Thinly-populated Mongolia, sandwiched between Russia and China, is trying to ease its economic dependence on mining after a collapse in commodity prices sent its economy into a tailspin last year.

But President Khaltmaa Battulga said at a forum on food security in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday that Mongolia was not doing enough to protect agribusinesses, and should raise import taxes and provide more credit to the sector.

“Mongolian food producers use only 30 percent of their capacity, and the government doesn’t move its fingertips to support them,” he said.

Under Mongolia’s parliamentary system, the prime minister is the head of the government while the president can veto legislation and propose his own policies.

Battulga, a populist businessman elected in June, owns stakes in Mongolian food processors Mahimpecs and Talkh Chhikher.

Battulga went on to say that only 1 percent of Mongolian land is used for farming, but if favourable policies pushed that to around 3 percent, the country could become an exporter of healthy, organic wheat or potatoes.

He said Russia and China both levied high rates of tax on food imports, leaving Mongolia at a disadvantage, and local producers have also struggled to get loans.

Mongolia, traditionally a pastoral economy, has potential meat surpluses, with a population of 3.1 million people and over 70 million heads of livestock.

Beef imports into China are expected to increase as wealthier urban Chinese purchase more meat, with the country’s own herds likely to be limited by land and water constraints.

However, Battulga said Mongolia exported only 4 tonnes of beef to China in 2016 and has done nothing to address problems raised by China about the prevention of livestock diseases.

Gombo Nyamjargal, assistant representative of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Mongolia, said the country’s meat export business has been held back by animal health issues and hygiene requirements, as well as a lack of trade agreements.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) pushed Mongolia to diversify its resource-based economy as part of a $5.5 billion rescue package agreed earlier this year.

Agriculture accounted for 11.7 percent of Mongolia’s total gross domestic product in 2016, second only to the mining sector’s 20 percent. However, agriculture is vulnerable to desertification as well as long freezing winters known locally as dzuds.

“Investments, particularly in infrastructure, are extremely important. The Chinese initiative of the economic belt of the Silk Road catalyzes infrastructure investments,” he told the heads of major international organizations.

“The World Bank will help the countries within the initiative to take maximum advantage of the opportunities provided, in accordance with their own development strategies,” he added.

According to the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), an extra $1 billion is expected to be raised within a year as part of a planned $5 billion infrastructure investment fund for China’s Road and Belt program.

“We have raised the first $1.1 billion, we are going to raise the next billion probably within the next year, that’s my guess,” IFC Chief Investment Officer for infrastructure and natural resources Ram Mahidhara told Reuters.

The fundraising plans are part of IFC’s so-called Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP) that seeks to raise more than $5 billion from investors by 2021, he said. A large part of the funds will be deployed for Belt and Road related projects, the official added.

The Belt and Road Initiative was first proposed by China in 2013. It envisions two components: the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that are expected to cover more than 60 percent of the world’s population and more than a third of global economic output.

The Chinese proposal envisages the creation of six economic corridors: Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia, China-Indochina Peninsula, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Eurasian Land Bridge.

In 2015, Russia and China agreed a “new platform” for economic development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) has more than 100 member institutions representing over 90 nations across the globe, making the GPF the most important and comprehensive forum for regulatory institutions with an interest in the promotion of financial inclusion policy. The forum focuses on the development and improvement of national financial inclusion strategies and policies, and is used as a platform for senior financial regulators to exchange ideas and engage in peer-to-peer learning activities.

However, she will continue to work for the company as a consultant and will remain Petro Matad's appointed representative at the Mongolian Petroleum Exploration and Production Association.

Shares in Petro Matad were down 2.2% at 10.38 pence on Monday.

Friedland transformed what could have been a set of exciting drill results into 43 holes of “global significance in the copper world”.

Not that he doesn’t have a lot to work with.

Ivanhoe’s May update lifted Kamoa-Kakula’s resource base above a billion tonnes for the first time and thanks to grades that are a distant memory for Chile’s giants, the in-situ value is an eye-watering $193 a tonne at today’s prices.

Friedland said he’s looking forward to giving shareholders a “substantial” resource expansion in time for Christmas:

“Kamoa-Kakula already is independently ranked as the fifth-largest copper deposit in the world. Seeing the unprecedented rate of growth of high-grade copper resources since drilling began at Kakula in May 2016, I am confident now that soon it will be among the top three.

“The remarkable consistency of the ultra-high-grade copper mineralization at the Kakula Discovery is unlike anything geologists have ever seen in the DRC’s Copperbelt. The discovery remains open in virtually all directions, so the real question is, how much bigger and better is Kakula going to get?” Mr. Friedland added.
Eleven of the 14 rigs at the project are drilling to define resources over the entire strike length of Kakula which now extends at least 12km – an increase of roughly 60% since May.

Ivanhoe is clearly working the project hard. An updated preliminary economic assessment for two mines of 6m tonnes per year each is expected during the fourth quarter as is a base case pre-feasibility study for the the first phase of development of the deposit which Ivanhoe discovered a decade ago.

If things pan out as predicted Kamoa-Kakula would only be topped by Escondida in Chile and Australia's Olympic Dam in terms of sheer size. The DRC project (close to another venerable copper name; Kolwezi) will at the same time overtake Grasberg in Indonesia and Chile's Collahuasi in the rankings.

Ivanhoe and joint venture partner Zijin Mining each own just under 40% of the project and the DRC government 20%. China's Zijin came on board at the end of 2015 for what now seems a steal at not much more than $400m. Even considering at the time copper was barely holding above $2 a pound ($4,500 a tonne).

On Tuesday the bellwether metal was trading just above $3 / $6,650 consolidating a sparkling run since the beginning of June.

Acton spent eight years with WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for $19 billion in cash and stock.

A Stanford alumnus, Acton co-founded WhatsApp with Ukrainian immigrant Jan Koum in 2009. The duo worked at Yahoo before starting WhatsApp.

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S.Bayartsogt talked about current activities of the Ministry in fighting against crimes, detection of crimes and ensuring the public order, and then said Mongolia wanted to cooperate with the UEA in strengthening the collaboration between the Ministries, sharing experiences in law enforcement and training the human resource and providing them with mid-career training.

The Minister said that the two countries started their cooperation in the law enforcement sector and made an agreement to collaborate in empowering the law enforcement and police bodies and exchanging experience during his participation in an international forum of the Interpol held in Abu Dhabi and official meeting with Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.

At the meeting, the Mongolian side put forward a proposal to establish a cooperation memorandum between the Ministries and presented to the UAE a draft of the memorandum.

By the visiting program, the UAE Interior Ministry delegation will hold a meeting at the General Authority for Implementing Court Decisions and will get acquainted with activities of the General Police Department, the National Institute of Forensic Science as well a prison.

Sources familiar with the situation said that the banks sent a notification to the North's embassy in Beijing and its consulate general in Shenyang.

They said it demanded the bank accounts of all North Koreans, including diplomats, be emptied by the end of August.

Since then, financial transactions involving North Koreans are said to have almost ceased.

The sources added that North Koreans in principle aren't allowed to open new accounts.
It is rare for the Chinese banks to take such strict measures on North Korean diplomats, as even under UN sanctions each is allowed to open one account.

In June, the US government unilaterally punished a bank in Dandong, Liaoning Province, for allegedly facilitating the transfer of money for companies involved in the North's missile development.

The latest move is seen as China's attempt to show that it's taking a tougher line on the North.

However, it remains to be seen how much impact the measures would have on Pyongyang.

Many North Korean merchants in China are said to be doing business in cash or using the accounts of Chinese trading partners.