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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Sharp and Shigemitsu Shoji to Participate in the First Large Scale Solar Power Plant Business in Mongolia www.sharp-world.com

Sharp Corporation and Shigemitsu Shoji Co., Ltd and Solar Power International of Mongolia will jointly participate in solar power plant business in Darkhan city, Mongolia. Construction of the project will start later this month and the commercial operation date is scheduled on this December. The installed capacity of PV modules will be 10MW and the annual expected power generation is 14,182MWh/yr, which is expected to contribute to the reduction of approximately 14,746tCO2/yr of greenhouse gas emission. Sharp will supply PV modules, mounting structures, and other balance of systems such as inverters together with system designing and engineering services for the project. Shigemitsu Shoji Co., Ltd. will support the joint management and operation of the solar power plant for the next 25 years.

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China suffers from increased protectionist measures www.chinadaily.com

China encountered 65 trade-remedy investigations launched by 17 countries and regions in the first half of 2016, surging 66.67 percent on a year-on-year basis, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.
 
Shen Danyang, spokesman for the ministry, said even though the rise of trade protectionism is not the fundamental reason for the prolonged global trade slowdown, it certainly is a factor.
 
The 65 cases, including 46 anti-dumping investigations and 13 countervailing cases, were launched by both developed and developing countries such as the United States, Brazil, Turkey and Malaysia during the six-month period.
 
Among them, the United States and India took the lead in initiating trade-remedy measures between January and June of this year, with 18 and 15 cases respectively against Chinese products including steel, agricultural and photovoltaic products.
 
A total of $8.54 billion had been involved in these cases, up 156 percent year-on-year.
 
"After all, trade disputes between China and major economies such as the US or the European Union are set to grow and become more complex in view of the huge trade flows. There might be more fights over the rules and standards affecting trade flows in the second half," said Chen Weidong, a professor of global trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
 
Eager to find a way out, Liaoning-based Ansteel Group opened a new steel plant in May for high-end steel products used in auto and home appliances manufacturing as the steelmaker seeks to improve its product offerings amid oversupply of low-end steel and weak demand.
 
The new plant, based in Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong province, is part of a joint venture Ansteel formed with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co and ThyssenKrupp AG to tap into steel demand from automakers.
 
Yao Lin, Ansteel's vice-president, said the first stage of the plant cost $230 million and aims for annual production of 450,000 metric tons of steel plates used in vehicles and high-quality home appliances.
 
Trade ministers from G20 countries reached a consensus on strengthening the multilateral trading system earlier this month in Shanghai.
 
They also made a commitment that G20 members will all approve the Trade Facilitation Agreement before the end of the year, and will also continue to promote negotiations on the remaining issues of the Doha Round.
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EU slaps record $3 bil. cartel fine on truck firms www3.nhk.or.jp

The European Union has slapped a record fine of 2.9 billion euros, or 3.2 billion dollars, against Europe's top truck producers for taking part in a cartel over 14 years.
 
EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters on Tuesday that EU-based MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF colluded to keep prices artificially high at the expense of consumers.
 
Germany's Daimler received the biggest fine of 1.1 billion dollars, followed by 832 million dollars for DAF of the Netherlands. Volvo/Renault received a fine of 741 million dollars, and Italy's Iveco will have to pay 546 million dollars.
 
Volkswagen-owned MAN informed the European Commission about the cartel and escaped a 1.3 billion dollar fine.
Vestager said it is not acceptable that the 5 firms had been taking part in a 14-year cartel until 2011, and colluded on pricing and passing on the costs for meeting environmental standards to their customers.
 
The targeted companies account for 90 percent of the medium and heavy trucks produced in Europe.
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BHP's copper output to bounce back www.mining.com

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) announced Tuesday the company exceeded full year 2016 production guidance for petroleum, copper and metallurgical coal, but came in slightly below its iron ore production target.
 
The suspension of its Samarco joint venture with Vale saw BHP's output on attributable basis miss its revised target by 2 million tonnes at 227 tonnes for the year to end June. The world's number three iron ore producer had previously forecast 237 million tonnes for its financial year.
 
The Melbourne-based company's total output at its Western Australia iron ore operations in the Pilbara grew by 2% to 257 million tonnes, but was also slightly below previous forecasts. BHP expects to produce 265 million – 275 million tonnes in its 2016/2017 financial year in Australia and 228 million – 237 million tonnes worldwide on an attributable basis excluding Samarco.
 
Copper production of 1.58 million tonnes also beat guidance but fell 8% compared to 2015 with the company saying increased throughput at Escondida and strong operating performance only partially made up for lower grades at the mine, the world's largest.
 
For its 2017 financial year the company expects a big boost to copper production to 1.7 million tonnes helped by a 9% jump in output at Escondida, which is 57%-owned and operated by BHP with Rio Tinto holding the remainder.
 
BHP's coking coal operations output grew slightly at 43 million tonnes as record production at its five Queensland Coal mines more than offset the halting of production at Crinum. The company expects to add one million tonnes for 2017. Coal for power generation continues to be cut back and will shrink 7% this year to 32 million tonnes after falling 16% in 2015.
 
BHP's petroleum division produced 240 million barrels during the year, down 6% from last year but above guidance of 237 million barrels.
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Leading US bank invests in London despite Brexit fears www.rt.com

The world's biggest bank by capitalization, Wells Fargo, plans to buy a new London headquarters for about £300 million ($397 million). The US banking giant reportedly wants to increase its presence in the UK capital.

An 11-storey building in the City of London, known as 33 Central, is planned to be completed in the third quarter of next year, according to a statement from the property developer HB Reavis Group as quoted by Bloomberg.

The property with a rooftop garden and views over the River Thames will accommodate about 2,600 people. Wells Fargo employs 850 people across its four London offices. The bank plans to occupy the new location in 2018, according to a spokesperson.

“With this new building in London, we are able to bring our team members together in one location in order to more efficiently and effectively manage our operations,” said Frank Pizzo, Wells Fargo regional president for Europe Middle East & Africa.

The deal goes against concerns over the London office property market after Britain’s shock vote to quit the European Union and the fear that some banks are planning to leave the British capital.

“Many have doubted what will happen to the real estate market after the Brexit vote,” said Marian Herman, CFO of HB Reavis Group, stressing that the completion showed resilience in the market. The firm suggests the deal as one of the largest for the City of London this year.

Employing 269,000 people, US-based Wells Fargo has $1.8 trillion in assets. However, the bank gets 95 percent of its revenue domestically and has a low overseas profile.

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Cloud business boosts Microsoft's quarterly revenue, shares rise www.reuters.com

Sharp growth in its commercial cloud computing business helped lift Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) quarterly revenue above Wall Street's expectations, sending the technology company's shares up more than 4 percent in after-hours trading.
 
The new and growing cloud business - essentially selling computing services and storage in its data centers to corporate customers - is one of the priorities for Chief Executive Satya Nadella, who took the helm of the world's largest software company in early 2014
 
Nadella has refocused the company on cloud and mobile in the face of stagnation in its traditional PC-based Windows business.
 
"Only two companies are setting the tone of enterprise computing, Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS," said Trip Chowdhry, managing director of Global Equities Research, referring to Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) web services unit.
 
"These are the only two initiators in the whole enterprise space that are going to see growth in excess of 80 percent year-over-year for at least two or three years.”
 
Microsoft's revenue in what it calls its "intelligent cloud" businesses, which includes the Azure cloud platform and server software, rose 7 percent to $6.7 billion.
 
Revenue for Azure - which customers can use to host their website, apps or data - grew 102 percent, but Microsoft did not say what the actual revenue figure was.
 
That makes an annual "run rate" of $12.1 billion for cloud-related revenue, up sharply from over $8 billion a year ago. Microsoft calculates run rate by multiplying revenue in the final month of the quarter for its cloud businesses by 12.
 
Despite the surge in revenue, Microsoft is still struggling to increase profit in the capital-intensive cloud business. It said operating profit in its intelligent cloud businesses fell 17 percent to $2.19 billion in the quarter.
 
Microsoft said the drop was mainly due to higher research, development, sales and marketing costs, as it makes investments and acquisitions to "drive cloud sales capacity and innovation."
 
COMING OUT OF DIP
 
Overall, Microsoft posted revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, adjusted for some one-time items, of $22.6 billion, up 2 percent from a year ago. That beat Wall Street's average forecast of $22.1 billion.
 
It reported net income of $3.1 billion, or 39 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3.2 billion, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier. In the year-ago quarter it took a $7.5 billion charge to write down the value of its purchase of Nokia's handset business.
 
Excluding one-time items in the latest quarter, Microsoft reported earnings of 69 cents per share. That was ahead of analysts' average forecast of 58 cents.
 
Sanford Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler said Microsoft is finally making headway shifting Microsoft Office software clients onto subscription-based cloud services. Office consumer products and cloud services were up 19 percent and Office 365 increased subscribers to 23.1 million during the quarter.
 
"People looked at Office as a product that was going to be in decline," said Moerdler. "We saw a dip, last quarter we came out of that dip, and now we're accelerating out of the dip."
 
Nadella, who announced the company's largest-ever deal last month, striking a deal to pay $26.2 billion for LinkedIn Corp (LNKD.N), has staked Microsoft's future on mobile and the cloud.
 
So far his plan has been well received by investors. Microsoft shares are up 64 percent since his predecessor as CEO Steve Ballmer announced his plan to retire, in August 2013. The S&P 500 is up 31 percent in the same time.
 
Microsoft shares were up 4.35 percent at $55.40 in extended trading on Tuesday.
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Russia to sell nuclear fuel to US www.rt.com

A subsidiary of Russia's nuclear corporation Rosatom has signed its first contract with a US nuclear power plant operator to supply Russian nuclear fuel.
 
"We believe in this project. We know how to make nuclear fuel; it has successfully operated in Western European nuclear power plants. We are not entering the American market with empty hands,” said Rosatom CEO Sergey Kirienko.
 
He added Rosatom is working in collaboration with GE-Hitachi and has already signed a contract to send a pilot batch of Russian nuclear fuel to the US.
 
According to Kirienko, Rosatom sees the importance of the alliance and will provide all the necessary technical details to successfully complete the licensing process with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
It has been reported the two countries had agreed to create a joint company to promote Russian nuclear fuel at US nuclear power plants.
 
Rosatom's nuclear fuel subsidiary TVEL and Global Nuclear Fuel Americas will jointly deal with licensing and production of fuel assemblies that will run American nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactors. The fuel assemblies will be produced at the plant in Wilmington, North Carolina.
 
In May, Rosatom said it plans to enter the US nuclear fuel market by 2020 and have 10 percent market share.
 
Russia has a 17 percent share in the global market of nuclear fuel. It fully covers the needs of Russian reactors and also works in 14 other countries, including Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Armenia and China. The value of Russia’s annual nuclear fuel exports exceeds $1 billion.
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Truckmaker Volvo beats earnings forecast, sees U.S. market weaken www.reuters.com

Swedish truckmaker Volvo (VOLVb.ST) reported better than expected second-quarter earnings on Tuesday as cost cuts and rising European sales helped fortify it against slumping U.S. demand for commercial vehicles.

Heavy-duty trucks, where Volvo is competing with Germany's Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), are benefiting from strong demand across Europe while battling downturns across the Atlantic.

Volvo, which sells trucks under the Mack, Renault and UD brands as well as its own name, scaled back its outlook for North America, saying it expected industry wide sales of 240,000 trucks, down from a forecast for 250,000 given in April.

Weaker markets in the United States and also China, where sales of construction equipment are falling, will test the new leadership team's skill in boosting profitability.

"In the second quarter we were able to continue the improvement of our underlying profitability despite declining sales, thanks to positive cost development," said CEO Martin Lundstedt, a former Scania boss appointed last year. Scania had long boasted some of the best profit margins in the business.

Gothenburg-based Volvo said order intake of its trucks fell 8 percent in the second quarter compared with a 1 percent drop seen by analysts. A 29 percent fall in North American truck orders led the decline.

Volvo shares rose 0.8 percent by 0756 GMT (03:56 a.m. EDT), outpacing a 0.7 percent fall in the in the STOXX Europe 600 Industrial Goods & Services Index .SXNP. The stock is up 12 percent so far this year compared with a 2 percent drop for the index.

"The earnings are really good, and what stands out is primarily the 10 percent operating margin in trucks despite them scaling back output in North America," Handelsbanken Capital Markets analyst Hampus Engellau said. "This is exactly what one wanted to see."

Lundstedt has come on board as Volvo begins reaping the benefits of a 10 billion Swedish crown ($1.17 billion) cost cutting drive intended to make the sprawling group less prone to sharp swings in profitability as cyclical truck markets periodically slump.

The group said adjusted operating earnings rose to 6.13 billion crowns from a year-ago 5.98 billion, beating a mean forecast for 5.64 billion in Reuters poll of analysts.

It reported adjusted operating margin of 7.8 percent compared with a year-ago 7.1 percent and the 7.0 percent seen by analysts.

"The results tells us that Volvo are on track to boost its earnings generation capacity also when demand is not great," said Danske Bank analyst Bjorn Enarson.

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Baidu uncovers trick gambling searches www.chinadaily.com

China's biggest online search engine, Baidu, said on Monday that it had notified police of illegally altered links that redirect users to gambling sites. The links had found their way surreptitiously into Baidu's search results at night.
 
For the past two months, a search after 10 pm for keyword "Grand Lisboa", a well-known casino in Macao, delivers top results linked to online gambling sites marked as commercial promotions. The search results will return to legitimate information about the casino after 9 am, Beijing News reported on Monday.
 
Baidu responded to the report with its own investigation.
 
"Baidu focuses on the credentials of the company registered for promotions. But the contents of promotional websites cannot be monitored in advance. So we make sure every website is screened as soon as they go live," said Gu Guodong, executive director of marketing at Baidu, during a press briefing in Beijing on Monday.
 
On average Baidu screens 470 million pieces of content every day, or 5,000 per second. Computers can eliminate 95 percent of the illegal information, but the rest must go through manual screening. The whole process can take up to four hours.
 
The Nasdaq-listed company admitted that it has to do more to improve the efficiency of such screening to prevent people from posting illegal promotional content.
 
Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland. Baidu blocked 8,623 gambling sites and 7,239 gambling-related keywords in the first three months of the year, the company said.
 
To bypass China's internet administration, illegal gambling sites steal the details of a legitimate company to use as registration information on Baidu. For example, eight gambling sites were registered in the name of a car parts dealer in Central China's Henan province, Beijing News reported.
 
A staff member at that company told the newspaper that they had no idea the company's registration information had been stolen and was being used for any sort of online promotion.
 
Baidu said it monitored the illegal activities from car parts company's stolen Baidu account. The gambling promotion appeared at 11 pm on June 25 and was removed by Baidu at 6 am the next day.
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Ms Park’s attendance in person lifts up importance of Mongolia-S.Korea business forum www.en.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In scope of the official visit of the S.Korean President Ms Park Geun-hye, a Mongolian-S.Korean Business Forum was held at Shangri La Hotel of Ulaanbaatar. South Korea is the fourth largest trade partner of Mongolia and the seventh in investment.

S.Korea’s businessmen have been running businesses in Mongolia of public catering, hotels, healthcare and information technology. The Business forum happened to reside in important times of launching of new projects on energy, particularly, in renewable energy.

Some 190 business representatives from the Republic of Korea and 200 businesspeople and state officials from Mongolia took part in the forum, held July 18, organized by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Mongolia and S.Korea.

Ms Park said: “Republic of Korea is a major manufacturer of latest technologies, whereas Mongolia leads the world with its natural resources”. Therefore, the two countries have broad capacity to counter-complement each other’s economy and widen the cooperation, she emphasized. President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mongolia B.Lkhagvajav expressed his confidence in the forum in its role of upgrading the bilateral business ties, and highlighted that Mongolian businessmen are now required to pursue the international standards while running their activities.

The attendance of S.Korean President Ms Park Geun-hye in person lifted up the significance and prestige of this business forum. The representatives of two sides gave seven presentations, and signed cooperation MoUs between companies. 

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