During the expo, 15 projects of the Mongolian Government, 50 projects of private entities were presented to investors. The total cost of these projects is estimated at CNY 41 billion, according to the National Development Agency of Mongolia. Projects of food, agriculture, and light industry accounted for almost 50 percent of all projects.

The expo which takes place every two years aimed to leverage the geographical advantages and special industrial resources in Northeast Asia, promote business exchanges and cooperation, and to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative. It has been expanding to a crucial spot where regional countries are able to cooperate. Also, delegates from Hong Kong and Macau as well as Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries have attended the expo, confirming its importance in the region.

As of the first half of 1990-2019, Chinese-invested enterprises account for half of the 14,000 registered foreign-invested entities in Mongolia. During the period, China’s direct investment reached USD 5.1 billion, accounting for 20.1 percent of total foreign investment.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of comprehensive strategic partnership, the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and China. Accordingly, both countries are committed to launching a mutually beneficial partnership as well as Mongolia intends to expand its trade in goods other than mineral commodities.

The Mongolian Police reported that 130 people have been investigated over 67 drug-related cases since January 2019; more than 80 percent of them are young people aged between 18 and 35.

Mongolia has national football teams in nine age categories and is taking part in international matches. However weather and environmental conditions cause difficulties for trainings. Up to now, the absence of a world standard ground has proved a major disadvantage.

At the meeting, Speaker G.Zandanshatar briefly informed about Mongolia’s Constitutional amendments which is currently under parliamentary consideration and an intention of reforming higher educational sector and expressed an interest to establish Mongolia-Russia joint research university and implement scientific and technological projects.

Mr. Sergeyev said, “Funding from the state budget to the scientific sector is insufficient. It needs to be raised”. Expressing readiness to implement joint projects in modern agriculture, rare earth metals, renewable energy, space studies and studies of shared history based on archaeology, genetics and ethnography, Mr. Sergeyev asked support from the Speaker on the issue.

The sides concurred to co-work for expanding bilateral cooperation in science and technological sectors and develop it effectively.

The US company, run by the Canadian mining icon, said the decision allowed it to buy a 95% stake in Nimba, owned until now by BHP, Newmont Mining and France’s Orano.

Nimba, located on the border with Liberia, is just one of the world’s richest iron ore deposits found in Guinea, holding around 1 billion tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient.

The West African country is also host to the famed Simandou project, which Rio Tinto, Vale and billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources fought over for years. However, Guinea has never exported a tonne as it lacks infrastructure to transport the ore to local ports.

Using a much shorter route through neighbouring Liberia would be cheaper and faster. The government, however, has repeatedly said ore should shipped via the country’s own ports. It has so far made an exception by allowing Niron Metals’s Zogota mine to send production by rail to Liberia and ship from there. It is not clear whether HPX has secured a similar rail deal.

The Vancouver-based firm plans to produce between 1 million to 5 million tonnes in a first phase, with a view to increasing output to at least 20 million tonnes. Under the deal, Guinea’s government will receive a 15% stake in Société des Mines de Fer de Guinée (SMFG), the company that owns Nimba. The government will also get two seats on SMFG’s board.

Guinea has struggled for decades to extract money from its iron ore, which has been left undeveloped because of protracted legal disputes and the cost of infrastructure.
“With local procurement of goods and services, local recruitment and training of the workforce, the upgrading of transport routes and infrastructure, and the resulting economic multiplier effects, we anticipate that major social and economic benefits will flow from the Nimba mine,” HPX president Eric Finlayson said in a statement.

Friedland made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s. Since then, he has been involved in some of the biggest mineral discoveries in the world, including the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia and the Kamoa-Kakula project in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The company still has to figure out how to build reverse logistics, according to the source.

In terms of e-commerce, there are some issues related to the delivery of goods from Russia to China.

Goods from Russia are currently exported only via eBay and Ozon, said the source, noting that those products are mainly sold to the United States.

In connection with weather conditions, crops are at the ripening phase in about 60 percent of the total farming fields. Technical preparedness for harvesting is running at 82 percent.

Of the total crops, 50 thousand tons will be reserved for next year’s sowing, 6.6 thousand tons will be used as seeds, 21.5 thousand tons –fodders and 8.7 thousand tons – spirit production. Thus, a total of 333.2 thousand tons of crops are likely to be distributed to flour producers.

Generally, Mongolia requires 320 thousand tons of pure wheat in order to produce flour that meets the country’s annual domestic needs. The preliminary balance shows it can be met.

Specifically, 15 major projects of the Government of Mongolia and 56 projects of private sector were presented to businesses and investors from China and other countries, seeking investment and trade partners. Of which 24 were projects on agricultural and animal origin product manufacturing and food industry, 3- on equipment manufacturing, 5 - on building material manufacturing, 3 - in tourism industry, 9 - in light industry, 1 - in mining, 2- in information technology, 1- in hydropower plant, 6- in social service sector and another 2- in strategically developing sector.

Furthermore, the sides signed over 50 cooperation agreements and memorandums, which were a result of partnership within Mongolia-China Expo held in 2017. The officials consider that it will advance bilateral trade and investment cooperation and partnership at regional level.

Trade turnover between Mongolia and Inner Mongolia reached USD 4.96 billion in 2018, showing an increase of 27 percent. it takes up 62 percent of the total trade turnover between Mongolia and China, which was USD 8.4 billion in 2018 and the two countries are striving to bring the trade turnover to USD 10 billion in 2020.

“Around 14 thousand foreign invested entities have been registered in Mongolia since 1990 and 50 percent of them were Chinese invested. Direct investment of China reached USD 5.1 billion in this period, making up 20 percent of total foreign investment and was written in the first place out of 120 countries with its investment volume. The fact shows that bilateral trade and investment cooperation has been expanding. The Governments of the two countries officially signed an agreement on the Construction of Erenhot-Zamyn-Uud Economic Cooperation Zone in June, 2019. This would be the first Mongolia-China Economic Cooperation Zone and also one of the important steps that connected ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative of China and ‘Development Road’ strategic policy of Mongolia,” said B.Bayarsaikhan, Head of the National Development Agency of Mongolia.

Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of Inner Mongolia Gun Min Zhun noted that Inner Mongolia’s investment to Mongolia has been increasing permanently. "As of June, 2019, we negotiated to make investment of USD 19.52 billion to 226 projects of Mongolia. Big construction projects have shown positive progress and we have been actively encouraging works to establish Erenhot-Zamyn-Uud Economic Cooperation Zone. Concurrently, the sides are promoting collaboration in directions of green environment, livestock industry, modern energy economics, and using big data.

The blueprint was unveiled at an international seminar of the East Asian Railroad Community which was held in Seoul.

Nearly one year after South and North Korea released the Pyongyang Joint Statement, on 19 Sept. 2018, Seoul has come up with a plan for economic cooperation with Pyongyang that would focus on a railroad project in East Asia.

Russia, Mongolia, and China have announced their intention to join the community, and each sent senior officials to the seminar: Russian Deputy Minister of Transport Vladimir Tokarev, Mongolian Deputy Minister of Road and Transportation Development S.Batbold, and Chinese National Railway Administration Director-General Yan Hexiang.

Japan’s Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA) and the World Bank also expressed interest in the idea by sending representatives to the seminar.

A senior representative noted: “The GDP of the states that could participate in the community represents 49.8% of global GDP, and their population, at 2.11 billion, accounts for 27.4% of the global population. By strengthening cooperation between these countries, the East Asian Railroad Community could serve to help elevate the region into the world’s greatest economic zone.”

This interesting proposal is clearly dependent upon the improvement of relations with Pyongyang.