However, in order to save MNT 10 billion budget, the Cabinet had made specifications in the revision that the date of a referendum can be fixed 21 days prior to an election day so as to conduct the referendum with the June 26 Presidential election.

During the plenary session, Parliament Members expressed opposing stances to holding the referendum with the Presidential election, and the Parliament voted to postpone the referendum by 87.8 percent. Moreover, suggestions were made on conducting a public symposium before the referendum, and the Parliament agreed on holding the symposium from July 5 to September 10.

As such, the revised Law on Referendum was passed at its first reading.

On June 2, the Parliament also discussed and adopted a Resolution on ‘Ensuring sovereignty and participation of the people of Mongolia on Amendment of the Constitution’.

The resolution reflects that a draft document on the constitutional amendment, formulated by a designated working group following the 1st Deliberative Polling session of April 29-30, will be discussed by the public from June 5 to August 10; and the draft amendment to the Constitution will be publicized.
Kh.Aminaa

Within the framework of international BIRDS project, realized under the auspices of UNESCO and Government of Japan, the Mongolian miniature satellite ‘Mazaalai’ was thus launched to space alongside the satellites of Japan, Nigeria, Ghana and Bangladesh, other participating countries of the project.

Named after Mazaalai, a Gobi bear found in only Mongolia, the satellite was designed, developed and experimented by three Mongolian students, D.Erdenebaatar, D.Amartuvshin and T.Turtogtokh studying at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.

The miniature satellite is capable of taking 100m resolution images in the altitude of around 400km, transmitting data through 437MHz frequency modulation, identifying satellite locations, determining air density in the altitude of 400km, detecting space radiation and using ground stations as an international network.

National University of Mongolia celebrated the historic moment of launching Mongolia’s first ever satellite at 5 o’clock in the morning in front of its headquarters.

The year 1981 has a special significance in the history of modern Mongolia as aerospace engineer J.Gurragchaa became the first and only Mongolian to conduct a space mission along with Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. And 2017 thus becomes an another important year for Mongolia’s presence in space.

Greg Romain gave an update on the company's Bradshaw mine site, located on a parcel of land off Highway 655 near Timmins, at the recent Canadian Mining Expo.

“Gowest is a Canadian company. Everybody knows about us. We’re trying to develop the next new mine in Timmins,” he told the audience at the two-day event in Timmins.

The Bradshaw deposit is located on the Frankfield property, part of Gowest's North Timmins Gold Project (NTGP). Gowest is exploring additional gold targets on its 100+-square-kilometre NTGP land package and continues to evaluate the area, which is part of the prolific Timmins, Ontario gold camp.

Interest in the property goes back to the 1960s when magnetic aerial surveys were carried out because of the huge Kidd mine discovery. The Kidd mine is the world's deepest base-metal mine below sea level, mining at 9,600 feet with shaft bottom at 9,889 feet. The mine and concentrator are currently operated by Glencore (LON:GLEN).

Currently, Bradshaw has a National Instrument 43-101 indicated resource estimated at 2.1 million tonnes grading 6.19 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) containing 422,000 ounces (oz) Au and an inferred resource of 3.6 million tonnes grading 6.47 g/t Au containing 755,000 oz Au. Further, based on the pre-feasibility study (PFS) produced by Stantec Mining on June 9, 2015, Bradshaw contains mineral reserves in the probable category, using a 3 g/t Au cut-off and utilizing a gold price of US$1,200/oz, totalling 1.8 million tonnes grading 4.82 g/t Au for 277,000 oz Au.

On May 25 Gowest began driving underground, completing first blast and is now developing the main ramp towards the deposit. Ongoing definition drilling continues to identify promising zones above areas previously defined in the PFS, according to Gowest.

Fresh from a visit underground, Romain told the conference crews are about 60 metres into the face and will hit the mineralized zone at about 300 metres, in a couple of months. He says Gowest is targeting commercial production by 2018.

“Our objectives are very simple,” said Romain, quoted in The Sudbury Star. “Bulk sample. From bulk sample we’re going to move into pre-production and then right into production.”

Gowest plans to acquire half-ownership in the Redstone mill south of Timmins, and will also use an ore sorting machine to reject waste rock before it goes to the mill.

“What that’s going to do is when we crush the ore, we will increase the grade from about five grams up to about 10 to 12 grams before it goes to the mill. It rejects about 60% of the waste rock,” The Star reported.

Gowest stock, which trades at 20 cents a share, is up 29% year to date. Its market value is currently $59.4 million on the Venture exchange.

Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, conducted a robot survey of the deposit about 350 kilometers off Chiba Prefecture from April to May.

The area with cobalt-rich crusts was found nearly 30 years ago. It contains a large amount of cobalt and other rare metals.

The researchers say the surface of a submarine volcano at the depth of 1,500 to 5,500 meters was covered with the crusts.

The crusts extend for about 950 square kilometers and are more than 10 centimeters-thick. That's about 2 times as thick of cobalt-rich crusts found in other areas of the world.

An official at the agency says it is surprising such a huge amount of mineral resources are found near Japan's main island of Honshu.

The official says the agency hopes to conduct research on the presence of more resources and the technical feasibility of marine resource development around Japan.

The update of the multilateral development lender's Global Economic Prospects report marked the first time in several years that its June forecasts were not reduced from those published in January due to rising growth risks.

The World Bank's 2017 global growth forecast of 2.7 percent compares to its 2.4 percent estimate for 2016, a figure that was increased by a tenth of a percentage point since January.

The World Bank said advanced economies were showing signs of improvement, especially Japan and Europe, while the seven largest emerging markets - China, Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Russia - were again helping to drive global growth.

"With a fragile but real recovery now under way, countries should seize this moment to undertake institutional and market reforms that can attract private investment to help sustain growth in the long term," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

The bank boosted its 2017 growth forecast for Japan by 0.6 percentage point since January to 1.5 percent, while the euro zone's forecast was increased by 0.2 percentage point to 1.7 percent. In both cases, a pickup in exports and unconventional monetary easing are helping to support growth.

The World Bank said U.S. growth also is improving but it shaved 0.1 percentage point off its forecast for 2017 to 2.1 percent after weak growth early in the year caused by a pullback in consumer spending it viewed as temporary. It slightly lifted its 2018 U.S. growth forecast to 2.2 percent.

It left unchanged its forecast that China's growth would slow to 6.5 percent from 6.7 percent last year and predicted that commodity exporters Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Russia will see recessions end and positive growth resume this year.

But the World Bank warned that new trade restrictions could derail the recovery in trade that is benefiting many advanced and developing economies, citing actions being contemplated by the Trump administration.

Such restrictions could fall disproportionately on China and other Asian economies, the bank said.

"Significant disruption to China's exports would undermine its growth with large spillovers on the region," the bank said in the report. "Furthermore, trade-restricting measures in the United States could trigger retaliatory measures."

It said exports and investment in Mexico also could be negatively affected by the looming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, causing spillovers to Central America as well.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

The global audit, tax and advisory services major accords high regard to the fintech segment, which refers to online payment systems and other financial services offered digitally. KPMG will persuade Chinese companies to upgrade their systems so as to integrate fintech into their operations, he said.

"China is indeed taking the lead in global fintech," said Wang Lipeng, a partner at KPMG. "Fintech is bringing profound changes to the Chinese economy and industrial reforms."

He attributed China's lead in fintech to two key aspects: the fast-growing internet-related businesses; and the government's encouragement for innovation and entrepreneurship.

"Fintech benefits a lot from a culture of innovation and experts driving the development of internet-based businesses," Wang said.

According to a report by DBS Bank and EY, 40 percent of online consumers use electronic payment tools. China's investment on fintech last year was $8.8 billion, much higher than the previous year's level.

China is now home to four fintech unicorns－starups whose valuations have grown to $1 billion and above.

Ant Financial, from the Alibaba stable helmed by Jack Ma, leads the pack. It is followed by Luafx, a peer-to-peer lending platform powered by Ping An Insurance; Qufenqi, an online retailer that allows monthly installments; and JD Finance, a financial subsidiary of JD.com Inc, one of China's biggest online marketplaces.

Their rapid growth has lured traditional banks to fintech services. According to China Merchants Bank, it has earmarked 790 million yuan ($114 million) to encourage innovation in fintech projects.

In March, the bank agreed to grant 1 percent of its annual profit to fintech-related project innovation.

The bank also plans to intensify its efforts to adopt mobile technology, cloud computing, big data and blockchain technologies in its operations.

Industry observers, however, said fintech services should be adopted in a conscious way, not as a fad. Sringent risk management in enterprises holds the key, they said.

Chen Shengqiang, CEO of JD Finance, said in a recent message to the China Banking Regulatory Commssion that risk management is the very foundation of the fintech business.

Mongolians will choose their 5th President on June 26, Monday, and the standing candidates are Parliament Speaker M.Enkhbold, representing Mongolian People’s Party, former Member of Parliament Kh.Battulga, representing Democratic Party and former Member of Parliament S.Ganbaatar, representing Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party.

The General Election Commission handed over certificates of candidacy on May 27, Saturday.
Kh.Aminaa