme - which is being branded the Kodak KashMiner - were outlined at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.

Customers will pay up-front to rent mining capacity.

Kodak is the latest in a series of companies to see its value jump after revealing plans for blockchain-related activity.

"This is a phenomenon we saw back during the dot com days in the late 1990s where traditional companies would mention some kind of internet strategy and their stock price would jump up," commented Garrick Hileman from the University of Cambridge.

"When you see stock prices moving like this it does appear to be troubling - it's hard to say if there's a bubble but it certainly is indicative of a frothy investment market."

Coin creation
Kodak was famously slow to join the digital revolution, and its hesitation to leave behind its film heritage cost the company its market.

Since its collapse in 2012, Kodak has licensed its brand to a variety of manufacturers, with the mark appearing on batteries, printers, drones, tablet computers and digital cameras.

The KashMiner operation will be run by Spotlite, a licensee that had previously teamed up with Kodak to use its brand to market LED lights.

Any Bitcoins generated by Kodak KashMiner will be shared between the customer and the business.

Each of the mining rig boxes - which include computer processors and fans to keep them cool - will use about the same amount of electricity as running a hairdryer around the clock.

But the scheme will be able to take advantage of Kodak's on-site power generating plant, which has had spare capacity since Kodak's heyday.

The company says it can power each rig for four cents per kilowatt hour, which is significantly cheaper than running a rig at home.

At Bitcoin's current value, an up-front investment of $4,000 (£2,954) for 24 months of mining could earn a profit of $500 a month, Spotlite's Halston Mikail told the BBC.

But anybody hoping to join the gamble would have to wait, as capacity is already sold out, Mr Mikail added.

"At this time we have 80 miners, and we expect another 300 to arrive shortly. There is a big pile-up of demand," he said.

Bitcoin is notoriously volatile and some analysts fear its value could crash, resulting in a loss for those who had paid up-front for mining capacity.

But Mr Mikail said the rigs could be put to work on other tasks if Bitcoin faltered.

"Bitcoin could be a bubble. But the blockchain industry is not a bubble," he said.

"It's a solid platform built on mathematics and it will survive."

Kodak currency
Kodak's other initiative, the KodakCoin, is being created as part of an effort to build a global ledger of picture rights ownership that photographers can add their work to.

Associated KodakOne software will be used to crawl the web and find pictures that have been used without permission.

The company said it would then "manage the licensing process," so the photographer can be paid, in KodakCoin.

"Kodak has always sought to democratise photography and make licensing fair to artists," said Kodak chief executive Jeff Clarke.

"These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that."

The company's shares traded more than 130% above their opening price after the announcement before closing the day 119.4% higher.

But one expert had doubts.

"Storing the information in a blockchain doesn't protect your copyright any more than copyright law already does," commented David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50ft Blockchain.

"Notice how they're marketing it: they state a problem, then say the blockchain can solve it. But there's no mechanism by which the blockchain could do that.

"This doesn't do anything that signing up for Shutterstock or Getty Images wouldn't."

Even so, some think Kodak will not be the last household name to associate itself with an ICO.

"I expect we are going to see more major brands releasing their own tokens and currencies to support various products and services," commented Mr Hileman.

"It's something many big companies are thinking very hard about."

New North Korean ambassador presents credentials to president www.theubpost.mn

President Kh.Battulga received credentials from Ambassador of North Korea to Mongolia O Sung Ho at the State Palace on January 8. The president sat down with the new ambassador to exchange views on the relations and cooperation between the two countries.

Thermal Power Plant V project cancelled www.gogo.mn

The Ministry of Energy reports that it will not continue with plans for Thermal Power Plant V (TPP5), which has been in discussion since 2011.

Automated factory to stimulate reduction of air pollution www.montsame.mn

President Kh.Battulga visited a precast concrete panel factory of ‘Erel’ LLC.

The Promise of Infrastructure in Mongolia www.borgenmagazine.com

SEATTLE — After democratic reforms took place in Mongolia in 1991, a slow economic transition began. Due to the scarcity of investments, the construction of infrastructure in Mongolia displayed slow progress, which caused a major bottleneck in the development of the economy. The country does not have a seaport, so its transportation industry mainly depends on rail and road transport. The aviation industry in Mongolia is relatively underdeveloped. Improvements in these areas are key to the present and future growth of infrastructure in Mongolia.

Transportation
The Ulaanbaatar Railway connects China, Mongolia and Russia. This major line has a total length of 1,811 km, covering the needs of both passenger transportation and railway freight. Mongolia adopted wide-gauge standards for railway transportation, which increased costs and restricted the economic development of Mongolia. Due to the aging of railway equipment and technology, mineral exports also developed slowly.

The national road mileage in Mongolia is about 50,000 kilometers in total, which can be categorized as national highways, local roads and self-use road units. Only one-fifth of the national highways are asphalt roads. There are 12 highway ports in Mongolia, making it easier to link the roads with its neighbors.

Major Mongolian airlines include MIAT, Aero Mongolia and a few others, with flights on both international and domestic routes. The Chinggis Khaan International Airport is the largest international airport in Mongolia. Due to its one-way take-off and landing and the effects of cold weather, there are many delayed flights in spring and winter. A new international airport is currently under construction in the Sergelen district of Töv Province, which is expected to open in August 2018.

Power, Communications and Services
The electricity supply in Mongolia is mainly comprised of the power systems in the central, western and eastern regions. There are still 40 counties in two provinces not connected to the central power system. Due to the relatively small electrical power infrastructure and its supporting facilities, Mongolia is partially dependent on imports from China and Russia. The domestic power supply in Mongolia grew by an average of 5 percent annually during the past few years.

Mobicom, G-mobile, Skytel, Unitel and Mongolian Telecom are major providers of telecommunications in Mongolia, while the progress of communication services, mobile and cable television subscribers varies. The coverage of wireless networks in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar is relatively high, where complementary Wi-Fi services are provided in city buses, major districts, restaurants and shopping malls.

The two projects of Information and Communications Infrastructure Development and Mining Infrastructure Investment Support represent examples of improvements to service-oriented infrastructure in Mongolia. The former benefits rural residents by providing educational and commercial access to the internet in addition to more convenient communication. The latter provides technical assistance to Mongolia when analyzing and preparing infrastructure projects for possible investments in international standards.

Development Planning
Specific plans for developing infrastructure in Mongolia have been drawn up by the government. Strategic goals in developing transportation and power systems have been planned in different stages. Tasks in the first stage include the promotion of regulations and developments for smaller facilities in addition to improvements to the current network of roadways and supply systems. The planned work in the second stage is comprised of a few large projects related to large-scale clean coal and thermal power stations and achieving full internet coverage in provincial capital cities and major cities all over Mongolia.

The media and communications industry has been targeted as an accelerator of infrastructure in Mongolia. The technologies are applied to various fields such as healthcare, finance, business, environmental monitoring, national defense and emergency management. Mongolia is expected to have 95 percent coverage for fixed and mobile communication networks by 2021.

A bright future can be predicted for infrastructure in Mongolia. Its promotion of national GDP growth and the related industrial products will also bring new job opportunities. Thus, the focus on infrastructure will improve the lives of Mongolians in many different ways.

– Xin Gao