On this day, the Bank of Mongolia granted “Certificate of Authenticity” to individuals and entities, who are contributing to increase “State Fund for Treasures” and foreign-exchange reserves of Mongolia by selling gold to BoM.

Within the frames of three-month campaign, training on selling gold to the Central Bank, in accordance with the law, will be held among the public by cooperating with government and non-government organizations, as well as activating advertisement and introducing related laws and regulations.

Furthermore, the Bank of Mongolia is aiming to promote actions on increasing foreign-exchange reserves, provide related information and gold price to public and private entities to prevent gold smuggling.

“Mongol Gold” campaign will be implemented in cooperation with central and regional branches of BoM, commercial banks and other entities.

The meeting was attended by Member of Parliament, Member of the Board of the Mongolia-Korea Economic Forum N.Enkhbold, Deputy Chairman of the Board G.Batkhuu, Head of Korea-Mongolia Cooperation Forum, Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Kim Tae Nyong, Mongolian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea B.Ganbold and Korean Ambassador to Mongolia U Sung.

Sides discussed bilateral economic cooperation, protection of the rights of Mongolians living in the Republic of Korea and the forum’s assistance to projects implemented in Mongolia by the Republic of Korea.

Prime Minister J.Erdenebat appreciated the forum’s bridging role in advancing bilateral relationship in all sectors, and wished success to the forum’s joint meeting which opened in Ulaanbaatar on August 5.

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Last week Salmon was in action at Goodwood in the 5½f Magnolia Cup, but the 53-year-old will be facing a completely different set of circumstances in a race expected to take around ten days for the final finishers to complete.

Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, David Redvers and Kevin Darley were part of a four-strong Qatar Racing team which tackled the race last year but, highlighting its attritional nature, only Redvers and Peter Molony managed to finish.

Speaking from the Mongolian Steppe on Monday, Salmon, who has been involved in racing as an owner with Gary Moore, said: "We had our first rehearsal and met some very small and enthusiastic Mongolian horses. Mine had two speeds: stopped and tied up, or galloping – so we did galloping!
"There's a bit of a contrast from a 17-hand horse to a 12½-hand Mongolian pony. There's a wide range of abilities and it's all rather marvellous."

Salmon is hoping not to finish last, and added: "There's a huge amount of luck involved as you don't know the horses and they don't know you. You also have to navigate and there aren't many landmarks, just a lot of grass."

Food poisoning is another potential hazard, and Salmon, a vegetarian, said: "One of the challenges for me is going to be keeping nourished. There's an animal called the marmot out here which the Mongolians like to eat, but some of them have the plague. So far I've eaten a lot of chocolate, and that's how I intend to continue."

She concluded: "I'll go as fast as I can for as long as I can stay upright."

The race begins on Wednesday and the course is modelled on the postal route and system developed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. Riders change horses every 40km and stay with the local herders or camp under the stars.

Salmon is one of 38 competitors, ten of whom are from Britain, including Salmon's husband Neil. The field also includes a South African seed potato farmer and a Swedish private investigator. At least conversations round the campfire should be interesting!

The price surge has also boosted bitcoin’s collective market capitalization to over $53 billion.

Last week, bitcoin divided into two currencies. The solution dubbed SegWit2x has been debated for a long while in the bitcoin community, as developers wanted to retain the original blockchain that protects the cryptocurrency from hackers, while miners preferred to double the size of data blocks to make the network faster.

“The miner-orchestrated hard fork has had limited traction and will not impact the price or future development of bitcoin. The activation of SegWit is a significant milestone in bitcoin’s technological evolution,” said Aurelien Menant, chief executive officer of Gatecoin a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin has continued to grow, while Bitcoin Cash has plunged 67 percent from a record high fixed last week, buoying investor interest to its senior brother.

Bitcoin Cash is trading at around $270 per token with the market capitalization of the newcomer floating near $4.4 billion, according to Coin Market Cap.

“The scaling debate is not over yet. The promised 2mb block size increase due in November in accordance with the SegWit2x agreement may still be rejected by certain stakeholders,” the analyst stressed.

Since falling to $53 in May, iron ore prices have climbed by more than 40 per cent. On Monday, Benchmark Australian ore with 62 per cent iron content was up 3 per cent at $76.10 a tonne, according to the Steel Index.

Many Chinese mills, such as those in northern provinces asked by the government to lower output in an effort to cut emissions, are investing in larger and less polluting blast furnaces that allow them to run at full capacity. To take advantage of such technology and achieve their production goals, operators are demanding larger amounts of higher grades ores with iron content of 62 per cent and above.

The new development has been well received by big suppliers such as Vale (BZ:VALE5), BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO), particularly as the latter expects shipments from Down Under to reach 330 million tonnes this year.

On Monday, Rio's shares rose 2.2 per cent in Sydney, while BHP’s were up 2.5 per cent.

The Health Ministry says the organizational reforms for clinics, which were piloted last year, can reduce waiting times twelve-fold and boost consumer satisfaction by 10-15 percent.

Implementation of the scheme was planned through 2023.

But the Kremlin, recognizing its vote winning power, aims to launch the reforms across the country within months, Vedomosti reported.

“It will be one of the ongoing programs whose first results we can show to voters during the campaign,” Vedomosti cited a source close to the Kremlin as saying.

Vladimir Putin is expected to contest and win presidential elections next March, giving him what would be a fourth term.

According to China Railway Corp, the national railway operator, the new line has reduced the fastest rail journey between Ulanqab and Hohhot, the capital, from 56 minutes to 39 minutes. The cheapest ticket costs 44 yuan ($6.7).

The bullet train runs at 250 kilometers per hour. Ten bullet train services are scheduled daily.

The new 126-km line will be part of a 286.8-km high-speed railway that will connect Hohhot with Zhangjiakou, co-host of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, in Hebei province.

The finished railway, with a designed speed of 250 km/h, will be a major artery in North China upon its completion.

It is expected to be finished and put into service next year. At that time, the Zhangjiakou-Hohhot high-speed rail will be connected to the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway, which is currently under construction. Travel time from Hohhot to Beijing will be reduced from an average nine hours to less than three hours.

Last year, China's high-speed network reached 22,000 km, accounting for 65 percent of the world's total high-speed rail.

According to a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission in July last year, China will expand high-speed rail to 30,000 km by 2020, linking 80 percent of its major cities. By 2030, the network is planned to link all cities with populations of more than 500,000.

Held under the theme ‘The Challenge of Managing Outcome Focused and Risk Based Regulations for Asia Pacific States’, the five-day conference is being attended by over 400 delegates representing civil aviation authorities of the regional countries.

Olumuyiwa Benard, President of the Council of International Civil Aviation Organization expressed gratitude to the Government of Mongolia for hosting the international conference. “It has been estimated that global air traffic will increase twice in the next 15 years”, he said, adding that majority of this traffic will be in the Asia Pacific region.

“We will work with Mongolia on increasing air navigation safety as the increasing air traffic will burden the Mongolian airspace”.

The Mongolian side highlighted the importance of the conference in promoting Mongolia and the Mongolian civil aviation, and strengthening cooperation between Asia-Pacific countries and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The conference agenda includes a number of key issues such as aviation safety and air navigation, economic development of air transport, aviation and environment and technical and regional cooperation in addition to review of action items arising from the previous conference.

Last year, Mongolian civil aviation delegates led by G.Nyamdavaa, Director of General Civil Aviation Authority took part in the '53rd Conference of Directors General of Civil Aviations Asia & Pacific' held in Colombo city of the Democratic Sociality Republic of Sri Lanka. 
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