December 06, 2017 trading report www.mse.mn

On December 06, 2017, 974,411 shares of 22 firms listed as Tier I, II, and III were traded. 2 firms’ shares increased in price, 16 decreased and 4 remained unchanged. Gutal JSC /GTL/ was the top performer, increasing 2.05 percent, whereas Ulaansan JSC /UNS/ was the worst performer, decreasing 13.33 percent.

Nestle to buy vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion www.reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle is buying Canadian vitamin maker Atrium Innovations for $2.3 billion, expanding its presence in consumer healthcare as it seeks to offset weakness in packaged foods.

China to increase mining and meat exports from Mongolia www.news.mn

Mongolia's Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar is making an official visit to China from 3 to 5 December at the invitation of of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. It is the Mongolian minister's first visit to China since the new government in Mongolia was established in October.

Bitcoin breaks all-time high, smashing $12,000 www.rt.com

The world’s most valuable digital currency set another record on Tuesday, hitting $12,000 as of 13:40 GMT. Bitcoin has been smashing symbolic price barriers every few days, slightly retreating at times, and then accelerating to reach new heights.

Prime Minister reports on government’s foreign policy www.theubpost.mn

During Parliament’s Friday session, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh gave a statement regarding Cabinet’s foreign policy.

At the beginning of his speech, the Premier highlighted that as executing a robust foreign policy is significant for achieving national prosperity, when it comes to foreign policy, carrying out a consistent foreign policy is of great important for the country to succeed in strengthening its relations and cooperation with the world. Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh stressed that the government will seek to strengthen Mongolia’s relations and cooperation in politics, economy and other sectors with other countries; improve its position among the international community; and maintain a foreign policy for strengthening independence and sovereignty through development. He noted that strengthening the country’s relations and cooperation with the two neighbor countries by promoting collaborations between intergovernmental commissions, task forces and other cooperation mechanisms, and pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation is priority for the government.

U.Khurelsukh emphasized that as mutual collaboration in areas along the Mongolia-Russia border under a medium-term program for the development of Mongolia-Russia strategic partnership is a key cooperation area, and noted that there should be a greater focus on enhancing the legal and regulatory environment for taking this collaboration to a new level, and the government is collaborating with Russia to establish an intergovernmental agreement to move forward with this cooperation. He said that to increase trade turnover between Mongolia and Russia, the government is working to establish a free-trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Mongolia to eliminate challenges regarding tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. Russia and Kyrgyzstan, out of EAEU’s five member states, have supported Mongolia’s proposal to set up a joint task force to study the feasibility of the free-trade agreement.

The Prime Minister pointed out that to develop Mongolia and China’s comprehensive strategic partnership in all sectors, the government is actively working to accelerate cooperation between the Mongolia-China intergovernmental commission on trade, economy, science, and technological cooperation, and council of mineral resources, energy and infrastructure cooperation. U.Khurelsukh said moving forward with megaprojects, improving the efficiency of loans granted by China to Mongolia, and deal with other issues facing the two countries’ economic cooperation are also areas of focus for Cabinet.
Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh noted that the government is discussing to launch mining, energy, construction, agriculture, and roads and transport megaprojects through mutually beneficial cooperation with China, and will carry out Mongolia’s Development Road project in connection with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

He also stated that as the economic corridor program by Russia, China and Mongolia will be developed in not only transport and customs, but also in other sectors, the government will seek other collaboration opportunities under this program.

The Premier emphasized that consultative mechanisms between Mongolia and the United States on political, security and regional issues is an example of strengthening relations and cooperation between the two countries and noted that Mongolia is hoping to increase US investment in the country. U.Khurelsukh stressed that another example of successful cooperation of the two countries are the shared values of democracy, freedom, and human rights, which led to the US’s Millennium Challenge Corporation to grant 350 million USD in aid under its second compact agreement with Mongolia to improve water supply facilities in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar where a large percent of the country’s population are residing.

He underlined that Mongolia is focusing on strengthening friendly relations and developing cooperation with countries in the Asia and Pacific region, and the country is successfully developing strategic partnerships with Japan and India, a comprehensive partnership with South Korea, and expanded partnership with Australia. The Premier cited that since the economic partnership agreement between Mongolia and Japan entered into force, trade between the two countries has increased by 18 percent.

U.Khurelsukh pointed out that defense and security cooperation between Mongolia and India have been deepening in recent years, and as a joint study to establish an economic partnership between the two countries has been completed this year, the two sides will start negotiations next year about establishing the economic partnership, which is expected to help Mongolia free up trade, develop a wide range of economic cooperation with India and increase people to people exchange between the two countries.

In his speech about cooperation between Mongolia and the European Union, U.Khurelsukh said that as the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and its member states and Mongolia entered into force on November 1 this year, Mongolia has opportunities to cooperate with the EU’s 28 member states in the areas of trade, economy, education, culture and science.

The Prime Minister stated the government is working to increase Mongolia’s participation in international and regional cooperation organizations to promote mutual interests of landlocked developing countries, host the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asia Security, and increase participation in UN peacekeeping missions. Mongolia is serving as a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 2015 to 2018, and during its three-year term, the country has worked under effective leadership to make contribution to activities of the international community; strengthen protection of human rights; promote gender equality; protect the rights of children, women and people with disabilities; combat human trafficking; eliminate race and gender discrimination; abolish the death penalty; and promote freedom of expression.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the government will task over 40 diplomatic missions representing Mongolia to actively collaborate with other countries to bring investment, new ideas and initiatives, soft loans and other assistance to Mongolia’s small and medium-sized enterprises. He added that the government plans to establish a permanent council of technology, innovation and information under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that will provide national enterprises and entrepreneurs new information by learning more about innovative technology and innovation based on scientific achievements, successful international experiences, and opportunities to access international markets.

Copper price plunges www.mining.com

Copper futures trading in New York cratered on Tuesday on doubts about the strength of Chinese demand for the metal, an improving supply picture and a jump in warehouse stocks of the metal.

Mongolian and China to cooperate on border jam www.montsame.mn

Beijing /MONTSAME/ “Mongolia and China reviewed the actions and measures taken in 2017 within bilateral cooperation and identified the main directions for 2018,” said D.Gankhuyag, Ambassador of Mongolia to the People’s Republic of China on December 5.

First tax havens blacklist published by EU www.bbc.com

The European Union has published its first blacklist of tax havens, naming 17 territories including Saint Lucia, Barbados and South Korea.

A "watchlist" of 47 countries promising to change their tax rules to meet EU standards has also been issued.
The "grey list" includes several with UK links, including Hong Kong, Jersey, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, as well as Switzerland and Turkey.
Both lists have been criticised as omitting the most notorious tax havens.
The lists follow the leaking of the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, revealing how companies and individuals hid their wealth from tax authorities around the world in offshore accounts.
EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the blacklist represented "substantial progress", adding: "Its very existence is an important step forward. But because it is the first EU list, it remains an insufficient response to the scale of tax evasion worldwide."
To determine whether a country is a "non-cooperative jurisdiction" the EU index measures the transparency of its tax regime, tax rates and whether the tax system encourages multinationals to unfairly shift profits to low tax regimes to avoid higher duties in other states. In particular these include tax systems that offer incentives such as 0% corporate tax to foreign companies.
EU members have been left to decide what action to take against the offenders. Ministers ruled out imposing a withholding tax on transactions to tax havens as well as other financial sanctions.
Some states, such as Luxembourg and Malta, opposed stricter sanctions, according to officials. EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said "stronger countermeasures would have been preferable".
Panama is one of the 17 countries listed by the EU but its president, Juan Carlos Varela, said the country was "not in any way a tax haven".
The EU is encouraging member states to take what it calls "defensive actions" against those countries that do not reform their tax systems.
The UK-based charity Oxfam last week published its own list of 35 countries that it said should be blacklisted.
Oli Pearce, Oxfam's inequality and tax policy advisor, said: "It is disturbing to see mostly small countries on the EU blacklist, while the most notorious tax havens - UK-linked places like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the Virgin Islands - escape with a place on the 'grey list'.
"Although we recognise this is a step in the right direction, if EU leaders let too many tax havens off the hook we'll all lose out. A place on the grey list must not mean tax havens get off scot-free."
However, tax campaigner Richard Murphy said some countries on the grey list could still face heavy sanctions if they failed to reform their tax systems.
He said EU countries will be encouraged to disallow payments made to these places for tax purposes, or to charge withholding taxes on interest payments to them.
That tactic could "utterly neuter their so-called status as 'tax neutral international financial centres' by ensuring that all monies they receive have been taxed before getting there", Mr Murphy said.
"The EU is also saying to the UK that it is taking real measures against British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and the message is - if you go the same way as them with a similar low-tax regime after Brexit, you'll be sanctioned too."
The 17 blacklisted territories are:
American Samoa
Bahrain
Barbados
Grenada
Guam
South Korea
Macau
The Marshall Islands
Mongolia
Namibia
Palau
Panama
Saint Lucia
Samoa
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
The EU made exceptions for countries faced with natural disasters such as hurricanes, and put the process temporarily on hold.

Mongolia's president vetoes 2018 budget www.reuters.com

ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) - Mongolia’s president on Tuesday vetoed the 2018 budget passed by parliament in November, saying the planned deficit would violate the terms of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout agreement.

December 05, 2017 trading report mse.mn 2017 12 06

On December 05, 2017, 960,758 shares of 25 firms listed as Tier I, II, and III were traded. 11 firms’ shares increased in price, 11 decreased and 3 remained unchanged. APU JSC /APU/ was the top performer, increasing 15.00 percent, whereas Sharyn Gol JSC /SHG/ was the worst performer, decreasing 5.79 percent.