The countries will build a 1,200-kilometer long pipeline from Iran to India with the Russian energy major Gazprom developing several Iranian deposits along the route of the future pipeline.“The project will be implemented with the participation of Iranian, Pakistani and Indian firms,” said Novak.

The parties will work on the list of gas fields and prepare the necessary planning documentation. Construction is expected to start next year, according to the minister.“

This is a memorandum between the ministries. We have agreed to assist in the implementation of the project for gas supply from Iran to India. This is a large-scale project with Gazprom participation. The company will develop gas fields on Iranian soil with all the necessary infrastructure for gas supplies to India to be built,” Novak said.

Novak didn’t disclose how much it will cost but said it will be significant, as the pipeline will include an underwater part that will pass through the Persian Gulf.

Iran has been ramping up energy production to restore much of its lost market share since international sanctions were eased in 2015. However, decades of economic isolation and underinvestment left the country’s oil and gas infrastructure outdated.

International energy corporations took a chance to work in Iran with France's Total becoming the first to sign a deal to develop the country’s South Pars fields. The company estimated the initial investment at a billion dollars.
Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s Eni, and Russia’s Rosneft are among more than 30 foreign companies that have qualified for oil and gas projects in Iran since sanctions were lifted.

American corporations are prohibited from working in the Islamic Republic except through foreign subsidiaries.

Developing countries carried out 206 reforms, accounting for 78 percent of the total reforms, with Sub-Saharan Africa implementing 83 reforms and South Asia implementing a record 20 reforms. A large number of reforms centered on improving access to credit and registering a new business, with 38 reforms each, as well as facilitating cross border trade, with 33 reforms.

Mongolia implemented substantive reforms to boost SME financing through Secured Transactions Reform project. Access to finance is a challenge faced by many Mongolian SMEs, which struggle to obtain bank loans as they do not own land or buildings that banks generally seek as collateral.

To address this issue, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Ministry of Justice have partnered with the Bank of Mongolia, Mongolia Bankers’ Association, and other stakeholders since 2013 to help reform the country’s secured transactions system to unlock affordable financing for SMEs. As part of the reform, a web-based pledge-notice registry was launched in February 2017, enabling creditors to search for existing interests on movable assets that they intend to use as collateral and to file security interest on their approved collaterals. In addition, the IFC-supported Law on Tangible and Intangible Movable Property Pledge went into effect on March 1, 2017. The new law, along with the registry, allows SMEs to offer moveable assets such as accounts receivable, inventory, livestock, equipment, and future income as collateral to banks – a major move to improve access to finance for SMEs. The system also reduces the need for paper documents and notifies creation of pledge-rights to existing and prospective lenders.

To date, around 90,000 pledge-notices have been registered, 38 percent of which is equipment, 24 percent is livestock, 5.4 percent is account receivables, and 2.0 percent is vehicles. Women account for 24 percent of the total borrowers.

“We are very encouraged to see the strong early results from this project” said Tuyen D. Nguyen, IFC Resident Representative in Mongolia. “Mobilizing movable collateral to boost access to finance, especially for MSMEs, can play a significant role in Mongolia’s sustainable economic recovery and job creation.”

On the secondary market for government bonds, 9,900 bonds with a value of MNT978.1 million were traded.

The MSE ALL Index increased by 1.01 percent to stand at 1,145.15 points. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,209,423,625,837

The comments, delivered at a Bloomberg forum as part of LME Week, is a vote of confidence in Africa, which has suffered from investor caution over political risk and corruption scandals.

"From a mining perspective, Africa is the largest untapped source of growth for our industry," Bold Baatar, Rio Tinto's chief executive of energy and minerals, said, according to a copy of his speech.

"This provides us with a huge opportunity. It provides us with the opportunity, in partnership with the east, to be part of the once-in-a-lifetime transformation story of Africa."

Rio Tinto has strong relationships with China and other Asian customers that buy approximately 70 percent of its products.

China's development required bulk commodities, such as iron ore, but its needs are evolving as it focuses on implementing environmental standards and seeks to lead a shift to electric transport.

The world's biggest miner BHP has emphasised copper as its commodity of the future.

Rio Tinto, the second biggest major, has a massive copper project in Mongolia, but is also looking at less traditional commodities through its unit Rio Tinto Ventures.

They include the rare earth mineral monazite, used in heavy magnets for electric vehicles, which is produced from Rio Tinto's mineral sands project in Madagascar.

Elsewhere in Africa, Rio Tinto in Guinea mines bauxite, used to produce aluminium, which can make vehicles lighter and more energy efficient.

Rio Tinto is selling its stake in Guinea's giant Simandou iron ore project to Chinalco, China's biggest state-run aluminium producer, although the deal announced more than a year ago has yet to be finalised.

Rio's relationship with Africa has had its challenges.

It suspended one senior executive and accepted the resignation of a second after discovering $10.5 million in unexplained payments to a consultant in Guinea.

It also faces fraud allegations over coal assets it once owned in Mozambique.

Investors have this year been particularly wary of Africa after Tanzania banned unprocessed mineral exports as part of a plan to reap greater rewards from international miners, and South Africa proposed a new mining code that the industry has challenged.

(Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Editing by Mark Potter).

He reappointed all of his ministers, who were selected in a reshuffle in August. The reappointments are a bid to pursue continuity of key economic and diplomatic policies. The last time Japan's prime minister reappointed his entire cabinet was in 2005, when Junichiro Koizumi was in power.

Among those reappointed are Taro Aso, deputy prime minister and finance minister; Taro Kono, foreign minister; Itsunori Onodera, defense minister; and Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary.

Of the 20 ministers, two are women -- Seiko Noda, minister of internal affairs and communication, and Yoko Kamikawa, minister of justice.

Abe is expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday evening to explain how his new government will operate.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito won a resounding victory in the Oct. 22 poll. Having dissolved the all-important lower chamber of parliament to trigger the election, Abe took the victory as a vote of confidence in his government.

Wednesday's special parliamentary session also re-elected LDP member Tadamori Oshima as speaker of the lower house and Hirotaka Akamatsu, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, as vice speaker.

As newly elected prime minister, Abe will hold talks with Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi to confirm that the two parties will continue to govern in coalition. A new cabinet will be formed soon after the talks.

(Nikkei)

Titled Gong Shou Dao, which means the art of guard and defense, the 20-minute movie, which will not be seen in cinemas, is set to be released on November 11.

"That night ... that dream," Ma wrote in a post attached the movie's poster on China's microblogging platform Weibo on Saturday, without giving any details of the plot.

Jet Li, the movie's executive producer, told Sina, one of China's leading Internet-based media groups, "We all have the same dream to use the movie to promote traditional Chinese culture and pay a tribute to the predecessors in the field of Chinese kung fu."

Other big names among the film's crew include action stars Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing and Sammo Hung Kam-bo, boxing star Zou Shiming, Thai actor Tony Jaa and retired Mongolian sumo champion Asashoryu Akinori.

Ma, the executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, has long expressed interest in traditional Chinese culture, especially kung fu, and has practiced tai chi for many years.

Alibaba will become the biggest backer of the site and integrate parts of the business with its own e-commerce services. Warburg Pincus, Primavera Capital and CMB International also took part. The new funding round valued the company at between $1 billion and $2 billion, according to SouChe founder Yao Junhong.

SouChe sells used cars from dealers across the country, with interest in second-hand vehicles increasing as the Chinese economy begins to slow. The company also provides financing for customers to buy new vehicles for a year, which they can then purchase outright, trade in for a new model or hand back.The company may consider an initial public offering and could do so at a higher valuation than Qudian Inc., Yao said The online provider of credit products sold stock at a valuation of more than $6 billion last month.

“We are considering a U.S. IPO for next year, potentially towards the end of the year," Yao said. “But our finances are strong so we may not have to do it.”

The latest round follows an earlier funding that included Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, which is working with SouChe to finance products and services through a product called TanGeChe. Over 50,000 cars have been sold through financing, with data from Alibaba and customers used to reduce the risk of bad debt - Yao said its default rate stood at less than 1 percent. These are then turned into asset-backed securities to raise money from the banks to purchase more cars.

The company is expecting to hit 150 billion yuan ($22.6 billion) in 2017 gross merchandise volume, which refers to the total value of cars sold on its platform.

SouChe has raised $615 million in the past year. But rivals in the sector include Renrenche.Com, which raised $200 million from car hailing service Didi Chuxing in September as well as Uxin Group, which has raised $500 million. Another rival Guazi.com raised $400 million this year, according to the South China Morning Post, and this week launched a similar car financing program.

Uxin in particular is a key threat with search giant Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. among its shareholder base. However, Yao said his company’s advantage was its extensive connection to traditional offline used car dealerships.

On the secondary market for government bonds, 1,700 bonds with a value of MNT170.0 million were traded.

On the secondary market for corporate bonds, 2,025 bonds with a value of MNT202.5 million were traded.

The MSE ALL Index decreased by 0.51 percent to stand at 1,133.69 points. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,181,283,620,998