AIIB welcomes 13 new members, 15 to join the queue www.chinadaily.com

Fifteen new members will soon join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will bring the total number of members to nearly 90, AIIB President Jin Liqun announced on Saturday.

Mongolian coal miner posts losses, tough market conditions offset price revival www.reuters.com

ULAANBAATAR, March 23 (Reuters) - Mongolia Mining Corp <0975.HK> reported losses of $154.2 million for 2016, despite a 20 percent jump in total revenue, with a resurgence in coal prices over the year unable to offset tough market conditions in the first half and high financing costs. Coal accounts for nearly half of mineral-rich Mongolia's total exports but weak infrastructure and high freight costs have forced the country to sell at discounted prices and prevented it from taking full advantage of its vast reserves. Delays to a railway project designed to help the landlocked nation deliver coal across its southern border into China have also held back the industry and eroded MMC's profitability. The firm reported an average selling price of $77.2 a tonne last year, 22 percent more than in 2015 after China's war on overcapacity helped cut coal supplies. But this was much lower than the average China spot price <ST-CNCCDS-MB> of around 946 yuan($137). MMC's hard coking coal sales rose 29.2 percent to 1.5 million tonnes in 2016. Mongolian Mining runs the Ukhaa Khudag mine in the Gobi desert that shares the same coal formation as Mongolia's huge state-owned Tavan Tolgoi mine, which the country hopes will attract billions of dollars in foreign investment. Mongolian coal is shipped by trucks to the Chinese border, about 240 kilometres (149 miles) away from Ukhaa Khudag. The country has long planned to build a railway to cut down on costs, but it has struggled to finance the project. "When MMC reaches full production rates of 7 million tonnes per year some time in 2018, it will be responsible for almost 10 percent of Mongolia's total GDP at current coal prices," said Harris Kupperman, chairman of the Mongolian Growth Group, a real estate firm that holds a stake in MMC. "MMC's future health is vital to the Mongolian economy." Mongolia's central bank said last week that the value of the country's coal exports grew 642 percent in February, compared with the same period of last year. According to data from China's customs authority this week, Mongolia overtook Indonesia to become China's No.2 source of imported non-lignite coal in February, with shipments up 211.6 percent on the year at nearly 2 million tonnes. [COAL/CN] Mongolia was also China's No.2 coking coal supplier last month, with shipments up 134 percent to 1.436 million tonnes. However, average prices of coking coal from Mongolia stood at $78.77 per tonne, far lower than the $171.2 average for all coking coal imported by China during the month. ($1 = 6.8854 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Terrence Edwards; Editing by David Stanway and Himani Sarkar) ((david.stanway@thomsonreuters.com; +86 21 6104 1799; Reuters Messaging: david.stanway.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MONGOLIA COAL/MMC

Chinese investors move in, take large slice of Latin American pie www.chinadaily.com.cn

Beijing to cut coal consumption by 30 percent in 2017 www.xinhuanet.com

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Beijing will cut coal consumption by 30 percent this year to reduce the source of air pollution, the Municipal Commission of City Management announced on Thursday.

100 kinds of factories to open in all regions www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Government of Mongolia, regardless of the current economic difficulties, is to maintain consistency of the “21:100” program on building new factories. This means that factories of 100 kinds of heavy and light production for substituting imports will be built in all 21 provinces of Mongolia.

Air pollution program’s initial cost totals to MNT 9.9 billion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The National Program on Reducing Air and Environmental Pollution is the key solution to the pressing issues of Ulaanbaatar, which a half of the country’s population call home, said a government official on Thursday during a meeting with journalists.

Twitter considers paid membership option www.bbc.com

Twitter is considering adding a paid membership option for businesses and power users.
The micro-blogging service, which has struggled to grow its user base in recent years, is carrying out surveys to “assess interest” in the idea.
Paying members would get access to an enhanced version of Tweetdeck, Twitter’s souped-up interface that offers more functionality than Twitter.com.
The company has not made any indication it is considering charging regular users of the service.
But a premium membership scheme could offer Twitter a new revenue stream at a time when users are increasingly turning to other networks such as Snapchat.
Twitter’s active user base has plateaued - and advertising revenues, currently the firms only meaningful income stream, are in decline. Twitter’s struggles come despite the online advertising market growing considerably in the past year.
'More valuable'
Twitter has surveyed a small selection of its users about the idea.
In a statement, the company said: "We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people’s Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we're exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals.”
In an email to selected users, the company described how the new tool would work.
"This premium tool set will provide valuable viewing, posting, and signaling tools like alerts, trends and activity analysis, advanced analytics, and composing and posting tools all in one customizable dashboard,” the note said.
"It will be designed to make it easier than ever to keep up with multiple interests, grow your audience, and see even more great content and information in real-time.”
If it goes ahead with premium accounts, Twitter will be competing with more established players like SocialFlow and HootSuite - companies that have offered enhanced ways to use Twitter for many years.
Why it has taken the company this long to roll out its own initiative is not clear. In 2009, co-founder Biz Stone said the firm had hired a product manager to develop premium features, but these never materialised - and Mr Stone left the company in 2011.

Satellite town to be built near new airport www.en.montsame.mn

Olon Ovoot port expanded to increase coal export www.en.montsame.mn

New procedure for exploration licenses to be adopted www.en.montsame.mn