Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh said that he sees the visit as an opportunity to advance the friendly relations and cooperation between Mongolia and Slovakia, and the bilateral Economic Forum to be held during the visit as a chance for businesses and enterprises to enter a new market.

“Aside from the priority areas - trade and economy, Mongolia and Slovakia can cooperate in food, animal husbandry, land farming, information technology, mining and other areas of mutual interest,” the Prime Minister noted.

Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini conveyed the greetings of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, saying that the visit will open a new page in bilateral relations. He expressed Slovakia’s interest in increasing bilateral trade turnover and working together in food, agriculture, information technology, e-governance and other areas. The two countries will continue the existing student exchange program.

While the company has already had reduced costs across its Australian businesses over the past five years, it’s now hoping to lower unit costs by further 10% in the medium term, BHP Minerals Australia president Mike Henry said Tuesday.

At the same time, BHP plans to lift its Australian iron ore production "run rate" to 290 million tonnes a year by the end of fiscal 2019, Henry said during a briefing in Adelaide. This, as the mining giant sees prices for iron ore and metallurgical coal rebounding sharply in two months, as buyers look to replenish stocks.

Once again BHP showed one of its favourite commodities in which to base future growth is copper, mostly due to the expected uptake of electric vehicles and renewable energy.

The company also pointed to a shortage of the red metal emerging by the early 2020s and says $100 billion in new mine spending is needed to meet demand over the next 15 years.

For now, BHP is pushing ahead with a study into a $2.1 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia.

The company already is in the midst of its biggest annual investment spending at Olympic Dam, rebuilding its smelter and targeting high-grade ore deposits through the expansion of its underground mine.

It will increase copper production from 166,000 tonnes last financial year to 230,000 tonnes in 2020.

In 2020, BHP’s board is expected to make a final investment decision on a $2.1 billion expansion that would lift production to 330,000 tonnes by 2023.

The reform is intended to enable the Mongolian credit industry to manage debtor insolvencies and collections in more effective, efficient and responsible ways. It will strengthen a critical piece of financial infrastructure, particularly for the financing of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It will also complement other areas of reforms that are being undertaken by the government to drive economic growth.

Going ahead, the project will focus on strengthening the legal and regulatory framework by updating the current bankruptcy law. In addition, it will develop capacities and standards for Mongolian insolvency professionals and promote non-judicial means of insolvency resolutions and improving debt collection standards.

"Strengthening bankruptcy legislation and improving the debt resolution system is one of the key elements of the government's plan to modernize Mongolia's legal framework by 2020. A good insolvency framework will facilitate the quick resolution of non-performing assets in the banking industry, support entrepreneurship and provide confidence to investors", said G. Bayasgalan, State Secretary of MOJHA, "With IFC's help, we will be able to incorporate international best practice in this reform and train a critical mass of insolvency professionals".

"We are pleased to start this new initiative with our partner MOJHA," said Tuyen D. Nguyen, IFC Resident Representative in Mongolia. He added, "International experience suggests that insolvency framework is a necessary foundation for the financial markets to function efficiently and safely. Most importantly, it will provide rules and standards for a quick resolution of the overly indebted individuals and SMEs, and enable the creditors to exit from problem loans in an orderly fashion."

This project in Mongolia is being supported by a Korea Trust Fund in the World Bank Group. IFC has successfully assisted dozens of financial infrastructure reforms in emerging markets related to secured transactions and movable asset finance development, credit reporting system, and bankruptcy and debt collection framework. Effective insolvency system helps to reduce uncertainty and potential risks faced by lenders and investors with predictable debt collection and recovery process. It also supports entrepreneurship by giving the insolvent business individuals reasonable exits and a fresh re-start.

The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission was established 17 years ago. The Commission has been responsibility for providing guidance and care for Mongolian and Tibetan people in Taiwan, preserving Mongolian and Tibetan culture, cultivating talents, studying Mongolian and Tibetan culture, and participating in humanitarian aid, economic trade, academics, cultural and medical exchanges with overseas Mongolian and Tibetan communities.

According to the Mongolian and Tibetan Society official website, on July 11, the Executive Yuan announced that MTAC will be dissolved, transferring many responsibilities to the Mainland Affairs Council's (MAC) Department of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, which will take the new name of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao, Mongolia and Tibet.

Shi Nengjie, chief executive of the Executive Yuan said, "After the withdrawal of the MTAC, various efforts will be conducted for the preservation of Mongolian and Tibetan culture, a responsibility that will be transferred to the Ministry of Culture. Messages from Mongolians and Tibetans in Taiwan will be collected and analysis will be moved to the Mainland Affairs Council... The posts will be shifted to the MAC and the MOFCOM respectively. An additional Mongolian-Tibetan cultural center will be set up in the Ministry of Culture.

Li Junlian, a Democratic Progressive Party legislator, said, "Mongolia and Tibet will be abolished as Taiwan's relations with Mongolia and Tibet change with time and space."

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was reported to have argued that it was “no longer necessary” to have a commission to deal with matters relating to Mongolians and Tibetans since Mongolia was now an independent country while Tibet was seeking to gain similar status.

The penetration of fixed lines in Mongolia has increased strongly over the past five years as a higher proportion of residences decide to take a fixed line access option. Penetration is however predicted to only increase slightly over the next five years to 2022. There is a continued migration from fixed-line services to mobile operators that have a much higher availability in the rural areas and access to applications and services in the urban areas. 

Fixed broadband penetration in Uzbekistan remains low mainly due to a limited number of fixed lines and the dominance of the mobile platform. However the market has grown very strongly over the past five years from a very small base. Over the next five years to 2022 moderate growth is expected to continue. A major driver of broadband growth among the general population will be affordable access to relevant content. 

Mongolia's mobile market has experienced relatively slow growth over the past five years in a relatively mature market. High mobile penetration levels in Mongolia are also indicative of healthy competition. Slow to moderate growth is predicted over the next five years to 2022. The market will be constrained from higher growth due to strong local competition and a further maturing market. 
Mobile broadband has become an increasingly attractive proposition due to the increasingly faster speeds offered coupled with improving tariffs due to strong competition among the four mobile network operators. Mobile broadband subscriptions grew rapidly commencing in 2012, with this growth attributed to the increasing popularity of 3G mobile broadband products. 

The launch of 4G LTE services by all the major operators in 2017 will see the uptake of mobile broadband customers continue to grow strongly over the next five years to 2022. 
In April 2017 the Mongol Sat-1 platform was launched in partnership with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS). It is Mongolia's first satellite to support domestic telecoms, broadband and television services including TV, internet, radio, e-services and government links. The satellite will help to reach users in isolated rural areas of the country.

Yokozuna Grand Champion Harumafuji has admitted to assaulting lower-ranked Takanoiwa in a lounge bar.

A Mongolian newspaper, the Daily News, reported that when an advisory body to the Japan Sumo Association met on Monday, many members called for Harumafuji to be severely punished. The paper said both wrestlers would face tough measures.

The News MN website reported that the advisory body may urge Harumafuji to retire or suspend him from tournaments for a long time.

A man in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, said Harumafuji beat Takanoiwa because the lower-ranked wrestler did not respect his senior.

Another man said he wants the yokozuna to continue his sumo career in Japan, and he hopes that a positive solution can be found to settle the case.

On the secondary market for government bonds, 130 bonds with a value of MNT12.6 million were traded.

The MSE ALL Index decreased by 0.47 percent to stand at 1,267.19 points. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,416,918,138,048.

The investment, which was approved by the Uber board in October, would also trigger a string of governance changes at Uber that would limit some early shareholders’ voting power, expand the board from 11 to 17 directors and cut the influence of former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick.

The investment and board moves are supported by new Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi and come at the end of a year of scandals and change for Uber, including the announcement last week that executives covered up a major hack in 2016.

The consortium of investors led by SoftBank and Dragoneer Investment Group plan to take a stake of at least 14 percent in the ride-services company. The tender offer will launch on Tuesday, sources told Reuters, and investors have nearly a month to respond.

The SoftBank-led investor group will acquire two of the new board seats, with the remaining four going to independent directors.

Nearly all secondary transactions, when a new investor purchases from existing shareholders, come at a discount to the company’s valuation.

However, the 30 percent discount is steep given Uber’s plan to launch an initial public offering in 2019, said Phil Haslett, co-founder and head of investments at secondary marketplace EquityZen. Usually valuation cuts of this size happen when a company is at risk of being sold at a heavy discount, which Uber is not.

“It really comes down to a re-pricing of Uber’s value,” Haslett said.

Since it was valued at $68.5 billion more than a year ago, the company has been hit by scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment. It has also weathered federal criminal probes into software Uber used to deceive regulators and allegations of paying bribes to authorities in Asia, and a lawsuit by Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit Waymo, accusing Uber of stealing trade secrets.

Most recently, Uber revealed that the data of 57 million Uber customers and 600,000 drivers had been stolen in a breach more than a year ago, and that the company had paid two hackers $100,000 to cover it up. Since then, governments across the globe have launched investigations into the incident. The scandal raised questions about whether SoftBank would try to renegotiate the deal for better terms.

But Uber said on Friday it had informed SoftBank about the data breach prior to informing the public. However, “our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete,” a spokesman said.

A person familiar with the matter said SoftBank would have already factored any negative impact from the breach into its negotiations with Uber.

Bloomberg reported the offer price earlier on Monday.