Mongolian President welcomes New Year with good news for seniors www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. President of Mongolia Kh.Battulga rung in the New Year with traditional greetings addressing the nation. The message was broadcasted on TV across the country just moments before the clock strikes midnight.

Mongolia to write off loans of all pensioners www.xinhuanet.com

The National Security Council of Mongolia led by the country's president has decided to write off the loans of all pensioners in the country.

Mongolia’s foreign debt until 2024 reaches $14.4 billion www.akipress.com

Director General of Research and Statistics Department of the Bank of Mongolia B.Batdavaa told the Montsame news agency about recent economic indicators of Mongolia.

Joe Biden tells coal miners to learn to code www.mining.com

Democratic presidential hopeful and former US vice president Joe Biden told unemployed miners, particularly those in the coal sector, to learn to code so that they can access the jobs of the future.

One million children to receive monthly Child Allowance www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. A parliamentary resolution made on November 28, 2019 to grant monthly Child Money allowance to all children, whose parents and caregivers applied for the allowance, comes into force today, January 1, 2020.

FDI may exceed USD 300 million 2020 www.zgm.mn

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is expected to reach USD 200-300 million next year, according to the Bank of Mongolia (BoM). It directly depends on the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) project progress. The investor of the project had announced that the first sustainable production is expected between May 2022 and June 2023, which is a delay of 16-30 months compared with original guidance, while the cost of the USD 5.3 billion will increase by USD 1.2-1.9 billion. More detailed estimates will be introduced in the second quarter of next year and the feasibility study is expected to be updated in the latter half of the year. In this regard, the amount of investment in the OT project will reduce to USD 970 million from its planned USD 1.2 billion in 2020, the central bank said. In the first 10 months of this year, foreign direct investment reached USD 1.56 billion, a six percent decrease from the previous year, of which Oyu Tolgoi LLC made 75-80 percent alone.Thus, the government's decision to cease exploration license for one year significantly diminishes the exploration activity of foreign and domestic investors. As of October 2019, exploration activities were activated in 104 fields, with MNT 18.9 billion being collected to the state budget, according to the Mineral Resource and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM).

Interview: Mongolian, Chinese archeologists' co-discovery among top in 2019 www.xinhuanet.com

A rare pair of silver dragons discovered in Mongolia by local and Chinese scientists has been added to a prestigious list of archeological discoveries.

China near to eliminating poverty www.chinadaily.com.cn

When Marko Djuric, vice-chairman of the Progressive Party of Serbia, visited Jiangxi provincial capital Nanchang last month, he was touched by the story of a local farmer who escaped poverty by growing navel oranges with the help of the local government.

The success story of 62-year-old Deng Daqing, a farmer in Longhu, a village in Ruijin's Huangbai township, shows that the governance of the Communist Party of China in poverty reduction is "responsible and efficient", Djuric said in an interview with China Daily.

Until 2013, Deng's family was one of the poorest in his rugged mountain village. With help from local authorities, Deng secured a bank loan and planted more than 800 orange trees. Three years later, he brought in 30,000 yuan ($4,286) from fruit sales, an amount far exceeding the national poverty threshold of 2,300 yuan a year.

By using an e-commerce platform, Deng's income has grown significantly as his business has expanded nationwide. Last year, Deng earned more than 280,000 yuan.

As a CPC member, Deng said he was unwilling to reap the benefits alone, so he offered to help his fellow villagers grow navel oranges. In 2016, he worked with the Party branch in the village to start an agricultural cooperative, which provides unified management, training, pest prevention, cheaper fertilizers and marketing for poverty-stricken families.

Deng said the per capita income of his village reached 13,000 yuan in 2017, and all 54 households that were impoverished were lifted out of poverty by growing and selling navel oranges.

Deng's story sends an "emotional" message that it's never too late for poverty-stricken people to become prosperous through hard work, Djuric said. Importantly, it also shows how the province's Party organization played a significant role in helping the village escape poverty.

Deng and his fellow villagers are only a few of the beneficiaries of the country's poverty alleviation efforts in recent years. From 2013 to 2018, the nation's impoverished population has been reduced by an average of more than 12 million annually, from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 16.6 million at the end of last year.

At the fourth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, in late October, the CPC reaffirmed to eradicate absolute poverty in rural areas by the end of next year. Meanwhile, it would set up a long-term mechanism to deal with relative poverty to meet people's ever-growing demand for a better life.

Resolute efforts must be made to win the critical battle of poverty reduction, build on the outcomes achieved in relieving extreme poverty and establish a mechanism to address relative poverty, according to a document adopted by the key Party meeting

The document is seen as a guideline for the CPC to lead the nation to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advance the modernization of the country's system and capacity for governance, and also a road map to turn institutional strength into even more effective governance.

Djuric said that when he read President Xi Jinping's book The Governance of China this year, he was impressed by the achievements of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, particularly in poverty alleviation, with more than 700 million people having been lifted out of extreme poverty in the past four decades.

He attributed the country's remarkable achievements in poverty reduction to its effective system and targeted measures as well as the CPC's efficient governance.

"China's governance system has proved to be very efficient in promoting the country's progress and development. ... There is no doubt that Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has yielded concrete results in Jiangxi," Djuric said.

He added that the Chinese model can be implemented in many places in the world. "It requires hard work, dedication, good governance and responsible governance."

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, placed poverty reduction at the top of the list of major tasks as the Party vowed to build a moderately prosperous society in 2020. This means that by the end of 2020, the population of rural poor should be guaranteed food, clothing and safe housing, compulsory education and basic medical care.

In Xi's view, if rural China — particularly people in impoverished areas — is left behind, a moderately prosperous society will not emerge.

Because the earlier one-size-fits-all poverty relief policy no longer works when applied to the most impoverished families, Xi proposed the idea of targeted poverty alleviation for the first time in November 2013, when he made an inspection tour of Shibadong village in Hunan province. He said targeted relief and customized policies are needed to help different types of people and households.

When carrying out poverty-relief work, the central authorities coordinate the entire program and provinces take major responsibility, while cities and counties ensure policies are implemented.

Overall responsibility for leading the work lies with the Party and government chiefs, according to the action plan for poverty alleviation jointly released by the general office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in 2016.

Targeted measures designed to help residents of rural areas shake off poverty have been pushed forward. They include developing industries, improving education and medical services, building adequate infrastructure and facilities, helping migrant workers find jobs and relocating people living in poor conditions and fragile environments to more prosperous areas.

More than 770,000 officials from the government, universities, State-owned enterprises and civil associations work in rural areas nationwide.

Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a news conference in September that 95 percent of the impoverished population is expected to be lifted out of poverty in the end of this year.

Through continued efforts in 2020, he added, the historic goal of rooting out absolute poverty across China will be achieved and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects will be attained.

The success in targeted poverty alleviation in Jiangxi reflects a miracle China has created in securing large-scale poverty reduction while achieving rapid economic growth, said Liu Qi, secretary of the CPC Jiangxi Provincial Committee. It fully demonstrates the political advantage of CPC leadership as well as the strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Liu said.

The fourth plenary session also laid out a map for turning institutional strength into even more effective governance, covering key fields like Party leadership, rule of law, the economy and the environment.

The session is of great significance, said Khamphanh Phommathath of Laos, a member of the Political Bureau of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, adding that the CPC has been continuously working to improve its governance capacity and system as well as sticking to its commitment to seek happiness for the people.

Guided by the session, the CPC will achieve greater progress in governance in the future, he said.

Amirah Kaca Sumarto, vice-chair of the young leaders' sisterhood of Indonesia's Golkar Party, said that China has managed to formulate its own system that suits its history, culture and people, and it has proved to be effective. "China is a different kind of role model compared with Western countries."

Mongolia to shut down all checkpoints on occasion of Independence Day www.akipress.com

All 12 border checkpoints for auto vehicles will be closed on December 29, Sunday for the Day of Restoration of National Freedom and Independence of Mongolia, Montsame reports.
In compliance with intergovernmental agreements established by Mongolia with its two neighbor countries, Russia and China, on border ports and their working regimes, border crossing points for auto vehicles will be closed during national holidays.

Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet www.bbc.com

Russia has successfully tested a country-wide alternative to the global internet, its government has announced.

Details of what the test involved were vague but, according to the Ministry of Communications, ordinary users did not notice any changes.

The results will now be presented to President Putin.

Experts remain concerned about the trend for some countries to dismantle the internet.

"Sadly, the Russian direction of travel is just another step in the increasing breaking-up of the internet," said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey.

"Increasingly, authoritarian countries which want to control what citizens see are looking at what Iran and China have already done.

"It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble."

The initiative involves restricting the points at which Russia's version of the net connects to its global counterpart, giving the government more control over what its citizens can access.

"That would effectively get ISPs [internet service providers] and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does," explained Prof Woodward.

So how would the government establish what some have dubbed a "sovereign Runet"?

Countries receive foreign web services via undersea cables or "nodes" - connection points at which data is transmitted to and from other countries' communication networks. These would need to be blocked or at least regulated.

This would require the co-operation of domestic ISPs and would be much easier to achieve if there were just a handful of state-owned firms involved. The more networks and connections a country has, the more difficult it is to control access.

Then Russia would need to create an alternative system.

In Iran, the National Information Network allows access to web services while policing all content on the network and limiting external information. It is run by the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran.

One of the benefits of effectively turning all internet access into a government-controlled walled garden, is that virtual private networks (VPNs), often used to circumvent blocks, would not work.

Another example of this is the so-called Great Firewall of China. It blocks access to many foreign internet services, which in turn has helped several domestic tech giants establish themselves.

Russia already tech champions of its own, such as Yandex and Mail.Ru, but other local firms might also benefit.

The country plans to create its own Wikipedia and politicians have passed a bill that bans the sale of smartphones that do not have Russian software pre-installed.

Technical challenges
One expert warned that the policy could help the state repress free speech, but added that it was not a foregone conclusion that it would succeed.

"The Russian government has run into technical challenges in the past when trying to increase online control, such as its largely unsuccessful efforts to block Russians from accessing encrypted messaging app Telegram," Justin Sherman, a cyber-security policy fellow at the New America think tank, told the BBC.

"Without more information about this test though, it's hard to assess exactly how far Russia has progressed in the path towards an isolatable domestic internet.

"And on the business front, it remains to be seen just how much domestic and foreign pushback Russia will get."

Local news agencies, including Pravda, reported the deputy head of the Ministry of Communications had said that the tests of the scheme had gone as planned.

"The results of the exercises showed that, in general, both the authorities and telecoms operators are ready to effectively respond to emerging risks and threats, to ensure the stable functioning of both the internet and unified telecommunication network in the Russian Federation," said Alexey Sokolov.

The state-owned Tass news agency reported the tests had assessed the vulnerability of internet-of-things devices, and also involved an exercise to test Runet's ability to stand up to "external negative influences".