1 MONGOLIA MARKS CENTENNIAL WITH A NEW COURSE FOR CHANGE WWW.EASTASIAFORUM.ORG PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      2 E-MART OPENS FIFTH STORE IN ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA, TARGETING K-FOOD CRAZE WWW.BIZ.CHOSUN.COM PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      3 JAPAN AND MONGOLIA FORGE HISTORIC DEFENSE PACT UNDER THIRD NEIGHBOR STRATEGY WWW.ARMYRECOGNITION.COM  PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      4 CENTRAL BANK LOWERS ECONOMIC GROWTH FORECAST TO 5.2% WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      5 L. OYUN-ERDENE: EVERY CITIZEN WILL RECEIVE 350,000 MNT IN DIVIDENDS WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      6 THE BILL TO ELIMINATE THE QUOTA FOR FOREIGN WORKERS IN MONGOLIA HAS BEEN SUBMITTED WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      7 THE SECOND NATIONAL ONCOLOGY CENTER TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN ULAANBAATAR WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/20      8 GREEN BOND ISSUED FOR WASTE RECYCLING WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/19      9 BAGANUUR 50 MW BATTERY STORAGE POWER STATION SUPPLIES ENERGY TO CENTRAL SYSTEM WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/19      10 THE PENSION AMOUNT INCREASED BY SIX PERCENT WWW.GOGO.MN PUBLISHED:2024/12/19      КОКС ХИМИЙН ҮЙЛДВЭРИЙН БҮТЭЭН БАЙГУУЛАЛТЫГ ИРЭХ ОНЫ ХОЁРДУГААР УЛИРАЛД ЭХЛҮҮЛНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     "ЭРДЭНЭС ТАВАНТОЛГОЙ” ХК-ИЙН ХУВЬЦАА ЭЗЭМШИГЧ ИРГЭН БҮРД 135 МЯНГАН ТӨГРӨГ ӨНӨӨДӨР ОЛГОНО WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     ХУРИМТЛАЛЫН САНГИЙН ОРЛОГО 2040 ОНД 38 ИХ НАЯДАД ХҮРЭХ ТӨСӨӨЛӨЛ ГАРСАН WWW.NEWS.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     “ЭРДЭНЭС ОЮУ ТОЛГОЙ” ХХК-ИАС ХЭРЛЭН ТООНО ТӨСЛИЙГ ӨМНӨГОВЬ АЙМАГТ ТАНИЛЦУУЛЛАА WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     Л.ОЮУН-ЭРДЭНЭ: ХУРИМТЛАЛЫН САНГААС НЭГ ИРГЭНД 135 МЯНГАН ТӨГРӨГИЙН ХАДГАЛАМЖ ҮҮСЛЭЭ WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     “ENTRÉE RESOURCES” 2 ЖИЛ ГАРУЙ ҮРГЭЛЖИЛСЭН АРБИТРЫН МАРГААНД ЯЛАЛТ БАЙГУУЛАВ WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     “ORANO MINING”-ИЙН ГЭРЭЭ БОЛОН ГАШУУНСУХАЙТ-ГАНЦМОД БООМТЫН ТӨСЛИЙН АСУУДЛААР ЗАСГИЙН ГАЗАР ХУРАЛДАЖ БАЙНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/20     АЖИЛЧДЫН САРЫН ГОЛЧ ЦАЛИН III УЛИРЛЫН БАЙДЛААР ₮2 САЯ ОРЧИМ БАЙНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/19     PROGRESSIVE EQUITY RESEARCH: 2025 ОН “PETRO MATAD” КОМПАНИД ЭЭЛТЭЙ БАЙХААР БАЙНА WWW.BLOOMBERGTV.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/19     2026 ОНЫГ ДУУСТАЛ ГАДААД АЖИЛТНЫ ТОО, ХУВЬ ХЭМЖЭЭГ ХЯЗГААРЛАХГҮЙ БАЙХ ХУУЛИЙН ТӨСӨЛ ӨРГӨН МЭДҮҮЛЭВ WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2024/12/19    

Events

Name organizer Where
MBCC “Doing Business with Mongolia seminar and Christmas Receptiom” Dec 10. 2024 London UK MBCCI London UK Goodman LLC

NEWS

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Wal-Mart offers free two-day shipping in latest attempt to compete with Amazon www.reuters.com

 
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) will offer U.S. shoppers free two-day shipping on a minimum order of $35 starting Tuesday, its latest attempt to compete with rival Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) popular Prime shipping program.
 
Free shipping will replace 'Shipping Pass', Wal-Mart's existing two-day shipping program that charges shoppers an annual membership fee of $49. Amazon Prime charges customers $99 a year for two-day shipping that comes with additional features like a streaming video service.
 
Marc Lore, head of Wal-Mart's e-commerce operations, said the company's offer will be "most compelling" for shoppers looking for low prices, a wide assortment and fast shipping.
 
"In today's world of e-commerce, two-day free shipping is table stakes. It no longer makes sense to charge for it," Lore said on a conference call. He is the former head of online retailer Jet.com, which Wal-Mart bought for $3.3 billion last year.
 
The decision to scrap the membership fee is Lore's boldest move yet to challenge Amazon since he took charge of Wal-Mart's struggling online business. Earlier this month, Lore shuffled Wal-Mart's e-commerce decks.
 
The move is in line with the broader push by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon to narrow the gap with Amazon and give it an even more dominant position in U.S. e-commerce. The retailer has been investing in e-commerce for the past 15 years, but it still lags far behind its Seattle-based rival.
 
Wal-Mart's free shipping offer will be available on over 2 million items. It will include frequently ordered items such as household essentials, baby products, cleaning supplies and food items like cereal and peanut butter.
 
Wal-Mart said it will use its new online warehouses around the country to fulfill such orders and expects to ship many such items in just one day. In October, the retailer said it is on track to double the number of giant warehouses dedicated to online sales to 10 by the end of 2016.
 
Wal-Mart will also fully refund the membership fee for existing Shipping Pass members. The company started experimenting with Shipping Pass in 2015 and was trying to boost demand for the program by offering a free 30-day trial in 2016.
 
In a separate blog post, Lore said the retailer remains committed to saving consumers money. "I've been here for four months and I couldn't be more excited about how fast we are moving. It feels like a startup."
 
He indicated there will be more changes at the world's largest retailer.
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Dropbox Hits $1 Billion Revenue Run Rate www.forbes.com

 
Last year, Dropbox announced it had become cash flow positive. Now it has a new financial milestone.
Cofounder and CEO Drew Houston announced on Monday that Dropbox has passed $1 billion in annual revenue run rate, or revenue over a short time period extrapolated over a full year. Dropbox also claims that it is the fastest software-as-a-service (SAAS) company to reach this goal. Public competitor Box had just over $300 million in revenue its last full annual results.
Houston, a 33-year-old billionaire, also said that Dropbox currently has 500 million users around the world and 200,000 paying business customers. He called their rapid revenue growth the result of an “incredibly powerful model” that combines their original consumer internet strategy with the enterprise solutions business they’ve focused on in recent years.
Over the last couple of years, Dropbox has struggled to justify its $10 billion private valuation. Wall Street values Box, which has a run rate over $400 million, at a $2.25 billion market capitalization. At the same multiples, Dropbox’s newly announced run rate would imply a value for the company around $5-$6 billion.
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Ambassador to Sri Lanka presents credentials www.en.montsame.mn

 
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Ganbold Gonchig, the newly accredited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka presented his credentials to President Maithripala Sirise on January 24.
Present at the occasion held in Sri Lankan capital Colombo were P.B. Abeykoon, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Esala Weerakoon, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other officials.
Following the ceremony, sides held a friendly talk during which the President talked about his efforts aimed at maintaining national unity, enforcing public order, eradicating poverty by ensuring economic growth, increasing employment, avoiding conflict and strengthening friendly ties with other countries. “Sri Lanka will support Mongolia in every aspect, and is willing to redevelop bilateral trade and economic cooperation”, President Maithripala Sirise remarked.
For his part, Ambassador Ganbold conveyed President Ts.Elbegdorj’s greetings, expressed his readiness to work towards developing Mongolia’ friendly relationship with Sri Lanka in bilateral and multi-lateral contexts as the two countries share many similarities, and appreciated Sri Lanka’s support in the process of Mongolia joining UN Human Rights Council.
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Sweden vows to ‘take measures’ if port city agrees to Nord Stream-2 construction www.rt.com

 
Sweden’s defense ministry has refuted reports that it has softened its stance on the use of Karlshamn as the base for the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream-2.
Previously, officials claimed that the pipeline - which would transport natural gas into the EU - was “detrimental to Sweden’s political and security interests.”
“The government’s assessment remains unchanged. We will meet representatives of Karlshamn community tonight to receive information from them. If they decide to rent out the port, we will need to take measures,” Marinette Nyh Radebo, press secretary of Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist, said ahead of an official decision set to be announced on Tuesday.
Nyh Radebo said that any approval of the project would be accompanied by a strengthening of the coast guard, armed forces, customs, and tighter surveillance over the strategic Baltic port, which is located 50 km away from the key Karlskrona naval base.
The official was responding to a report disseminated by state-owned Swedish Radio, which claimed that the government had its concerns assuaged, noting there is already a significant volume of Russian maritime traffic at the port.
The center-left alliance that controls the municipality of about 20,000 people had lobbied for project, which will follow the path of the first Nord Stream pipeline, completed in 2011, to be given the green light.
“The goal is still to implement the deal,” Mayor Per-Ola Mattsson, whose municipality will net an extra €3-6 million as a result, said on Monday. “Many other ports have Russian crews too, if it is a concern here, why isn’t it a concern anywhere else?”
The original 1,200-km pipeline, which runs ashore in Germany, was vehemently opposed by several Eastern European states, alarmed by Moscow’s potential grip on the continent’s energy security, but it was approved in Sweden.
The second pipeline, which will double the capacity of Nord Stream to 55 million cubic meters, is being built against an even fiercer backdrop of resistance, considering that Russia is still under EU sanctions.
If all goes to plan, Nord Stream-2, which is expected to cost around €10 billion, will come online in 2019. It will be majority-owned by Russian state giant Gazprom, with minority stakes held by Basf, E.On, Engie, OMV, and Shell.
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Ex-HBOS manager and five others face jail over £245m scam www.theguardian.com

 
A group of six financiers including a former senior HBOS banker face jail after being convicted on Monday for their roles in a scam involving £245m worth of fraudulent loans.
Ex-HBOS manager Lynden Scourfield, 54, was bribed by David Mills, 60, with foreign cruises and sex parties, a jury at Southwark crown court found on Monday.
In addition the former banker was lavished with stays in Mayfair hotels, trips to Las Vegas and Barbados, a £3,220 Cartier watch and enjoyed three nights on a six-star cruise from Nice to Saint Tropez.
In return, Scourfield, who had previously pleaded guilty to charges relating to his role in the scam last year, agreed to give inappropriate loans to struggling businesses, which allowed Mills and his associates to profit from imposing high consultancy fees on those firms.
Many of the businesses went bankrupt as a result and some of the owners lost their homes. Stephen Rowland, of the Crown Prosecution Service fraud division, said: “This had a very real impact on a lot of people, individuals who had worked had to build up companies.”
Mills, who faces the potential of a long prison term along with Scourfield, was convicted alongside his wife Alison, 51, their associates Michael Bancroft, 73, and Tony Cartwright, 72, for their various roles in running the fraud between 2003 and 2007. Mark Dobson, 56, another HBOS banker who used to work under Scourfield, was also found guilty.
A seventh man, accountant Jonathan Cohen, 57, was acquitted.
Scourfield was in charge of corporate customers experiencing financial difficulties at HBOS’s branch in Reading, Berkshire, until he resigned in 2007.
He received gifts of clothes, jewellery, luxury hotels, business-class flights and expensive meals at an oyster bar and a cheesecake restaurant, the jury heard during a four-month trial.
The court was told how more than £28m passed from HBOS through the bank accounts of either Mills, his wife or companies under his control, although not all of that sum was retained by the financier.
Mills’s wife also played an active role in the scheme, inviting Scourfield and his wife, plus Dobson, to go on trips to Ascot racecourse. Meanwhile Mills, Bancroft, Scourfield and their wives holidayed together in Barbados to celebrate Alison Mills’ 40th birthday.
Aside from stories of high end holidays, luxury yachts and expensive jewellery, the court also heard less glamorous evidence, including how Scourfield would receive regular bribes in the form of envelopes stuffed with thousands of pounds in cash to pay for sex workers at a flat in Marylebone, central London.
One woman who worked at Fantasy – a pornographic magazine company under Scourfield’s portfolio – said she was asked to arrange girls for the “posh twat banker friends”.
A diary entry from one of the sex workers read: “Met guys, me, Amber and Suzie. Chinese meal. Then drinks at flat and quick shag. Easy £1,500.”
Rowland said: “There was a very seedy side to this case and that’s indicative of the kind of mindset and the kind of sleazy elements of these kinds of crimes.”
The prosecution was brought after a six-year investigation by Thames Valley police that involved 150 officers who sifted through about 500,000 documents. Three rooms were needed to house the evidence collected during the investigation.
Scourfield pleaded guilty in August to six counts, including conspiracy to corrupt.
Mills and Bancroft were found guilty of six and five counts respectively, including conspiracy to corrupt and fraudulent trading. Alison Mills was convicted of one count of money laundering.
Dobson and Cartwright were both convicted on two counts.
Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.
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Road en route Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan to be renewed www.gogo.mn

Minister of Road and Transport Development D.Ganbat and relevant officials got acquainted with situation of paved-road en route Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan. The minister D.Ganbat stated that the road would be renovated soon, as it has a high risk of traffic accident.
“-There are two high-traffic roads en routes Ulaanbaatar-Nalaikh and Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan. 230 km Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan road is in situation that it has critical traffic overload. Traffic accident rate is high in the area. Therefore, we plan to immediately renovate this road by extending its lanes to four and paving with cement concrete. National cement product will be used for the refurbishment” said the Minister. The current road belongs to fourth class road and the renewed road would be first class.
Some 3500-3800 vehicles cross through the road a day, while it has a daily capacity of 600. The road has several point areas, including Bornuur Bridge, Tahilt Mountainpass, Seterhiin Hotol passage, where visible environment is poor and areas around Tsaidam Valley or at the point of 200 km from Ulaanbaatar the road are seriously broken due to soil texture of that area.
Preparations including approval of standard of cement concrete pavement in cold seasons and making blueprint of the road will be made from now to make it ready to start the road renovation work as soon as weather gets warmer. All possible resources will be used to finance the renovation in addition to looking for domestic and foreign investment.

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Honda, GM to jointly produce fuel cells www.nhk.or.jp

Honda Motor and General Motors will jointly produce fuel cell power systems for next-generation eco-friendly vehicles.

The automakers made the announcement at a news conference in the US city of Detroit on Monday.

They have formed a joint venture to produce the systems, with plans to start mass production by 2020.

The move will deepen ties between the 2 companies, which have been cooperating on research into basic technology for fuel cells.

They will try to improve production efficiency, with the aim of lowering prices for fuel cell vehicles.

The companies said their investment of 85 million dollars in a GM plant in Michigan will create 100 jobs.

President and CEO Toshiaki Mikoshiba of American Honda Motor described why Honda has chosen to invest in the US rather than Japan, which is home to the company's current research base for fuel cells.

He said his company's policy is to manufacture where there is demand.

Mikoshiba also touched on claims by President Donald Trump that the US trade relationship with Japan is unfair.

He said he has no choice but to wait and see how things will pan out.

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Apple reportedly removes Iranian apps from App Store www.rt.com

 
US tech giant Apple has started deleting applications supplied by Iranian startups and developers from its App Store, according to various media reports.
The company removed application of the biggest Iranian e-commerce service, Digikala, which has millions of users, Iran’s tech news site Techrasa reports.
Last September, Apple temporarily opened the App Store for businesses based in Iran, gradually lifting limitations previously imposed due to international sanctions.
As there is no official App Store available in the Islamic Republic, most of the companies had to register their apps as being outside of the country.
Digikala service uses the Shaparak payment operator, which is completely isolated from international systems. That would allow the service not to contradict Apple’s terms.
Moreover, several Iranian banks have apps for the iOS platform which are often side-loaded onto phones.
When attempting to upload apps Iranian startups apparently received the following message:
“Unfortunately, there is no App Store available for the territory of Iran. Additionally, apps facilitating transactions for businesses or entities based in Iran may not comply with the Iranian Transactions Sanctions Regulations (31CFR Part 560) when hosted on the App Store. For these reasons, we are unable to accept your application at this time. We encourage you to resubmit your application once international trade laws are revised to allow this functionality.”
Iran's with a population of nearly 80 million loves its gadgets. Over 40 million smartphones, or which six million are iPhones, are currently used by Iranians. Some 100,000 iPhones are smuggled into the country every month, according to Techrasa.
The Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations issued by the US Department of the Treasury blocks the market that might become a highly lucrative one for Apple.
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Deutsche Bank fined by regulators over money laundering claims www.bbc.com

 
Deutsche Bank has been fined $630m (£504m) by US and UK regulators in connection with a Russian money laundering plan.
Under the scheme, clients illegally moved $10bn out of Russia via shares bought and sold through the bank's Moscow, London and New York offices.
Authorities said Deutsche had missed "numerous opportunities" to detect, investigate and stop the scheme.
Deutsche Bank said it was co-operating with regulators.
It also said it had put aside money to cover the cost of the settlement.
During the investigation, New York authorities and Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that so called "mirror" trades had been carried out through the bank between 2011 and 2015.
Clients would purchase stocks in rubles in Moscow before their counterparts sold the same stock at the same price through the bank's London branch.
'Unsafe and unsound'
"By converting rubles into dollars through security trades that had no discernible economic purpose, the scheme was a means for bad actors within a financial institution to achieve improper ends while evading compliance with applicable laws," according to the legal document detailing the settlement with DFS.
Regulators blasted the bank for failing to spot the ruse, saying it had conducted its business in an "unsafe and unsound" manner.
They also said the lender's anti-financial crime teams were ineffective and understaffed.
In total, New York authorities fined the bank $425m while the UK's FCA's fine was £163m, or about $204m.
In addition to paying the settlement, Deutsche Bank also will be required to hire an outside monitor to review its internal compliance measures.
It comes less than two weeks after the German bank finalised a $7.2bn settlement with the US Justice Department over its role in the 2008 financial crisis.
In addition to Monday's action, regulators fined three other banks for violations of anti-money laundering laws.
Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo was fined $235m, Agricultural Bank of China was fined $215m and and Mega Bank of Taiwan was fined $185m.
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S.Erdene elected next chairman of Democratic Party www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Member of Parliament S.Erdene was elected the chairman of the Democratic Party, as a result of the Democratic Party Chairmanship election took place on Sunday. Leaders of the DP officially announced the election result on January 30.

The Democratic Party, the opposition in the Mongolian Parliament, organized its first all-member election, which received ballots from members in 21 provinces and nine districts of Ulaanbaatar city, with a total of 30 polling stations.

S.Erdene claimed victory in 12 polling units, while his strongest rival and former Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag won majority of votes in 10 units. Most votes were casted for S.Erdene in Tuv (Central) province.

The Democratic Party held its VI Assembly on December 6-7, 2016, with 1,210 attendees, representing its all 180 thousand members. Most of the attendees voted for selecting the chairman through all-member election. The candidates were the former Minister of Industry D.Erdenebat, former Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag, S.Erdene MP, former Minister of Education L.Gantumur and J.Batzandan MP.

The all-member election for DP Chairman completed on January 29, having collected ballots at 361 polling stations, with 70 percent voter turnout.

 
 
 
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