The decision follows “commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns,” according to an EU press release on Tuesday. “Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Panama, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring,” the statement said.

It added that the European Council had agreed that the step was justified in light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by those countries.

“Our listing process is already proving its worth,” said Vladislav Goranov, minister for finance of Bulgaria, which currently holds the EU Council presidency. “Jurisdictions around the world have worked hard to make commitments to reform their tax policies. Our aim is to promote good tax governance globally.”

The decision leaves nine countries on the list of ‘non-cooperative jurisdictions’ – American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago.

The blacklist was initially announced by the EU on December 5, 2017. To determine whether a country is a "non-cooperative jurisdiction" the EU index measured the transparency of its tax regime and tax rates. It also checked whether the tax system encourages multinationals to unfairly shift profits to low tax regimes, avoiding higher duties in other states.

Forty-seven other nations were included in a public ‘gray’ list of countries which are currently not compliant with EU standards but have committed to change their tax rules. The lists followed the recent Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks.

The price of the seven-year Gerege bond rose by 0.01 percent for a value of 102.91 USD, while the price of the ten-year Chinggis bond rose by 0.2 percent for a value of 100.93 USD.

Increasing exports in 2017 have opened the door for greater revenue for Mongolia, with export value totaling six billion USD for the first time. Mongolia’s budget deficit saw a decrease in 2017, and the balance of payments surplus increased.

The Government of Mongolia issued two bonds in 2017, valued at a total of 1.4 billion USD, which helped reduce the financial needs of the Government of Mongolia, Moody’s highlighted.

Eight jurisdictions have been removed from the EU's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, following commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns, said a press release issued by the European Council.

“Mongolia, Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Panama, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring”, it said.

The Council agreed that a delisting was justified in the light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by these jurisdictions to address deficiencies identified by the EU. In each case, the commitments were backed by letters signed at a high political level.

In an effort to leave the list, Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar took some urgent measures such as the appointment of an Ambassador-at -Large, forming of a working group made of representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, sending an official letter to Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission and Foreign Ministers of 28 EU member states, and reiterating Mongolia’s commitment to the EU Ambassadors in Mongolia.

As such, the delisting restores Mongolia’s opportunities to develop its cooperation with the EU and its member states.
Kh.Aminaa

The two sides discussed ways to strengthen the relationship by setting up a joint working group to explore:

· whether funding costs can be reduced to improve benefits from the Oyu Tolgoi project for all shareholders

· an accelerated path of development for a power solution in Mongolia

· an acceleration of Oyu Tolgoi's strategy to enable private and public investments towards sustainable community development in Khanbogd, the town proximate to the mine

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said: "Rio Tinto remains fully committed to Oyu Tolgoi and Mongolia. Our nearly 14,000 employees and the people of Mongolia should be proud that Oyu Tolgoi is one of Rio Tinto's safest and most productive mining businesses in the world. We remain committed to creating opportunities for talented Mongolians to build their careers on a global stage.

"We want to work with the Government of Mongolia to create long-term sustainable solutions that benefit all stakeholders and the country while staying true to the established investment frameworks.

"We will continue to work together to solve outstanding issues as the joint working group progresses win-win solutions on matters such as power and community development."

As a result, the immigration officers discovered nearly 40 illegal foreign workers; they have already been expelled from Mongolia.

The Ministry of Road and Transport Development in cooperation with Mongolian Railway Company is organizing the international meeting with support from the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry and Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Minister of Road and Transport Development J.Bat-Erdene delivered opening remarks and said, “ Mongolia can efficiently connect its two neighbors and the route would be the shortest gateway connecting Asia with Europe,” emphasizing the relevance of the Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor Program, which was signed in June, 2016.

The international meeting focuses on Eastern Railway Corridor, one of the 32 projects projected in the Trilateral Economic Corridor Program, and is expected to play an important role in the development of not only Mongolia, but also the Northeast Asian region.

The Eastern Railway Corridor will connect Russia with northern Chinese ports by a 500-750 km shorter route than the Manzhouli- Zabaikalsk corridor, thus creating possibilities of cost-efficient circulation of the Far Eastern region natural resources. It is believed that the Eastern Railway Corridor can play a major role in the achievement of a goal set by Russia and China to increase bilateral trade volume to USD 200 billion by 2020.

Minister J.Bat-Erdene expressed his confidence that the trilateral consultation will help develop practical calculation of freight to be transported through the Eastern Railway Corridor in correspondence with the current state and future trends of mineral resources in Mongolia’s eastern region and volume of transit freight, and intensify trilateral cooperation in this area.
Kh.Aminaa

Construction at the site first began in 2008. TPP IV land and capital will soon be returned to the state, including 459.1 square meters and 621.5 square meters owned by Square Berg LLC.

Oyunii Kholboo LLC will be handing over a 96 square meter square, two-story facility to the state for registration by the Government agency for Policy Coordination on State Property.

EMC financed the installation of the four turbine generators powering the upgrade. The company expects to save 18.3 billion MNT with the capacity upgrade and lower its operational costs by 18.1 billion MNT.

Analysts also say that the upgrade will also help keep Ulaanbaatar’s energy system sustainable and consistently operational.

The minister said that 120 billion MNT from the state budget has been earmarked for financing Ipotek loans in 2018, and 200 billion MNT will be spent on loan repayment.

Demand for construction and development loans is still high and a working group has been established by the Finance Ministry to focus on improving the loan system and access to financing. The working group will study the possibility of lowering Ipotek loan interest and down payment requirements.

There are over 30,000 houses on the market, and in accordance with a parliamentary resolution on supporting the real estate market, some of the homes will be sold through partnerships established by the state, commercial banks, and construction companies within the next two years. Minister Kh. Badelkhan noted that 2018 will be a year of construction, with 60 schools and 90 kindergartens to be built.

The minister also mentioned that there are also projects that will be built with financing from foreign countries and international organizations, such as a central wastewater treatment plant in Ulaanbaatar financed by a loan from China, At Nogoon Lake, the construction of 1,800 residences will be financed by China, and other central wastewater treatment plants will be built or renovated in the provinces with support from Asian Development Bank and the Government of France. As for Ulaanbaatar's ger districts, infrastructure connecting homes to the city's central networks will be carried out with a state and city funds and 2 billion CNY grant from China.