“If you look at the whole cryptocurrency world, the biggest problem is that everybody, including China’s Central Bank, wants to have control of it,” he says.

Horwitz reminds us that “the whole idea behind cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and libra, is not to be regulated.”

He says that bitcoin was meant to eliminate the fiat system.

“Right now there’s a battle between governments as they don’t want to give up control of fiat currency, they want to be able to manipulate cash and devalue it when they need to.”

The expert says that the “real benefit of the cryptocurrency world is that there is no central bank, nobody can manipulate and price the things out…” Cryptocurrencies trade 24 hours a day despite what the US Federal Reserve decides to do on Wednesday, he explained.

After 79 years, an new oil reserve has been discovered at a depth of 2834 meters following well testing operations at ‘Heron-1’ in eastern Mongolia. The oil discovery is in the north of Block XX.

Petro Matad Limited, the AIM quoted Mongolian oil explorer has announced positive results of the well testing operations highlighting that “Drill stem test-2 was performed over a 12 metre interval from 2834 metres in the upper portion of the Lower Tsagaantsav Formation. The zone flowed oil and some associated gas to surface without the need for any artificial lift. This is exceptional for the Tamsag Basin where only a few of the hundreds of wells drilled have had the capability to produce oil to surface on natural flow. The peak production recorded during the test was 821 barrels of oil per day.”

Mike Buck, the CEO of Petro Matad said “The test results at Heron-1 are even better than we expected given that the well is deep in the basin centre. The data gathered will now be analysed and used to secure tenure of a development area in Block XX with a view to transiti

At the meeting, Mr. Alan Turley briefed about works to expand bilateral trade and commercial cooperation. Mr.Alan Turley emphasized that he is together with representatives of U.S. trade and business investors with a purpose to intensify bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and industrial sectors.

Speaker G.Zandanshatar said, “The U.S. is our ‘third neighbor’ with important strategic partnership and a close partner of democracy, human rights, politics and economy. We focus on developing high-level trade and investment cooperation with the U.S which leads the world with its technology production and is a key player in trade and abundant resource of foreign investment. Moreover, the most appropriate and closest way that links the Asia and Europe passes through Mongolian territory. China-Russia and Asia-Europe trades are increasing greatly. We have a historical tradition of ‘Silk Road,’ which was a bridge to link the Asia to Europe. Political and social sectors’ relations of the two countries are rapidly developing. Although economic cooperation has not reached this level and there is a potential to expand further.”

Mongolia has vast potential in agriculture, wool and cashmere, textiles and mining sectors. In recent years, there have been advancements in renewable energy sector with solar and wind resource, which opens a new cooperation opportunity for investors, said the Speaker.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on building favorable legal environment to attract investors, conditions to be caused by Mongolia’s inclusion in FATF’s ‘grey list’ as well as possibilities to develop mutually beneficial cooperation in economy, investment, banking and trade sectors.

He made the remarks on Monday, according to the government's press office Tuesday.

"The capital city has scored great achievements in its development," said Khurelsukh. "However, the city has been facing many issues such as air pollution and traffic congestion caused by population concentration."

On May 15, a government ban on domestic use of low-grade coal in Ulan Bator came into force, with the aim of reducing air pollution, said the prime minister.

Since then, households in the city have been supplied with processed fuel instead of raw coal.

In the future, the government will take all available measures to curb air pollution which is one of the most pressing issues in the capital city, he added.

Ulan Bator, home to over half of Mongolia's population, suffers from severe air pollution in winter. A total of eight people died and dozens of people have been hospitalized here since early October due to allegedly burning processed coal to keep warm.

On his observation on SMEs of Mongolia and export, Vice President of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Turkey (KOSGEB) S. Tuna Sahin said, “It seems that mining and agriculture are the two main sectors in Mongolia. However, I am happy to see that Mongolians are paying more attention to the cashmere sector in recent years, putting in effort into all stages from preparing commodities to processing, and creating a high-quality final products through restructuring. Sector diversification of Mongolian SMEs is the right path.”

On the matter of giving support to SMEs in Turkey, S. Tuna Sahin said, “We support start-ups, small and micro business owners from the stage of employment. For instance, they receive support in sourcing finance and marketing for their products and services alongside participating in foreign markets. We give our services to 3 million entities and citizens that own SMEs.”

During the forum, the SME Development Fund and the KOSGEB Agency of Turkey signed a memorandum on exchanging practices.

Export financing takes 55.6 percent of the total loans given by the Development Bank of Mongolia

Director of Credit Financing Department of the Development Bank of Mongolia B.Uyanga said, “With the Export Mongolia-2019 being organized for the 5th consecutive year, our bank is also co-organizing the forum for the 5th year as the Development Bank of Mongolia finances factories that are working to export their products as well as those that are currently exporting alongside projects being implemented by entities. With the revisal of the Law on Development Bank of Mongolia in 2017, it was set that more than 60 percent of the programs are to be export-oriented.”

In the framework of the forum, a fair is being organized under the theme, ‘Mongolian Brands in the World’, with the participation of Mongolian export companies. From the export products being presented at the fair, a single product is to be selected, which will be promoted at the ‘Made in Mongolia’ event that will take place in Japan alongside winning the ‘Best of the Best’ award.

Under Mongolia’s Criminal Law, if someone confesses that paying bribery for government service due frustration, then they will not be punished

The new system is expected to work as a “gateway” model when messages on payments are transcoded in accordance with a certain financial system.

According to Izvestia, the parties involved will work on a single platform, without experiencing any difficulties with transactions.

Russia began development of SPFS in 2014 amid Washington’s threats to disconnect the country from SWIFT. The first transaction on the SPFS network involving a non-bank enterprise was made in December 2017.

“We have an opportunity to connect both foreign banks and foreign legal entities to the SPFS. Today, about 400 users are participating in the system. Agreements have already been concluded with eight foreign banks and 34 legal entities,” Alla Bakina, the director of the Bank of Russia’s national payment system, was cited as saying by Vesti.

Bakina explained that traffic through the system has been growing and currently accounts for around 15 percent of all internal traffic, up from 10-11 percent last year.

The EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union) countries are currently working with the Bank of Russia on technical options for connecting to the SPFS. Iran, which has officially joined the Russia-led free-trade zone (EAEU) this month also seeks to develop a joint alternative to SWIFT. Last year, SWIFT cut off some Iranian banks from its messaging system.SWIFT is based in Belgium, but its board includes executives from American banks with US federal law allowing the administration to act against banks and regulators across the globe.

Instead of SWIFT, a system that facilitates cross-border payments between 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries worldwide, Moscow and Tehran will use their own domestically developed financial messaging systems to conduct trade.

The airline operates this route 3 times weekly.

TK362 IST1955 – 0920+1ULN 332 135
TK363 IST1050 – 1430IST 332 246

Service operated by A330-300 with operational day changes from 29MAR20. Overall service for Istanbul – Bishkek sector will be revised from 12 to 11 weekly.

The Municipality of Ulaanbaatar City has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to support the implementation of green building standards and certification systems for the new homes.

According to the IFC, a third of Mongolia’s population live in urban ger areas, or settlements of low and middle income households – these districts suffer from poor sanitation, inadequate solid waste management and limited water supply, which pose health and environmental hazards.

These ger areas heavily rely on coal and biofuels for heating and energy, which generate large carbon emissions and worsens air pollution, especially during the winter.

Out of the 10,000 homes, 1,500 will be social housing, 5,500 will be affordable housing and the remaining 3,000 will be sold at the market price.

Arnaud Heckmann, ADB Principal Urban Development Specialist said: “About 850,000 people live in Ulaanbaatar’s ger areas and have poor access to urban services. Our partnership with IFC will help us apply the EDGE [Excellence for Design and Greater Efficiencies] certification system and standard in designing and constructing green, comfortable, and affordable homes for citizens living in ger areas.”