Insurance sector in GDP www.gogo.mn

The total assets of the domestic insurance market equals 0.9 percent of the GDP, an increase of 0.03 point compared to 2017.

Offshore assets of some Government officials disclosed www.ubinfo.mn

According to the information released by the Independent Authority Against Corruption of Mongolia (IAAC), a total of 20 Government officials notified to the IAAC of their declaration and transfer of assets in offshore countries and territories. Under the relevant law, the Government officials were ordered to close and drawback deposits from offshore zone banks, terminate the operations of legal entities, and sell, transfer, or revoke licenses of moveable and immoveable properties before April 6, 2018. During the designated period, two MPs, namely Batbold Sukhbaatar and Tsogtbaatar Damdin, Director of Financial Reporting and Accounting Departments of Bank of Mongolia, reported that they have transferred their company shares owned by their relatives in the offshore zone, including British Offshore assets of some Government officials disclosed Virgin Islands and Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland, to others in 2015 and 2017.

Yuan becoming safe haven for investors amid Russia-US standoff www.rt.com

Chinese assets have recently seen a significant inflow of investments after relations between Russia and the US took a turn for the worse, making investors search for a safe place for their cash.
The Chinese yuan is becoming a safe haven for global investors, Larry Brainard, TS Lombard chief emerging markets economist, told Bloomberg earlier this week. The analyst said that Chinese assets received a boost amid the sharp deterioration in Russia-US relations.

Treated wastewater to be reused www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A draft of ‘Program on ensuring safety of water supply for Ulaanbaatar citizens and improving sanitation facilities’ was approved by Ulaanbaatar city Governor's Council on April 19 and will be submitted to the People's Representative Meeting of the Capital city.

Mongolia, Russia agree to promote cooperation in radio frequency www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia and Russia signed an agreement here Thursday to promote cooperation in radio frequency and improve communication technology services in Mongolia.

Uzbekistan to supply cars and fruits to Mongolia www.akipress.com

AKIPRESS.COM - The JSC Uzavtosanoat leadership signed an agreement with Mongolia on export of its cars and fruits, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Mongolia said.

Infrastructure center to create better living conditions www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ S.Batbold, Governor of the Capital City and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar, worked in Chingeltei district on April 19. He saw a process of an implementation of the project to reduce air pollution and develop ger area, in particular he familiarized with the planning and location where a service center with unified infrastructure will be constructed.

German car producers could fall victim to US sanctions against Russian aluminum www.rt.com

Sanctions against top Russian aluminum producers are likely to hit European car production, according to Germany’s WVMetalle, a lobbying group for 655 metals companies.
The group says unless actions are taken, many car plants in Germany and Europe will be closed, and others will face supply disruption, Bloomberg reports.

New automobile sales on the rise www.gogo.mn

The Mongolian Automobile Distributors’ Association /MADA/ reported that its dealers saw an increase in sales of 40 percent in the first quarter of 2018, selling 610 automobiles, with more than 70 percent of those sold being SUVs.

Trump could be forced to hold summit with Kim Jong-un in Mongolia because dictator's aging plane can't make it safely to any other neutral venue www.dailymail.co.uk

Mongolia could end up as the winner of the competition to host President Trump and Kim Jong-un's historic sit down.

It is one of the only countries that's been floated that is within easy traveling distance for Kim and would serve as neutral territory for both leaders.

Kim is likely be confined to a 2,000 mile radius, The New York Times reported. His Soviet-era plane may not be able to fly further than that without stopping to refuel, the publication reported.

The North Korean dictator's aging private jet, an IL-62, has a factory specified range of 10,000 km, or 6,215 miles - but experts said it was unclear it could actually go that far safely.

'The idea that their aircraft are all very short range things is just inaccurate,' Dean Cheng, the senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center, told DailyMail.com.

Cheng pointed out that North Korea is also in possession of two Tupolev Tu-204 planes that have ranges of up to 3,600 miles. The Tu-204 was manufactured to compete with and is similar in make to the Boeing 757.

Whether Kim's plane will be able to fly thousands of miles safely or reliably, or the North Korea leader wants to make a long-distance flight, Cheng said, is another matter.

'At the end of the day I think the real question is going to be, and we don't have visibility into this, what are the constraints that Kim Jong-un has chosen to impose?' Cheng said. 'That more than anything else will probably be the deciding factor, after which is: we're not going to Pyongyang.'

Given the expected restraints on Kim's travel, Ulaanbaatar has emerged as a front-runner to host the summit that the U.S. government says is likely to take place in the next six weeks.

Ulaanbaatar has hosted talks between Japanese officials and the North Korean government on more than one occasion before.

Mongolia's former president, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, made note of those talks in a March tweet inviting Trump and Kim to his nation's capital city.

'A long waited breakthrough! Here is an offer: US President Trump and NK leader Kim meet in UB,' he said. 'Mongolia is the most suitable, neutral territory. We facilitated important meetings, including between Japan and NK.'

Kim's only known trip off the Korean Peninsula since he became North Korea's Supreme leader in 2011 was a March visit to Beijing.

He arrived in China by train, another mode of transportation he could utilize.

In November, Trump landed in Beijing to great fanfare. For days, he bragged about the red carpet roll out he received at both the airport and at an event the following day at The Great Hall of the People.

But Beijing is politically tricky location for Trump to travel to at the moment. He'll be under pressure if he goes there to negotiate with Chinese President Xi Jingping, as well. China and the United States are currently in a face-off over tariffs that analysts worry is the start of a trade war.

Trump shed some light this week on the locations that are under consideration for the conference with Kim during two days of talks with the Japanese government in Florida.

The president said five locations are being reviewed, and none of them are in the United States.

It is unthinkable that Trump would travel to Pyongyang to speak with Kim, a brutal dictator who's illicit nuclear and ballistic missile tests are what prompted the summit.

Panmunjom, a city inside the Demilitarized Zone between the North and the South, remains a possibility, though. It will serve as the site for a similar chat next Friday between Kim and Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea.

Assuming Kim could leave Asia, four cities in Europe were also thought to be on the table.

Geneva, Switzerland famously hosted a 1985 rendezvous between former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan.

Kim went to boarding school in Switzerland under a fake name and is familiar with the terrain.

Sweden has directly offered to facilitate talks with North Korea, suggesting Stockholm is under review.

The European nation acts as the 'protecting' power for the U.S. in North Korea, and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho visited the country in March.

Two other Nordic nations are thought to be dark horses for the summit: Finland and Norway.

Choe Kang Il, an official with North Korea’s foreign ministry, visited Helsinki in Finland March by way of Beijing.

Oslo is Norway is the location where U.S. and North Korean leaders convened in May of 2017 to negotiate the release of the American student Otto Warmbier.

He returned to the U.S. in a coma and died just after his release.

'North Korea is remarkably opaque. We don't know what places he would consider acceptable,' Cheng said of the short-list.

'I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un. And hopefully that will be a success. And maybe it will be, and maybe it won’t be. We don’t know,' Trump said. 'But I can say this: They do respect us. We are respectful of them. And we’re going to see what happens.'

The president said that talks between the U.S. and North Korea had already taken place at 'extremely high levels,' a comment that was later revealed to be a reference to CIA Director Mike Pompeo's clandestine trip to Pyongyang to meet with Kim in early April.

Trump threatened Wednesday not to attend the talks if they did not seem they would be 'fruitful' toward achieving the end goal of North Korean denuclearization, although he remains hopeful the meeting will occur and that it will be 'very successful.'

'If I think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go,' he asserted. 'If the meeting when I'm there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting, and will continue what we're doing or whatever it is that will continue,' he added.

Either way, Trump said, 'something will happen. So I like always remaining flexible, and will remain flexible here.'