T.Enkhtuvshin, governor of Dornogovi has signed a cooperation agreement with E.Batzaya, director of ‘Desert Solar Power Waun’ LLC to construct the new power plant. The company is to begin construction work on the 30 mwt facility in May and plans to complete work by the end of the year.

The new power plant could potentially provide clean energy to households and to create 30-40 jobs.

Sainshand is the provincial capital of Dornogovi and an important town on the Trans-Mongolian railway. For many years it was planned to establish an 'industrial hub' in the vicinity for processing Mongolia's abundant raw materials. Currently, Sainshand is the proposed site of Mongolia's only oil refinery.

According to Minister of Labor and Social welfare, it is not clear yet, how much per cent out of all children will get child allowance, as the survey to define family livelihood level has just finished awaiting its results.

The Budgetary Standing Committee will discuss all proposals and conclusions of the standing committees before the second discussion of the budget bills at the plenary meeting.

Moreover, she said that the one of the ways to diversify the Mongolia's mining and animal husbandry-oriented economy is development of tourism sector.

Mongolia took part in ITB Berlin 2015 International tourism trade fair as an official partner with an aim to promote Mongolia abroad and jointly organized an International Silk Road Conference on Nomadic Tourism and Sustainable Cities in Ulaanbaatar in 2016 with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Cities Scientific Development Alliance (WCSDA).

In this connection, the Minister highlighted the significance of the conference, which gathered about 300 representatives from UNWTO Silk Road program member states, UNWTO affiliate members and Sister Cities International.

As Italy is famous for ancient history, culture, architecture and literature, it is one of the Silk Road Member States which receive the largest number of tourists each year. For instance, from Mongolia, about 8500 tourists traveled to Italy, whereas, Mongolia received over 3000 tourists from Italy last year.

Furthermore, Minister D.Ouynkhorol expressed her interest to cooperate with Italy towards training tourism event organizers, developing water tour in the Lake Khuvsgul, establishing temporary accommodation complex to enable safe and comfortable travel in the region, developing brand name products titled “Travels of Marco Polo”, promoting Mongolia in Italy, increasing the number of mutual travels, and signing MOU on cooperation of tourism development between the Governments of the two countries.

In turn, Ms. Dorina Bianchi, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of Italian Republic agreed on signing MOU as well as informed that Italy is ready to open Mongolian representative office of tourism in Rome to promote Mongolia in Italy. “Opening of the representative office in Rome will have a great significance to strengthen the promotion of Mongolia” she said. Moreover, Ms. Dorina Bianchi expressed her willingness to develop tourism near the Lake Khuvsgul, open tourism center of Italy in Mongolia as well as to jointly organize exhibitions of the Great Empires of the two countries. Tourism in Italy is being developed in two areas, sports and nature.

Since 2013 when President Xi Jinping first proposed the initiative, trade volume between China and economies along the trading routes amounted to $3 trillion, total investment reached $50 billion, and newly signed contracts exceeded $304.9 billion, Shen said.

China has signed approximately 50 government-level cooperation agreements with these economies and established 56 economic and trade cooperation zones, Shen added.

Shen made the remarks at a news conference on Monday when the Beijing-based China Bond Rating Co Ltd and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released a blue book of outbound investment and risks, with this year's emphasis on summarizing overseas investment along the Belt and Road countries and regions.

According to the annual report, China's outbound investment in those regions is expected to maintain rapid growth this year, with capital primarily flowing into sectors that meet the destinations' socioeconomic development demand.

Findings show that since 2015, energy, transportation and information technology are the top three fields attracting Chinese investors, the majority of whom come from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.

The report shows the top three destinations receiving most investment are Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Asia. Of the two commonly used modes, average investment scales of projects by mergers and acquisitions turn out bigger than those through greenfield investment.

Greenfield investment refers to a form of foreign direct investment where a parent company builds its operations in a foreign country from the ground up.

However, when seeking cross-border investment opportunities, Chinese companies are exposed to greater unexpected legal and cultural obstacles, the report said.

Risks in host countries, such as changing local policies and fluctuations in exchange rates, play decisive roles in investors' sustainable development and profitability, Feng Guanghua, chairman of the China Bond Rating Co Ltd, said at the news conference.

Despite the odds, homegrown companies will fulfill the goal of investing abroad by thorough preliminary investigation and prudent risk management, Shen said.

"Chinese companies need to join forces in overseas expansion, and beef up their respective advantages. They should keep away from vicious competition," he added, referring specially to a previous irrational investment frenzy.

United Continental Holdings was the biggest faller on the S&P 500 index at the opening bell.
But it started to pare losses in afternoon trading and was given a further boost by a second statement from Mr Munoz.
The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle. He is later seen with blood on his face.
Communications experts have predicted the incident could damage United Airlines' brand.
It comes just weeks after the company, whose slogan is "Fly the Friendly Skies", was criticised on social media for refusing to allow two teenage girls to board a flight because they were wearing leggings.
Wall Street jitters
The recovery in the United share price came as US stocks narrowed their losses in afternoon trading.
Wall Street shares were hit by investor nerves over geopolitical tensions between the US and Russia over Syria.
The S&P 500 share index itself finished 3.38 points lower at 2,353.78.
The Dow Jones fell 6.72 points to 20,651.30, while the tech-focused Nasdaq index ended 14.15 points lower at 5,866.77.
Investors sought out so-called safe haven assets, with gold gaining 1.6% to $1,274.26 an ounce and the Japanese yen rising 1% against the dollar.

Mr Ts.Sandui told the guests that Ulaanbaatar, the largest and capital city of Mongolia that accommodates 44 percent of the country’s population, is in a serious need of solutions in terms of infrastructure system, including drinking water and sewage network and access to heat and road system. The main concept of Ulaanbaatar is that of a ‘Happy City’. “We wish to cooperate with You on this”, he said.

In response, head of the delegation underlined that this meeting is becoming the first step of a long-time partnership. “Our group collaborates with 25 internationally-acknowledged banks and companies. We have started cooperation with India, Taiwan and Russia, and have the expertise to resolve problems facing Ulaanbaatar, such as air pollution, traffic jam and green facilities” he said and added that Shining Star is willing to kick off operation anytime soon.

The sides also exchanged opinions and reached some agreements on co-implementing the Happy Tower project and projects on building new sources of renewable energy and sophisticating the city’s waste management.

Seven women joined to form the group and started their production two months ago. They obtained sewing machines with financial support by the World Vision and a local development program of Dundgobi aimag. Durable bags are being made with various designs and for different uses, including for groceries, official documents and notebooks, using quality textiles and costs MNT1500-10000.

The group has supplied over 300 products to Nomin Supermarket in Ulaanbaatar and their local market. We are getting constant orders, said a member of the group P.Erdenechuluun.

ERDENET MINE: PROCUREMENT WILL BE SUPPLIED DIRECTLY BY MANUFACTURERS 
Erdenet Mine was established in 1978 with a capacity to mine 4 million tons of copper per year. Now it is processing 32 million tons of copper ore per year. 
In 2016, Erdenet mine centralized approximately MNT 400 billion to state budget and MNT 50 billion to local budget. As 100 percent national company, they changed its procurement policy. 
We announce tender and directly purchase from manufacturers, said D.Nemekhbayar, Head of Development Policy Department. 
Erdenet mine is not only one of the major consumers but also supplier due to they manufacture many types of products such as maintenance, mechanic and car plant. 
Erdenet mine spent MNT 397 billion on procurement last year which is equivalent to half of annual investment of the Ulaanbaatar city. ;
47 percent of domestic suppliers, 
36 percent of local suppliers, 
17 percent of foreign suppliers. 
Moreover, the company purchased products worth MNT 6 billion from 14 manufacturers in scope of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises. These manufacturers created more than 600 workplaces in Orkhon aimag