Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. An operative team headed by the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry in charge of food supply management is working to maintain stable supply of staple foods.

According to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, there are sufficient reserves of staple foods in Mongolia to cover the market needs, as of March 02.

In particular, the country has reserves of 19,900 tons of meat, 172,000 tons of flour, 1,400 tons of wheat products, 14,300 tons of various types of rice, 1,700 tons of dry milk, 1,5 million eggs, 4,200 tons of vegetable oil, 64,500 tons of potatoes, 29,900 tons of vegetable, 2,600 tons of sugar and 1,100 tons of salt.

With a view to ensure long-term stable supply of food commodities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, imports of all types of rice and vegetable oil are exempt from customs duty and value-added taxes, and rice and vegetable oil that are locally manufactured and sold are freed from value-added tax between December 04, 2020 and July 01, 2021.

The Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry team has been working with 68 domestic entities engaged in imports of rice and vegetable oil with the purpose of stabilizing the supply of the given staple foods and maintaining their price stability.

Thanks to the policy measures by the government, the import of white rice grew by 11,200 tons and vegetable oil increased by 4,300 tons compared to last year and as of the first two months of 2021, the imports of white rice and vegetable oil are already 2.8 times higher than previous year, reports the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A program “Improving access to finance in Mongolia” was approved by the Financial Stability Council on March 1. The Financial Regulatory Commission developed the program and the regular meeting discussed it, approving by a joint ordinance No А-62/63/31/А\26 made by the council members namely, President of the Bank of Mongolia, Head of the Financial Regulatory Commission, Minister of Finance and Executive Director of the Deposit Insurance Corporation.

With implementation of the program, it is expected to upgrade legal environment and introduce advanced technology-based products and services to the market. Moreover, financial product and service types will be increased and service cost will be reduced in addition to raising citizens’ financial education and creating conditions to deliver financial services faster, cheaper and more easily.

According to the statistics, Mongolia’s access to financial service is high comparing with countries that are in the same development level as assessing it with the number of citizens who have commercial bank account. On the other side this indicates that our country’s access to financial products and services provided by non-bank financial institutions to citizens and entities is unsatisfactory.

Enhancing access to finance is an important policy tool to raise productivity of entities and organizations as well as to increase economic participation and social position of citizens who are living in rural and remote areas.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. In February 2021, the Bank of Mongolia purchased 643.5 kg of precious metal, raising the BoM’s total precious metal purchase of 2021 to 2 tons. The figure shows that the amount of precious metal purchase increased by 309 kg compared with the same period of previous year.

In February, the BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimags bought 2.5 kg and 36.6 kg of precious metals respectively. The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 165,914.57 in February.

Yesterday (3 March), a Mongolian court decided to release former Prime Minister J.Erdenebat and others, namely, B.Otgonbaatar and D.Tuvshinjargal from prison at the request of their lawyers.

The case relating to former MP J.Erdenebat and five others was returned for prosecution on 15 January under a decision from the Mongolian High Court. As a result, the judge decided to suspend 6.6 years of the the politician’s prison sentence. However, J.Erdenebat was to remain in detention.

Previously, in July, a Mongolian court had sentenced former Prime Minister J.Erdenebat to six years in prison for the abuse of power – connected with the acquisition of land in the mineral-rich South Gobi Province – and banned him from holding government office for six years.

All of this changed at 10 am this morning, when the Baynazurkh Criminal Court of the Chingeltei and Sukhbaatar Districts of Ulaanbaatar decided to release the former politician and to allow him to hold public office again.

J.Erdenebat from the ruling Mongolian People’s Party won a seat in the State Great Khural for a constituency in the Selenge Province in the parliamentary election, which took place on 24 June 2020, while he was still in detention.

Now J.Erdenebat will take an oath at spring session of parliament which is expected to open on 15 March.

Zoom boss Eric Yuan, whose business exploded during the pandemic, says working from home is here to stay.

The video conferencing company expects sales to rise more than 40% this year, reaching more than $3.7bn (£2.66bn).

The forecast pushed shares in the company up more than 6% in after-hours trade in New York.

Investors have been watching for clues as to how the firm would fare as more people get vaccinated and social distancing restrictions lift.

Zoom said it did not expect growth to continue at the pace it enjoyed last year, but so far business remains strong.

The firm's sales in the last three months of 2020 were up 370% compared to the same period in 2019, hitting $882.5m.

"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to an unprecedented year for Zoom," company boss Eric Yuan said. "As the world emerges from the pandemic, our work has only begun."

'The future is here'

The pandemic, which prompted an abrupt shift to remote work for many businesses around the world, transformed Zoom into a household name practically overnight.

The firm, which charges businesses for its remote meeting software in addition to more limited free use for the general public, saw sales soar 326% to $2.6bn in 2020. Profits jumped from just $21.7m in 2019 to $671.5m.

While some companies have started to ease staff back into the office, many others have said they expect that some of the increased flexibility introduced during the pandemic will linger.

"The future is here with the rise of remote and work from anywhere trends," Mr Yuan said in prepared remarks for investors. "We recognize this new reality and are helping to empower our own employees and those of our customers to work and thrive in a distributed manner."

Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Zoom's fate would depend on how it manages to compete against firms such as Microsoft and Google, which have introduced similar features.

"Although it stole an early march on other players in the first few months of the crisis, it does now have much stiffer competition from the likes of Microsoft and Google who have significantly upped their game," she wrote in a research note.

"It may be that we have become so used to pandemic habits that we will stick with our virtual social lives, particularly for long distance friendships and work relationships. But just how large a slice of the live video pie Zoom manages to hang on to will depend on how it matches up to its powerful rivals."

Fitch Ratings believes that the new amendments to Mongolia’s Banking Law, when fully implemented, will improve transparency and strengthen the banking system’s corporate governance in the medium-to-longer term, ultimately contributing to the banking system’s stability. Parliament approved the amendments in late January, which include requirements for the five domestic systemically important banks (D-SIB) to become public companies through IPOs in the stock market by June 2022 and a cap on a bank shareholder’s rights at 20%. The amendments are part of the continuous work of The Bank of Mongolia on banking-sector reform. We expect the banks, once listed, to provide more timely and detailed disclosure, not only in their financials but also their banking operations, allowing for more public market participants' oversight. Undue influence by a dominant shareholder is also likely to be checked under the new ownership structure. As D-SIBs, these banks are required to have at least nine members on their boards, with no less than one-third of the directors to be independent. In addition, all commercial banks are required to reduce shareholder concentration by end-2023 with a maximum of 20% of the banks’ total shares owned by each shareholder and its related parties.

Please see the full report on the link https://www.fitchratings.com/.../mongolian-banks...

Fitch Ratings-Hong Kong/Seoul-01 March 2021: Mongolia's new requirements for its systemically important banks to be listed and to cap a bank shareholder's rights at 20% will improve transparency and strengthen the banking system's corporate governance in the medium-to-longer term, ultimately contributing to the system's stability, says Fitch Ratings.

We expect a listed bank to provide more timely and detailed disclosure, not only in its financials but also its banking operations, allowing more public participants' oversight. Undue influence by a dominant shareholder is likely to be checked by the other shareholders under the new ownership and board structures.

However, we see significant challenges that can derail the implementation schedules, especially the public offering requirement in light of the mounting pressure on the banks' financial performance from the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, we think tight liquidity in the local market would make it hard to accommodate the banks' IPOs within a short period as the current market capitalisation of the Mongolian Stock Exchange is small compared with the banks' total equity.

The amendments to the Banking Law require five domestic systemically important banks (D-SIB) in Mongolia to become public companies through IPOs in the stock market by June 2022. A D-SIB is also required to have at least nine members on its board, with no less than one-third of the directors to be independent. In addition, all commercial banks are required to reduce shareholder concentration by end-2023 with a maximum of 20% of the bank's total shares for a shareholder and its related parties.

More details can be found in the report, "Mongolian Banks Dashboard: March 2021", available at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking on the link in this release.

Contact:

Savio Fan

Associate Director, Financial Institutions - Banks

+852 2263 9955

Fitch (Hong Kong) Limited

19/F Man Yee Building

68 Des Voeux Road Central

Hong Kong

Heakyu Chang

Senior Director, Financial Institutions - Banks

+822 3278 8363

Media Relations: Alanis Ko, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9953, Email: alanis.ko@thefitchgroup.com

Wai Lun Wan, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9935, Email: wailun.wan@thefitchgroup.com

Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. With a view to alleviate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and population health, the government of Mongolia has approved MNT 10 trillion comprehensive plan for economic recovery and health protection.

Within the framework of the plan, soft loans totaling MNT 500 billion will be granted to support the agricultural industry and the required funding for it has been settled, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

Out of the MNT 500-billion loans, MNT 200 billion worth of loans will be provided to companies for cashmere production for the spring season of this year, MNT 100 billion loans for farming productions, and MNT 200 billion will be aimed to support livestock herders.

Commercial banks will issue loans amounting to MNT 200 billion sourced from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry in cooperation with the Development Bank to companies engaged in cashmere preparation and cashmere manufacturers.

Also, funding was made available by the ministry for loans worth MNT 100 billion for crop farming companies for their spring planting and fall harvesting. Both types of the loans will have a 1-year term and 3-percent interest rate per annum.

The MNT 200 billion of loans to support livestock herders and revive the animal husbandry will also be issued through commercial banks and will have a term of 3 years and annual interest rate of 3 percent. Priority areas targeted by the loans are industrial livestock production, dairy production, production of raw materials of animal origin, pastureland protection and livestock water wells, as reported by the Agricultural Ministry.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On March 1, Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan held a meeting with the working group in charge of conducting risk assessments on infection control, safety, and possible risks at border checkpoints.

The Government of Mongolia is currently working towards the objective of opening the border from May 1. In its framework, Deputy PM S.Amarsaikhan had obliged specialists to conduct risk assessments on COVID-19 infection control at border checkpoints as well as for possible risks at the locations. Thus, a working group led by Deputy Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, Brigadier General S.Baatarjav has carried out works, developing emergency plans in three areas. They are also currently preparing to organize drills and exercises at the border checkpoints for COVID-19 countermeasures, alongside defining methods to mitigate risks.

Having used the risk assessment tool developed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to identify risks at Buyant-Ukhaa checkpoint and Chinggis Khaan airport as well as the border checkpoints of Zamiin-Uud and Altanbulag, the working group introduced that works are planned to be carried out in the framework of short-, mid-, and long-term objectives.

During the meeting, the Deputy PM also noted the importance of reflecting safety measures in the plan for reopening border checkpoints and resuming regular operations, with a special focus on disinfection and sterilization.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry Z.Mendsaikhan had discussions with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to Mongolia Mohinder Pratap Singh, who attended the March 1 extended meeting of the Ministry of Food Agriculture and Light Industry and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at invitation, about implementing a joint project on dairy farming development, putting greater emphasis on nutritional values of foodstuffs, and developing digital agriculture.

Being the country with the highest milk and dairy production in the world, India has much experience in the industry. Mongolia, on the other hand, has yet to fully leverage its abundant milk resources. Therefore, the countries agreed to cooperate on the greatly significant long-term beneficial project on milk industry development.

As supporting public health through the supply of nutritious food is a key goal for MoFALI, during the meeting, a proposal for the implementation of Milk Every Day project was also made in light of the ample opportunity for the country with rich dairy resources to increase elementary students’ dairy milk intake through the student lunch program.