Customers exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, including fever (37.8 degrees Celsius and above), coughs or difficulty breathing will be helped to reschedule their application submission for another day and will be advised to seek medical attention at the nearest healthcare facility of their choice.

Mongolia went into lockdown from 24 February and this intrepid German, like so many of his colleagues globally, had a bit of spare time on his hands. He was out horseback riding with the local representative of Germany’s cultural trade mission, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). They hatched a plan to introduce Mongolia to a wider world via unique marketing at barely any financial outlay.

GIZ provided a Toyota Land Cruiser and VW Touareg and drove Bansemer and colleagues 300 kilometres to Dulaan Khan Village, in Selenge Province. The hotel’s team included its IT director and one of the signature Kempinski lobby hostesses (a lady in red), who took along her scarlet outfit for the actual streaming.

Mongolian villages consist of portable ger or yurt, felt-covered circular tents about 15 metres in diameter; as weather and animal migration demand, they can easily be moved. Dulaan Khan Village has nine such gers. One was given over for this project to Kempinski’s male team, another to ladies from the hotel and GIZ. Baggage included lots of tech equipment, plus a generator and a solar panel to supplement the village’s own power, which they correctly expected to be somewhat inconsistent.

For the first sessions, about 280 tuned in from all over the world. There were seven sessions, each 15-45 minutes long and all interactive. Kempinski’s corporate commercial director Amanda Elder has since widely shared how she was ‘chatting’ with a septuagenarian male, as he prepared such popular local Mongolian dishes as khorkhog, bits of lamb still on the bone cooked with onions over hot stones. The ‘Lady in Red’ translated throughout: all customer-facing employees at the 99-room hotel, currently housing diplomats and others stranded by closed borders, speak good English.

GM Dirk Bansemer is currently supporting, in 2021, a 10-week horseback expedition covering 3,000 kilometres from east to west of Mongolia, benefitting Misheel Kids Foundation

Mary Gostelow’s daily travelogue is at girlahead.com

Minister A.Ariunzaya underlined the timeliness of the Government’s COVID-19 response in social protection and that the United Nation’s support has been of great importance in the implementation of the economic stimulus measures. She also informed the Resident Representative of the adoption of the Vision 2050 long-term development policy document, while mentioning the country’s development policy planning law that requires short-, medium-, and long-term development policies, and undertook to place special emphasis on the implementation of SDGs.

Informing that as part of the assistance from the European Union, EUR 7.4 million technical assistance will be provided for Mongolia to support employment and the implementation of SDGs, Ms. Elaine Conkievich said it may become necessary to provide social protection for the citizens who work and study abroad, but have returned home due to COVID-19. “We are now joining our efforts to support employment and small and medium enterprises in pandemic response,” the Resident Representative said, undertaking to focus on domestic violence prevention and improvement of youth engagement in SDGs implementation in the future.

Spot silver advanced 6.2% to $22.71 an ounce by 1:20 p.m. EDT, while silver futures on the Comex exchange rose by as much as 1,4% to $22.90 an ounce.

Silver prices have risen around 15% this week. Some analysts see the movement as the start of a bull run powered by low interest rates, resurgent investment demand, disrupted production and a recovery in industrial consumption.

“It’s a typical low-liquidity summer market where prices tend to be easier to push, especially when momentum has been established as per the trifecta of support,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S told Bloomberg.

“The closer gold gets to its record high the stronger the magnetic field will become and that could see it challenge that level before long.”

Lower returns on bonds have made it more attractive to hold gold and silver, and investors are stockpiling both in the hope they will hold their value as central bank stimulus unleashed during the pandemic erodes other assets. Gold prices also kept their upward momentum on Wednesday, passing the nine-year peak set during the previous trading day.

Consumption of silver in industries, such as solar panels and electronics, is also likely to increase as the economy rebounds, while silver mine output is projected by consultancy Metals Focus to fall 7% this year as the novel coronavirus interrupts operations.

At the same time, a weakening dollar is making silver cheaper for buyers with other currencies, fuelling the rally.

Analysts at Citi said in a note prices could rise to $25 over 6-12 months – outperforming gold – as investors move to protect their wealth and global economic activity improves.

However, a Reuters poll of 42 analysts and traders conducted this month said silver would average $20.03 an ounce next year.

Technical indicators show silver is overbought, suggesting that prices will struggle to move immediately higher.

Any weakness is a chance to buy, some traders say.

“A deep setback lower is looming,” tweeted Gianclaudio Torlizzi at consultancy T-Commodity. “I will be using the correction as opportunity to charge long. A new bull market has started.”

Compared with the same period of the previous year, the number of countries decreased by 3 and the number of foreign workers decreased by 5.8 thousand persons (60.0%). Out of all foreign workers with labour contract in Mongolia, 3.2 thousand (82.3%) were male and 0.7 thousand (17.7%) were female.

From all foreign workers in Mongolia, 34.5% is from China, 8.0% is from Russian Federation, 7.3% is from Australia, 6.0% is from South Korea, 5.1% is from United States, 4.9% is from Vietnam, 3.9% is from South Africa, 3.8% is from Philippines, 2.8% is from Great Britain, 2.8% is from Canada and remaining 20.9% is from other countries.

Out of total foreign workers in the second quarter of 2020, 1.5 thousand foreign workers (40.2%) are working in mining and quarrying sector, 846 foreign workers (21.8%) are working in education sector, 606 workers (15.6%) are working in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 247 workers (6.4%) are working in manufacturing sector, 125 workers (3.2%) are working in transportation and storage, 130 workers (3.3%) are working in administrative and support service activities, 111 workers (2.9%) are working in construction sector and 200 foreign workers (6.6%) are working in other sectors.

National Statistics Office

According to the report on the average market price of livestock in June 2020, the highest average price of a wether sheep was in Darkhan-Uul aimag at MNT 233.3 thousand, whereas the lowest was in Dornod aimag at MNT 143.6 thousand.

According to the report on the average market price of livestock products in June 2020, the highest average price of 1-kilogram white cashmere was in Bayankhongor aimag at MNT 60.0 thousand, whereas the lowest average price of a white cashmere was in Govisumber aimag at MNT 30.0 thousand.

According to the report on average market prices of livestock products in June 2020, the average price of cattle hide more than 2 meters was MNT 11.0 thousand and 1-kilogram white cashmere was MNT 46.5 thousand.

According to the report on average market prices of crop products in June 2020, the highest average price of a wheat bran (25kg) was in Dornogovi aimag at MNT 19.5 thousand, while the lowest was in Uvs aimag at MNT 11.3 thousand.

Source: National Statistics Office

By the preliminary results of the first half of 2020, in mining and quarrying sector, gold and extraction of iron ore was increased by 15.9-42.4 percent compared to the same period of previous year. In manufacturing sector, alcohol, wheat flour, pure water, soft drink and juice and milk were increased by 7.6 percent to 14.2 percent compared to the same period of previous year. By the preliminary results of the first half of 2020, production of coal briquette and face covering was increased by 3.0 to 21.0 times more compared to the same period of previous year.

However, in mining and quarrying sector, extraction of brown coal, copper concentrate, flour spar, hard coal and crude oil were decreased by 5.3 percent to 69.4 percent. In manufacturing sector, cement, alcoholic beverage, concentrated coal, lime, copper cathode 99%, cashmere products, metal steel, meat, concentrated coal, combed cashmere and cigarettes were decreased by 7.2 percent to 68.7 percent compared to the same period of previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first half of 2020, the sales of industrial production reached MNT 7.1 trillion, decreased by MNT 3.0 trillion (29.8%) from the same period of previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted from the decrease of MNT 2.6 trillion (37.4%) in sales of mining and quarrying and MNT 387.6 billion (15.7%) in sales of manufacturing, while the sales of electricity, thermal energy and water supply were increased by MNT 11.8 billion (1.9%).

For the total sales of industrial production, MNT 3.9 trillion (54.1%) were from export, of which export of mining and quarrying was MNT 3.2 trillion (82.8%). For the sales of mining and quarrying production, MNT 3.2 trillion (82.8%) was comprised from the export, of which 71.7 percent was from mining of metal ores, 22.8 percent was from mining of coal and lignite, 2.8 percent was from extraction of crude petroleum, 2.7 percent was from other mining and quarrying products.

National Statistics Office

At the meeting, the Ambassador said EU will cooperate with the Mongolian side in all possible areas to further expand bilateral cooperation and that it has been decided that the union will provide EUR 37.5 million to Mongolia for its COVID-19 response through short-, medium-, and long-term projects.

Expressing his gratitude for providing assistance amid the global pandemic, Minister N.Enkhtaivan asked the Ambassador to support and protect the interests of Mongolians studying, working, and living in EU member countries.

The Foreign Minister also voiced his willingness to put emphasis on expanding economic relations and cooperation and boosting trade and investments between the two sides. Moreover, the EU Ambassador undertook to examine the Mongolian side’s proposal to establish factories of EU-standard products in order to leverage EU's Generalised System of Preferences.

Since 8 January, Mongolia has conducted COVID-19 tests on 14702 people; 287 of them were confirmed as having coronavirus. Fortunately, the virus has not taken anyone’s life; of those who tested positive, 213 people have been discharged from the NCCD after having fully recovered from coronavirus – leaving 74 people under treatment at the hospital. Currently, 36 people are under observation of the symptoms of coronavirus in resorts and 51 at home after having been released from the NCCD.

All Mongolian coronavirus cases are imported from 15 countries; most of them are from Russia.