Beginning from 2000, projects, supported by WHO, and the Governments of Luxembourg and China, are being implemented to digitalize health services with a purpose to provide quality and accessible health services by using advanced ICT technologies.

The Government of Mongolia and World Bank’s International Development Association signed a credit agreement on implementing ‘E-Health Project’ in June, 2015 and the agreement was ratified by the Mongolia’s Parliament in July, 2015.

The objective of the project is to improve integration and utilization of health information and e-health solutions for better health service delivery. It will design an e-health system to provide faster access to more integrated health information systems. It will speed the processing of referrals, avoid duplication of tests and procedures, and facilitate follow-up care. The project will pilot new e-health system in two aimags and one district of Ulaanbaatar city so that information to be shared among hospitals and healthcare providers, even in remote areas. 

Health Minister D. Sarangerel said, “Although there are some ongoing projects on building capacity of infectious and non-infectious disease information system and developing e-health system, it needs to satisfy their integration and unity, coordinate technical and financial supports of international donor organizations and increase involvement of the Government.”

The national consultative meeting brought together over 100 participants from the Ministry of Health, other ministries, agencies, international donor organizations, health centers of aimags, capital city and districts and other organizations.

Signing the agreement on behalf of the Government of Mongolia was Minister of Finance Ch. Khurelbaatar, while Country Director Yolanda Fernandez Lommen signed on behalf of ADB. First Secretary Hiroshi Fukasawa from the Embassy of Japan in Mongolia witnessed the event. Representative from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry also participated.

'The project supports the Mongolian government's efforts to improve agricultural productivity through inclusive value chains, climate change adaptation, and capacity building for farmers,' said Ms. Fernandez Lommen. 'The broad scope of this project reflects the work of the government and ADB to target key regions, sectors, and beneficiaries for poverty alleviation, livelihoods, and the environment. The goal is that these pilot projects are sustainable and can be replicated and scaled up elsewhere in the country.'

The grant is funded by the Japanese government-financed Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), which over the past 18 years has supported projects in Mongolia focusing on poverty alleviation, community development, improving livelihoods, and safeguarding the environment.

Unlike livestock, vegetable farming remains an underdeveloped sector in Mongolia despite good potential for cropping. The project will introduce a community-farming model, applying improved climate-resilient farming practices and high-level greenhouse technology. It will strengthen farm-to-market linkages and integrate farming groups into inclusive agriculture value chains.

Vegetable farmers generally earn low incomes and the country is heavily reliant on imported products. The demand for good quality, locally-grown fresh produce is on the rise as people relocate to cities and citizens become more aware of the need to extend their diets beyond traditional meat staples.

The project is expected to directly benefit at least 180 farming households, many of them headed by women, representing about 500 farmers and seed producers. Indirect benefits will accrue to at least 45,000 people in target districts, or soums.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members-48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totaled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in cofinancing.

On the secondary market for government bonds, 12 bonds with a value of MNT0.8 million were traded.

The MSE ALL Index decreased by 2.04 percent to stand at 1,177.31 points. The MSE market cap stands at MNT2,489,471,669,340

With the cryptocurrency’s booming price, the fortune of Nakamoto who is reportedly sitting on $17 billion could turn him into the world's first trillionaire.

The price of the world’s most valuable digital currency bitcoin is up 1,800 percent this year. Last week, it rocketed above $19,000 for the first time. With a market value of more than $288 billion, the cryptocurrency was trading at $17,254 on Wednesday.

Nakamoto is believed to hold nearly one million bitcoins, and he's never spent a single coin, according to media reports.

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the author of the research paper that conceived bitcoin about nine years ago, remains a mystery. To date, nobody knows who Nakamoto is. The name appears on the original document which proposed a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

There have been at least four people that have been named or have named themselves as Satoshi Nakamoto. Three years ago, Newsweek said a 64-year-old Japanese-American living in California named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto could be behind bitcoin. He had denied the report.

In 2016, an Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright claimed he was the founder, but that was also called into doubt.

Last month, billionaire Elon Musk denied rumors he was the mysterious inventor of bitcoin. A former intern at Musk’s space company SpaceX has suggested that “Satoshi is probably Elon” because of his deep understanding of economics and cryptography, grip on advanced coding languages, and the fact he is a “polymath.”

Beginning the meeting, Catherine Arnold said it looks forward to cooperate with the Ministry and requested to let her know about what cooperation possibilities they have.

In turn, D.Sumiyabazar expressed his gratitude to her request and stressed out of an importance of foreign investment in mining sector. He briefed about large projects being implemented in the sector. He also added that it encounters water issue to put strategically important deposits in southern Mongolia into economic circulation and to develop processing industries and infrastructure further.

For this reason, the Minister put forward a request to UK to render support and cooperate in implementing projects to transfer water through pipelines from eastern and western part to Gobi, instead of using underground water of Gobi region.

The Ambassador expressed her support for it and said that UK will support building ‘Geo-database of Mongolia’ and organizing ‘Mongolia Investors’ Forum’ in London.

China is expected to complete the China-Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline by the end of 2020, which will send up to 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Russia to China, according to China National Petroleum Corp.

The first phase of the pipeline linking Heihe in Heilongjiang province and Changling in Jilin province will be completed by October 2019, with the rest of the domestic pipelines linking Changling to Shanghai completed by the end of 2020, CNPC, the country's largest oil and gas producer by annual output, said on Wednesday.

Li Li, energy research director at ICIS China, a consulting company providing energy market analysis, said the step will further guarantee China's energy diversification.

"Completion of the natural gas pipeline will massively help ease China's shortage of natural gas while further diversifying China's energy supply," said Li.

China's natural gas demand will continue to increase toward 2040, outstripping domestic output by around 43 percent, according to a recent report released by the International Energy Agency.

China's annual gas production will more than double to 340 billion cu m by 2040, while consumption is expected to grow even faster, reaching 600 billion cu m, it said.

The natural gas pipeline is the China leg of the Russia-China natural gas pipeline, dubbed "Power of Siberia" that will provide China with natural gas under a 30-year term, with a planned annual capacity of 38 billion cu m.

The 3,371-kilometer China-Russia natural gas pipeline starts in Heihe and ends in Shanghai, passing through Heilongjiang, Jilin, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai.

Work on the Russian section of the east-route pipeline began in eastern Siberia in 2014 and in China in 2015.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Net Consulting, said the two countries, the world's second-largest energy consumer and the world's top energy producer, have always complemented each other as producers and exporters.

The pipeline, one of the latest examples of energy cooperation between China and Russia, benefits both countries, he said.

The "Power of Siberia" pipeline is one of the biggest Russia-China projects. The two countries signed a $400 billion 30-year agreement in 2014 to deliver 38 billion cu m of Russian gas to China annually.

The Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry took the measure in an effort to reduce the 120 km logjam of coal trucks at the Gashuunsukhait border crossing.

“It has been four months since the situation arose at the Gashuunsukhait border crossing. The decision aims to protect the rights of 4,000 truck drivers who are waiting to pass the border,” said D.Ariunbold, CEO of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC on December 14, speaking to a MONTSAME correspondent.

Is has been estimated that the 4,000 trucks will pass the border within 7-8 days, after which the coal loading will resume at the Tavan Tolgoi mine. After the logjam is relieved, the companies will begin to load coal on a quota in correlation with the number of trucks passing the border on daily basis so as to avoid similar complication. The quota is 45 percent for Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC, 40 percent for Energy Resources LLC and 15 percent for Tavan Tolgoi JSC.

By far, Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC has exported 8.5 million tons of coal although it planned to export 11 million tons of coal in 2017.

The landlocked nation between China and Russia is one of 17 jurisdictions outside the European Union that risk losing access to EU funds, or facing other forms of censure, after the bloc this month deemed them to not be cooperative on tax matters.

"We have to implement a series of coordinated measures at all levels of government," Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar said in comments posted on Facebook on Tuesday, without mentioning specifics.

The foreign ministry verified the remarks to Reuters on Wednesday, but declined to provide details.

Tsogtbaatar said he discussed the issue last week with officials of each EU member nation at a ministerial meeting in Vienna of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

It is important that Mongolia comply with international standards for tax, said Dendevsambuu Onchinsuren, the country managing partner for tax accountancy Deloitte Onch in Ulaanbaatar, the capital.

"Mongolia needs to cooperate with the EU," Onchinsuren said. "Also it needs to improve its transparency."

In 2011, Mongolia took the rare step of cancelling a tax treaty with the Netherlands, saying it would cost the country income from the Oyu Tolgoi mine jointly owned by mining giant Rio Tinto and the Mongolian government.