There are many pressing environmental issues in Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar where half of the nation’s population lives. A Centre for Ecological Education along with an Arboretum have been established in Ulaanbaatar for providing know-how on planting trees; the new trees will help decrease fine pollutant dusts and absorb soil pollution. According to the study, one hectare of land planted with trees can purify 18 million cubic meters of air and absorb 30-35% of smoke. Woody plants reduce air pollution to 40 percent and also absorb 26 percent of noise in the winter.

The centre has stock of 40,000-50,000 saplings and aims to plant one million trees in near future.

Ariuntuya is no stranger to tragedy. Thirteen years ago, the 51-year-old lost both her legs in a car accident. She lost her much-loved husband some 10 years ago, and two years later her son tragically died in another car accident. Her immediate family gone, she now lives with her 15-year-old niece in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, making her living by sewing woollen slippers.

Yet even this simple livelihood is now under threat due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Tourists, who were her primary customers, can no longer travel to Mongolia. After the country shut down to prevent the spread of the virus, many of her local customers stopped placing orders after losing their jobs. Without an income, Ariuntuya now relies on food parcels from the Mongolian Red Cross Society (MRCS). “I appreciate the good gesture shown by the Red Cross in helping me and my family in a time I need them the most,” she said.

Stories like Ariuntuya’s are playing out in homes all across Mongolia, a country which has not received global attention largely due to its relative success in tackling COVID-19. As of late September, only 313 COVID-19 cases and zero deaths were reported in the country. This was achieved through restrictions on movement and widespread prevention measures, such as the closure of borders and schools at the start of the pandemic. Though schools re-opened at the start of September, international flights have not resumed.

These restrictions have led to significant socio-economic impacts and increased vulnerability among poor households. The World Bank’s Household Response Survey revealed the impact on the country’s poorest families in stark terms: nearly half of poor respondents had been uncertain about their ability to obtain food in the previous 30 days due to lack of money or rising prices; almost one in four (23%) were concerned about food security in the coming week; more than half (53%) said they were worried about their finances over the next month. Moreover, the report revealed that 12% of households experienced job losses, and 7% of households had to close their non-farm business.

In response to this economic impact, the Mongolian Red Cross, together with the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), has been providing food and hygiene parcels to the most affected families. So far they have reached more than 3,000 households. Red Cross staff and volunteers are also part of the fight to contain the spread of COVID-19, distributing face-masks, conducting hygiene training and information sessions as well as providing psychosocial support.

Secretary General of MRCS, Bolormaa Nordov, said the country’s economic situation was becoming more challenging every day. “These challenges directly lead to significant negative impact on social vulnerability and household livelihoods. IFRC’s COVID-19 operation provided timely support for the most vulnerable households during this pandemic.”

Head of the IFRC’s East Asia support team, Gwendolyn Pang, said: “The impacts of COVID-19 in Mongolia are much greater than the limited number of infections and deaths in the country. At IFRC we always value the impact on human lives, more than the numbers.”

“In the case of Mongolia, we try to reach out to the most vulnerable people in the most hard to reach communities with services and information that not only protect people from COVID-19 but alleviate the human suffering that is a tragic side effect of this pandemic.”

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar hovered near a two-month peak against a basket of currencies on Monday, as doubts about recovery persisted ahead of a barrage of economic data and political developments in the United States.

While a rebound in U.S. stocks on Friday has helped to curb the ascent of the dollar, deemed as a safe-haven, signs of slowdown in the nascent recovery from the pandemic and political uncertainties have kept investors on guard.

The dollar index stood little changed at 94.530 =USD. It hit a two-month high of 94.745 last week and posted its biggest weekly rise since early April.

The euro changed hands at $1.1635 EUR=, having dropped to $1.16125 on Friday, its lowest in two months.

The British pound stood at $1.2767 GBP=D4, slightly above Wednesday's two-month low of $1.2676.

“The dollar’s rise reflects unwinding of (dollar short) positions. There were two main drivers, rise in real U.S. yields and risk-off trades,” said Tatsuya Chiba, manager of forex trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank.

The yield on U.S. inflation-linked bonds US10YTIP=RR, known as real yields, have risen almost 20 basis points after touching a record low earlier this month.

On the whole, higher yields, real or nominal, tend to support a currency. Traders have noted there has been a particularly strong correlation between the U.S. real yield and the dollar over the last few months.

Data on U.S. currency futures positions released on Friday also pointed to more upside potential in the dollar’s recovery, with speculators holding a big net short position in the greenback.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed speculators held a net short position of $33.989 billion NETUSDALL=, up from $31.524 billion the week before and near the highest level in almost ten years.

The flip side of that was a still very large net long positions in the euro, which showed a slight increase last week to $27.922 billion EURNETUSD=.

“We need to be wary of a weaker euro due to further unwinding of euro long positions. We have no shortage of concerns in Europe including rise of coronavirus infections in France and so on, attempts by European Central Bank policymakers to talk down the euro and Brexit,” Makoto Noji, chief currency strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities, said in report.

Against the yen, the dollar was more subdued at 105.46 yen JPY=.

Investors now look to the first U.S. Presidential debate on Tuesday as the election in early November has started to loom large.

“Few people will be trying to bet on the election outcome. At least they will wait until tomorrow’s TV debate,” said Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex at Societe Generale.

Ahead of the debate, the New York Times reported on Sunday President Donald Trump paid extremely little in income taxes in recent years as heavy losses from his business enterprises offset hundreds of millions of dollars in income.

Few investors now expect the U.S. Congress to pass any stimulus package, seen as vital to support the pandemic-stricken economy, before the election.

But there are growing worries the economic recovery is slowing as many of the stimulus programmes have expired, curbing consumer spending.

The week provides markets with more U.S. data to gauge the health of the world’s biggest economy, including consumer confidence on Tuesday, a manufacturing survey and consumer data on Thursday and jobs data on Friday.

Elsewhere, the Turkish lira briefly dropped 1.6% to a record low of 7.8000 per dollar TRYTOM=D3.

The lira had enjoyed a rare bounce in the wake of an interest rate hike late last week, but gains faded quickly on investor scepticism about how this will filter through into financial market rates.

Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong

A suspected case of bubonic plague in western Mongolia's Khovd province has been confirmed by lab test results, the country's National Center for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) said Sunday.

The 25-year-old female patient from the province and 19 people in close contact with her are now under isolation at a local hospital, the NCZD said in a statement.

The center said the woman was found to have eaten marmot meat last week.

While hunting marmots is illegal in Mongolia, many Mongolians regard the rodent as a delicacy and ignore the law.

Since the beginning of this year, the Asian country has reported 22 suspected cases, six of which were confirmed by laboratory tests. Three of the six patients have died.

Seventeen out of all the 21 Mongolian provinces are now at risk of the bubonic plague, the NCZD said, urging the public to avoid eating marmot meat.

The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots and can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organization. Enditem

The Chinese ambassador to Mongolia has rejected remarks made by former president of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj on social media and in a letter addressed to China regarding the implementation of bilingual education of Putonghua and ethnic language in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, saying that his views in the letter are completely wrong and China won't accept them.

"The national common language is a symbol of a country's sovereignty, and it is the right and duty of every citizen to learn and use the common language, which is true not only for China, but also for all countries in the world," said Chai Wenrui, the ambassador to Mongolia, in a letter sent to Elbegdorj.

"At the same time, the Chinese government protects the rights of ethnic minorities, including Mongolians, to use their own spoken and written languages in accordance with law," Chai said.

Chai noted that all affairs related to Inner Mongolian, including the bilingual education reform in Inner Mongolia, are China's internal affairs and no other countries can interfere in them.

In his letter, Elbegdorj criticized the region's education reform, seeing a "dissolution and elimination" of Mongolian ethnicity through their language.

Elbegdorj's letter has been returned as the remarks in the letter were considered wrong, Chai said, adding that he hopes that Elbegdorj can respect China's sovereignty and recognize the truth considering the overall interests of relations between the two countries, and stop hyping up the issue.

Since the fall semester in 2020, students in first grade in ethnic primary and middle schools in Inner Mongolia started to use the State-approved textbook for Chinese, and the course is taught in Putonghua.

Previously, students started taking the course in second grade, while Mongolian language remains the medium of instruction in other subjects from first grade. The Inner Mongolia government released an explanation on its new education regulations on August 31.

Some changes to the regulation which had not been fully explained and disinformation that misled the public had caused concerns from some students and parents that the Mongolian language will be replaced by Putonghua.

Some Western media have also been hyping up the education reform and recent events in the region.

The local government of Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia issued a detailed explanation on September 6, guaranteeing that the new regulation doesn't signal a cancellation of classes taught in the Mongolian language, nor does it mean the end of preferable policies aimed at helping ethnic minority students get into college.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on September 3 that the Western reports were political hype, and that it is every citizen's right and responsibility to learn and use the common language.

Australia has pared its forecasts for mining and energy export revenue this year, as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and metallurgical coal earnings are forecast to be slightly weaker than earlier expected.

Total earnings from mining and energy exports are forecast to fall 12% in the year to June 2021 to A$256 billion ($180.71 billion) from a record high of A$290 billion a year earlier, the Department of Industry said in its latest quarterly report.

“In 2020-21, relatively weak resource and energy commodity prices — with the notable exception of gold and iron ore — and lower coal export volumes are expected to drive a sizable fall in export earnings,” the government said.

The forecast for 2020-21 is down A$7 billion from the government’s previous outlook in June because of weaker than expected energy exports and stronger than expected gains in the Australian dollar, it said.

Earnings from metallurgical coal are forecast to drop by a third to A$23 billion in 2020-21 on lower prices and weaker output from major miners. That is A$2 billion lower than the government’s previous outlook.

LNG revenue is expected to slump 35% to A$31 billion in 2020-21 from a year earlier. That is A$4 billion lower than the government’s previous forecast, partly due to problems at two of the country’s 10 LNG export projects.

Amid the collapse in global growth from the coronavirus pandemic, Australia’s resources earnings have been shored up by iron ore, helped by supply disruptions in Brazil caused by the pandemic and solid demand from China.

“There is little immediate prospect for a major change in these dynamics,” the government said.

It sees iron export earnings slipping to A$97 billion this year from last year’s record A$102 billion, with iron ore prices expected to fall from around $100 a tonne in the December quarter to around $80 a tonne by the end of 2021.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul. Editing by Christian Schmollinger).

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ JMC Projects company of India has been selected as the general contractor in charge of the first phase construction of the oil refinery plant in Dornogobi aimag, specifically development of the refinery’s non-technological facilities and construction site infrastructure. The company will construct administration building, warehouse, repair facility, fire safety and first aid units, laboratory, and water supply system of the refinery.

On September 24, oil refinery project contractor, Mongolian Oil Refinery state owned company, project management consulting company, Engineers India Limited, and JMC Projects company held the project inception meeting virtually, finalizing the detailed plan for project implementation, coordination, and management.

Established in 1982, JMC Projects works in the areas of infrastructure, energy, industry and construction. The company with around 5,000 employees has successfully implemented over 50 development projects in India and other countries.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ In order to make public services convenient to the citizens, Mongolia Immigration Agency is providing visa permit, residence permit extension, and visa duration extension services via https://evisa.mn.

Since the service was launched in May 2019, it has provided approximately 7000 foreign nationals from 11 countries with 10 different types of public services. For instance, the service has provided business classification multiple type visa permit to 2000 citizens, tourist type visa-on-arrival visa permit to 2100 citizens, student type visa permit to 800 citizens and also has extended the duration of the residence permit of around 350 employees and foreign investors.

Now people may use the internet from any given area to apply for public services. To use online services please register on https://evisa.mn website and follow the instructions provided to submit the necessary documents for the applicable service. Applications submitted online shall be processed in 3 business days and will be given proper decisions via e-mail and SMS.

Before the establishment of online services, customers were required to visit Mongolia Immigration Agency 2-3 times to submit and receive visa services. As of now, customers can receive their response without having to come to the Agency, which is important to save time and money.

Mongolia Immigration Agency is gradually using technological advances to bring public services closer to the people and simplify them.

Mongolia Immigration Agency

Singapore will be the first country in the world to use facial verification in its national identity scheme.

The biometric check will give Singaporeans secure access to both private and government services.

The government's technology agency says it will be "fundamental" to the country's digital economy.

It has been trialled with a bank and is now being rolled out nationwide. It not only identifies a person but ensures they are genuinely present.

"You have to make sure that the person is genuinely present when they authenticate, that you're not looking at a photograph or a video or a replayed recording or a deepfake," said Andrew Bud, founder and chief executive of iProov, the UK company that is providing the technology.

The technology will be integrated with the country's digital identity scheme SingPass and allows access to government services.

"This is the first time that cloud-based face verification has been used to secure the identity of people who are using a national digital identity scheme," said Mr Bud.

Verification or recognition?

Both facial recognition and facial verification depend on scanning a subject's face, and matching it with an image in an existing database to establish their identity.

The key difference is that verification requires the explicit consent of the user, and the user gets something in return, such as access to their phone or their bank's smartphone app.

Facial recognition technology, by contrast, might scan the face of everyone in a train station, and alert the authorities if a wanted criminal walks past a camera.

"Face recognition has all sorts of social implications. Face verification is extremely benign," said Mr Bud.

Privacy advocates, however, contend that consent is a low threshold when dealing with sensitive biometric data.

"Consent does not work when there is an imbalance of power between controllers and data subjects, such as the one observed in citizen-state relationships," said Ioannis Kouvakas, legal officer with London-based Privacy International.

Business or government?

In the US and China, tech companies have jumped on the facial verification bandwagon.

For example, a range of banking apps support Apple Face ID or Google's Face Unlock for verification, and China's Alibaba has a Smile to Pay app.

Many governments are already using facial verification too, but few have considered attaching the technology to a national ID.

In some cases that's because they don't have a national ID at all. In the US, for example, most people use state-issued drivers' licences as their main form of identification.

China hasn't attempted to link facial verification to its national ID, but last year enacted rules forcing customers to have their faces scanned when they buy a new mobile phone, so that they could be checked against the ID provided.

Nevertheless, facial verification is already widespread in airports, and many government departments are using it, including the UK Home Office and National Health Service and the US Department of Homeland Security.

How will it be used?

Singapore's technology is already in use at kiosks in branches of Singapore's tax office, and one major Singapore bank, DBS, allows customers to use it to open an online bank account.

It is also likely to be used for verification at secure areas in ports and to ensure that students take their own tests.

It will be available to any business that wants it, and meets the government's requirements.

"We don't really restrict how this digital face verification can be used, as long as it complies with our requirements," said Kwok Quek Sin, senior director of national digital identity at GovTech Singapore.

"And the basic requirement is that it is done with consent and with the awareness of the individual."

GovTech Singapore thinks the technology will be good for businesses, because they can use it without having to build the infrastructure themselves.

Additionally, Mr Kwok said, it is better for privacy because companies won't need to collect any biometric data.

In fact, they would only see a score indicating how close the scan is to the image the government has on file.

Delegates from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will visit Mongolia in October for evaluating the implementation of the specific tasks given to Ulaanbaatar for getting off the Grey list. The delegates have a tight schedule which has been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic; following their visit to Mongolia, they will be involved in preparing for next month’s meeting of the FATF.

In October 2019, the FATF added Mongolia to its grey list of nations failing to combat money laundering. Mongolia has since made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and continues to take significant steps towards strengthening the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime.