Ulaanbaatar takes back illegally acquired land for public use www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Upon a 2019 ordinance issued by Ulaanbaatar city Mayor S.Amarsaikhan, several lands obtained by Ulaanbaatar Construction and Ulaanbaatar Capital, subsidiaries of Ulaanbaatar City Bank, through illegal transfer were taken to public property and are being developed to convert them into public use.

Japan requested to support establishment of disposal-and-recycling facility www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Minister of Road and Transport Development B.Enkh-Amgalan met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Kobayashi Hiroyuki.

Coal export declines 62.4 percent yoy www.zgm.mn

Mongolia exported 3.45 million tons of coal from the beginning of the year to April 14. This is a decrease of 62.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. According to the Customs General Administration (CGA), coal export revenue fell to USD 274.5 million. By borders, 1.58 million tons of coal has been exported through Gashuunsukhait port, dropped by 66.4 percent from a year ago. The average of 20-30 freight trucks crossing the borders daily since export reopens; however, the number of trucks increased to 107 as of Monday. In addition, 600-800 trucks transborder regularly. At Shiveekhuren border, coal export turned to 868,200 tons, decreasing by 76.4 percent year over year. Mining companies that mine coal from Nariinsukhait deposit are exporting through the border.On average, 70 trucks cross the border per day but from Monday, the number of freight trucks has risen to 160. It is fourfold less compared to regular transportation. Therefore, the State Emergency Commission (SEC) has obligated to resume the borders export of Bayankhoshuu, Bichigt, Bulgan and reopen the Burgastai border.

BoM: Proceeding mortgage program is feasible www.zgm.mn

Bank of Mongolia (BoM) assumed that it is possible to provide a total of MNT 300 billion this year including approved financing for the mortgage loan budget in 2020. As of April 13, the total outstanding loan reached MNT 4.6 trillion and an overall 97,000 borrowers have applied to the mortgage loans. According to the mortgage debt outstanding, 72,000 borrowers received a total of MNT 3.4 trillion under the sub-program “Construction Sector Support and Housing Price Stabilization”. In line with the declining household income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BoM decided to allow the above-mentioned borrowers to defer their mortgage payments for six months, which is expected to be approved by the Cabinet. This is one of the measurements to support household income capacity and prevent the quality of bank loans from deteriorating.

IMF: Mongolia’s economy is projected to shrink by 1% www.zgm.mn

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted that the global economy will shrink by 3 percent in 2020, which is worse than the 2009 crisis. According to the projection, Mongolia's economy is likely to decline by 1 percent this year. “Under the assumption that the pandemic and required containment peaks in the second quarter for most countries in the world, and recedes in the second half of this year, in the April World Economic Outlook we project global growth in 2020 to fall to -3 percent,” IMF said in a report. “Flattening the spread of COVID-19 using lockdowns allows health systems to cope with the disease, which then permits a resumption of economic activity. In this sense, there is no trade-off between saving lives and saving livelihoods. Countries should continue to spend generously on their health systems, perform widespread testing, and refrain from trade restrictions on medical supplies. ”Assuming the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020 and that policy actions taken around the world are effective in preventing widespread firm bankruptcies, extended job losses, and system-wide financial strains, IMF project global growth in 2021 to rebound to 5.8 percent. Multilateral cooperation is vital to the health of the global recovery. To support needed spending in developing countries, bilateral creditors and international financial institutions should provide concessional financing, grants, and debt relief, the IMF addressed.

ACI solutions: creating Mongolia’s first payments gateway service www.news.mn

ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced that High Payment Solutions LLC (Hi-Pay) has successfully launched its new payments hub using multiple ACI solutions to create Mongolia’s first payments gateway service. ACI’s technology gives Hi-Pay a foundational platform upon which it can build a range of new products and services.

Turquoise Hill gold production drops 78% www.mining.com

Turquoise Hill Resources (NYSE: TRQ) reported on Thursday that Oyu Tolgoi mine Q1 gold production plunged 78% year-over-year to 26,154 ounces and that copper output slid 23%, to 35,203 metric tonnes.

Fresh air and social distancing: Mongolia reopens resorts www.news.mn

Under the instruction of Mongolian Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh, resorts both inside and beyond Ulaanbaatar reopened today (15 April). Quarantined since mid-February, residents in Ulaanbaatar are eager to go out in the fresh air at the weekend. The rationale of reopening the resorts is to prevent people gathering, especially in areas such as the Bogd Mountain and along the banks of the Tuul River at the weekends.

Face masks may be 'new normal' as U.S. prepares gradual reopening www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States approached 31,000 on Wednesday as governors began cautiously preparing Americans for a post-virus life that would likely include public face coverings as the “new normal.”

The governors of Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania each issued orders or recommendations that residents wear face masks as they emerge from isolation in the coming weeks.

“If you are going to be in public and you cannot maintain social distancing, then have a mask, and put that mask on,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.

Similar orders were imposed in New Jersey and Los Angeles last week and face coverings were recommended by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on Tuesday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said residents across the nation’s most-populous state would likely be wearing masks in public for some time to come.

“We are going to be getting back to normal; it will be a new normal,” Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said, echoing a phrase used by at least two of his fellow governors in recent days.

U.S. Midwest governors were also making plans together to restart their economies, said Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokeswoman for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

In Michigan, hundreds of cars flooded the streets around the state Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday to protest Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, some of the strictest in the country.

Some protesters, in the demonstration organized by conservative and pro-President Donald Trump groups, left their cars to gather on the lawn in front of the Capitol building, many of them not wearing masks or practicing social distancing.

TOLL ON HEALTHCARE STAFF
As of Wednesday night, 30,885 people in the United States had died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to a Reuters tally.

That total includes more than 4,000 deaths newly attributed to the disease in New York City after health officials revised their counting methods to include “probable,” but unconfirmed, cases.

Healthcare workers have faced unique health threats while working on the front lines trying to tackle the pandemic. Reuters has identified more than 50 nurses, doctors and medical technicians who have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 or showing symptoms of it. At least 16 were in New York state.

“The emergency room is like a war zone,” said Raj Aya, whose wife, Madhvi Aya - a physician’s assistant in Brooklyn - was one of the healthcare workers who died in New York.

As the outbreak begins to slow, political leaders have bickered over how and when to begin the process of unwinding unprecedented lockdowns that have badly damaged the economy and largely confined Americans to their homes.

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee told an afternoon news conference the largest obstacle to a return to normalcy was a shortage of coronavirus tests.

“We simply haven’t had enough test kits – they simply do not exist anywhere in the United States right now,” Inslee said, adding that the state had purchased about a million swabs, along with vials and test medium but they were just starting to arrive.

Trump, citing data suggesting that the peak of new infections had passed, said he would announce guidelines on Thursday for reopening the economy.

The sweeping closures of businesses have left millions of Americans unemployed and store owners struggling to pay rent.

Government data released on Wednesday showed that retail sales dropped by 8.7% in March, the biggest decline since tracking began in 1992. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

In addition, output at U.S. factories declined by the most since 1946 as the pandemic fractured supply chains.

“The economy is almost in free fall,” said Sung Won Sohn, a business economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, has now suffered the greatest number of reported fatalities from the coronavirus, ahead of Italy and Spain.

The pathogen emerged last year in China.

Trump said on Wednesday his government was trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing “needs to come clean” on what they know. The official death toll released by the Chinese government stands at about 3,600.

The source of the virus remains a mystery. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence indicated that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there was no certainty either way.

World Bank Group plans $12m loan to Mongolia microfinance company www.asia.nikkei.com

HANOI -- The World Bank's private sector arm, International Finance Corporation, may extend a syndicated senior loan facility equal to $12 million in local currency to Mongolian microfinance company Transcapital.