Russia's largest solar power plant launched in the Urals www.rt.com

A new solar power plant (SES) with a capacity of 10MW has been commissioned in the Burzyansky district of Russia's southern Ural region of Bashkortostan.
According to Russian nanotechnology company Rusnano, it is the country's largest SES with an energy storage facility. Rusnano's portfolio company Liotech has supplied energy storage units with a total capacity of 8MW.

Mongolia seeks closer economic ties with U.S www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Next month, Parliament Speaker G.Zandanshatar is planning to pay a visit to the USA. In connection with the visit, yesterday, on February 20, Parliamentary Standing Committee discussed and backed a draft resolution on strengthening the Mongolia and the U.S partnership.

New Permanent Representative of Mongolia Presents Credentials www.un.org

Vorshilov Enkhbold, the new Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Mongolia supports China in fighting novel coronavirus outbreak: PM www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh on Thursday expressed deep sympathy to China over the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Rio and Mongolia bound for UN arbitration www.afr.com

Rio Tinto has given up trying to negotiate settlement of a two-year-old tax dispute with the Mongolian government and has sent the matter to a United Nations arbitration panel.

The matter relates to $US155 million ($234 million) of extra taxes that Mongolia believes Rio's subsidiaries should have paid between 2013 and 2015, and suggests a further deterioration of the relationship between the government of the developing nation and its biggest private sector employer.

Rio has operated the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia for seven years, and a multibillion-dollar expansion of the mine is Rio's most important and controversial growth project.

UN arbitration has long been viewed as a last resort for the tax dispute; Rio and its subsidiaries have legally been eligible to send the matter to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) since about May 2018.

Negotiation periods have been extended on numerous occasions over the past two years in the hope a settlement could be reached, but the patience of Rio and its subsidiaries was finally exhausted on Friday.

“We have worked diligently with the government and tax office representatives in Mongolia to find a mutually acceptable settlement and came to the conclusion that arbitration is the best way forward to resolve this issue,” said Rio's copper and diamonds chief executive Arnaud Soirat.

Rio's exposure to Oyu Tolgoi comes through its majority ownership of Canadian company Turquoise Hill Resources, which in turn owns 66 per cent of the Mongolian company that runs the mine.

That Mongolian company, Oyu Tolgoi LLC, is technically the entity that initiated the formal international arbitration process on Friday.

The matter will now be heard by a three-member arbitration panel run by UNCITRAL in London.

Rio firmly believes its subsidiaries have paid all appropriate taxes in Mongolia.

The failure to reach a negotiated settlement comes after a $US30 million settlement was reached in 2014 over Mongolia's belief that Rio's subsidiaries owed it $US130 million in unpaid taxes.

The move to arbitration also does not bode well for a new round of talks due to begin between Rio and Mongolia over power supply for Oyu Tolgoi.

Rio's subsidiaries confirmed this week that a new coal-fired power station for Oyu Tolgoi would be delivered about a year later than the deadline set by the Mongolian government.

Rio and its subsidiaries said they would try to reach a "mutually acceptable" outcome with the government over power.

The power talks add to the long list of difficult negotiation topics between the nation and Rio, with the two parties also in talks over ways to reduce costs on the mine, and the interest rates applied to money that Rio loans to Oyu Tolgoi LLC.

An underground expansion of the existing Oyu Tolgoi mine was expected to cost $US5.3 billion when it was launched in 2015, but will now cost somewhere between $US6.5 billion and $US7.2 billion.

Building the power station will require spending a further $US924 million.

The Australian Financial Review revealed in November that a former worker on Oyu Tolgoi had claimed in a United Kingdom court that he warned senior Rio officials about cost and schedule blowouts months before the company disclosed the issues to investors in 2018 and 2019.

In December Mongolia floated the idea that it might exchange its 34 per cent stake in the mine for improved royalty flows.

Mongolia, Russia set up working group for Trans-Mongolian Gas Pipeline www.akipress.com

A working group has been established between Mongolia and Russia for the Trans-Mongolian Gas Pipeline, news.mn reported as Minister of Energy of Mongolia Ts.Davaasuren saying.
The working group co-chaired by Deputy Ministers of Energy of the two countries, has already started works, developing some documents and collecting information. The body has also put forth a request to the Chinese side to discuss specific matters regarding the pipeline. However, the meeting with the Beijing officials will have to be postponed due to the Coronovirus crisis.

Mongolia cancels flights to Tokyo and Bangkok www.akipress.com

Coal exports to resume from March 2 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On February 20, State Emergency Commission made a decision to resume the export shipments of coal and oil from March 2. Corresponding officials were charged to continue to ensure effective sterilization practices for drivers of delivery vehicles across the borders and customs officers.

Mollae Saed to fight for Mongolia at Dusseldorf Grand Slam www.news.mn

Speaker G.Zandanshatar: Pension-secured loan debts paid off www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Following the announcement by President Kh.Battulga in his New Year’s address, the Parliament, on January 10, approved the law on one-time forgiveness of pension-backed loan debts.

The law states that the Mongolian government’s benefits to receive from the revenues of the Salkhit gold and silver deposit production will be used as the collateral to back the government bonds to be issued by the Erdenes Mongol LLC to raise funds for covering the expenses of the pension loan debts’ repayment.

Last month, the Bank of Mongolia informed that an outstanding pension loan balance amounted to MNT 776 billion, as of November 2019.

On February 18, Parliament Speaker G.Zandanshatar met representatives from commercial banks and ‘Erdenes Mongol’ LLC and government officials, regarding the matters of pension-backed loan repayment and Salkhit silver deposit.

CEO T.Munkhbayar of the ‘Erdenes Silver Resource’ LLC, under the government-owned Erdenes Mongol LLC, who is a holder of special mineral license over the Salkhit deposits in Dundgobi aimag, informed at the meeting that an additional feasibility study made on only one-third of the deposit estimated the net profit at MNT 569 billion, including taxes. “Explorations will be intensified in the future and the current identified reserves are expected to increase.”

Governor of the Bank of Mongolia B.Lkhagvasuren said that relevant studies are being conducted on the pension loan cancellation. Since the beginning of this year, the Bank of Mongolia has suspended giving out pension loans. Mr. B.Lkhagvasuren said that the central bank is also studying the options to launch other alternative products in lieu of the pension-backed loans, such as interest-free pension advances with terms of up to three months.

As most of the senior borrowers have taken out pension-backed loans through their pension accounts in the Khan Bank or State Bank of Mongolia, the meeting was attended by representatives from these banks.

The Khan Bank representative R.Munkhtuya said the loan payments deducted from the retirement allowance in January has been already transferred back to the accounts of holders of pension loan debts. Around 62 percent of all pension-backed loan borrowers receive their monthly pension allowance through the Khan Bank.

Director of the State Bank G.Dulguun said the bank has written off debt balances of pension loan of more than MNT 6 million, totaling MNT 180 billion.

Erdenes Mongol CEO P.Gankhuu said at the press briefing that government bonds titled ‘Erdenes’ are guaranteed by the Development Bank of Mongolia and agreements of MNT 695 billion in total will be made in the near future with commercial banks to finalize the repayment of pension-backed loan of more than MNT 6 million.

The government bonds, which will have an interest rate of 6 percent and 5-year term, are ready to be sold to commercial banks, reports the Parliament Secretariat.

CEO P.Gankhuu also reported that Erdenes bonds will be distributed to around 195 thousand pensioners, who did not get loans against their pension, by May 1.

“The pension loan forgiveness requires a lot of time and works as it concerns 418 thousand pensioners in the country. We are working to complete all works on the loan repayment before the Tsagaan Sar Holiday next week. In February, no deduction was taken from pension allowances of the borrowers, meaning that the pension-backed loan debts were paid off.” said Parliament Speaker G.Zandanshatar.

He also thanked for the commercial banks for cooperating with the government on this mater as part of their social responsibilities in spite of possible losses due to difference between 10-percent interest rate of pension loans and 6-percent interest of the government bonds.