Mongolia wants to reintroduce capital punishment www.akipress.com

AKIPRESS.COM - President of Mongolia Khaltmaa Battulga intends to initiate draft amendments to the Criminal Code of Mongolia reinstating the capital punishment, Montsame state news agency reported.

UB night -time electricity discount ends www.news.mn

As a step towards cutting air pollution, which is extremely serious in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian government has approved regulation to cut electricity night tariff for ger district households, where most of the harmful smoke is produced, to zero.

Mongolia to globalise cashmere trade via China's Bohai exchange www.xinhuanet.com

Mongolia, supplier of about 40 percent of the world's raw cashmere, hopes to boost profit trading in the wool used in some of the world's priciest luxury fashions by opening up a new online platform for global buying via China's Bohai Commodity Exchange (BOCE) .

Bank of Mongolia statement www.mongolbank.mn

This statement is issued in relation to recent headlines of some media outlets.

Mongolbank purchases 734 kg gold in March www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Bank of Mongolia purchased 734 kg gold in March, it reported on April 2.

Parliamentary working group to look into OT Agreement www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Pursuant to an ordinance of the Speaker of Parliament, a working group has been formed to review the implementation of the 2009 Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement between the Government and UK-based Rio Tinto Group.

Mongolia-China trade turnover targeted to reach USD10 billion in near future www.montsame.mn

Beijing/MONTSAME/ MONTSAME News Agency’s Correspondent in Beijing, China interviewed Ambassador of Mongolia to China D.Gankhuyag in connection with forthcoming official visit (April 9) of Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh to China.

About present state of Mongolia-China relations, the Ambassador said, “Thanks to bilateral efforts in past period, cooperation between two countries has advanced in all social sectors within the comprehensive strategic partnership of the two countries. Talks in high levels has become constant. It gives an important impetus to strengthen friendly atmosphere of relations and mutual confidence.”

“In 2018, Mongolian delegates led by MP and Road and Transport Minister J.Bat-Erdene visited China successfully. Moreover, Mongolia-China Business Forum was organized at the Embassy. More events including the First Meeting of the Mongolia-China Joint Council on Humanitarian Exchange and 2nd meeting of permanent inter-parliamentary mechanism were organized in Beijing. These events played an important role to regularize high-level visits and boost bilateral cooperation in sectors of legislation, education, culture, sport and health. It is noteworthy that the bilateral relations are forwarding in all sectors such as politics, defense, economy, culture and humanity,” added the Ambassador.

In the interview, he also talked about possibilities of economic cooperation and interests of two sides to develop economic cooperation. He said, “It aims at changing existing dependence of Mongolia’s economy into multi-pillared. Within this purpose, an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding was established in 2017 to harmonize Mongolia’s ‘Road development’ initiative with China’s ‘The Belt and Road’. We have potential to take active part in ‘The Belt and Road’ initiative to intensify cooperation in all sectors, even cross-border economic cooperation and regional development.”

“Mongolia and China are eternal neighbors, bordering with 4700kms. There are 13 border checkpoints, through which citizens of the two countries are traveling and engaging in mutual trade activities. The main market of Mongolia’s export goods is China. As of this year, Mongolia exported its goods to 52 countries, of which 89.1 percent of the total export went to China. A trade turnover of the two countries is targeted to reach USD10 billion in near future. To fulfill this goal, it necessitates to create a favorable trading condition. The lower capacity of Mongolia’s border checkpoints and underdeveloped infrastructure are some of the main factors that restrict possibilities to expand bilateral trades. Making a conclusion on this matter, we are working to harmonize Mongolia’s short and long-term development policy and strategy with the development of border checkpoints, advance their ranking and types and upgrade operational conditions,” he stressed.

The Ambassador also mentioned about more cooperation possibilities in agriculture, tourism and energy sectors. “Further, it needs to develop a balanced trade and diversify export goods so that substitute each other.

Full interview will be published on the Mongol Messenger issue #14.

M. Unurzul

Ministry of Mining reports on 2017 income and 2018 licensing www.gogo.mn

The Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry reports that a total of 41 billion MNT was generated from licensing fees in 2017.

The ministry says that licensing fee revenue will decrease this year, as fewer licenses will be issued in 2018.

New license selection will begin this month, led by the ministry's newly formed selection committee. Proposals for mining projects in the provinces were submitted for 8.5 million hectares which were approved by Cabinet for potential exploration.

Currently, it is unclear how many licenses will be issued in 2018. Last year, 26 special permits for 11.5 hectares were granted, and 1,715 exploration permits and 1,330 production permits were granted nationwide.

State-owned companies saw 859 billion MNT in 2017 net profit www.gogo.mn

Based on 2017 financial reports from 86 fully and partially state-owned entities, including data on revenue, expenditure, profit, loss and liabilities, state-owned companies saw 859 billion MNT in net profit.

Russia & China to merge satellite tracking systems into one global navigation giant www.rt.com

Moscow and Beijing will team up to create an integrated navigation system based on Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and the Chinese BeiDou. The system will cover most of Eurasia.
The countries will reportedly negotiate the merger in May at the International Conference on Advanced Technologies in Manufacturing and Materials Engineering in the Chinese city of Harbin, Izvestia daily reports.

The initiative to merge the two separate systems is the result of a proposal made by the Chinese authorities to the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos. It is intended to create a joint global navigation satellite system, covering the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which include China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

The new system will allow the partners to share data on the positions of navigation satellite groups, improve working efficiency in a real-time environment, and to exchange corrections, where necessary. At the same time, Russian GLONASS may significantly broaden its user base.

“If the project is implemented, it will allow for an improvement in accuracy for both systems,” said a Roscosmos spokesperson, as quoted by the media.

If successful, the project will divide the entire world into two zones of influence by two united systems GLONASS-BeiDou and GPS-Galileo, operated by the US and the European Union, according to Andrey Ionin, a member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics.

Global Positioning System (GPS), the world’s oldest Global Navigation Satellite System, began operations in 1978 to provide location information and navigation to missile submarines and surface ships. The system was also used for hydrographic and geodetic surveying by the US army. The system was opened to civilian and commercial use in 1994. GPS currently operates 31 satellite constellations.

Russia’s GLONASS became operational in 1993. The navigation system has 27 satellites in orbit and all are operational. It is run by the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces and is currently the second alternative navigational system in operation.

Galileo is the European global navigation system, which is available for civilian and commercial use. It is a joint project by the European Space Agency and the European GNSS Agency. At present, there are 22 operational satellites out of a projected 30. Galileo started working in 2016 and is expected to reach full operational capability by 2020.

Chinese BeiDou was put into operation 2000 with limited coverage and navigation services offered mainly to users in China and neighboring regions. The system currently has a total of 22 operational satellites in orbit and the full constellation is projected to reach 35 satellites.

Japan and India are also developing their own regional navigation satellite systems. The Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is currently under construction. This is expected to become fully operational by the end of the current year. It will have seven satellites and four have already been sent into orbit.

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) covers India and nearby regions, extending up to 1,500km. Its seven satellites are currently in orbit, but the first one has been out of operation after all rubidium atomic clocks on board failed in 2017.