Government debt accounts for 54.5 percent of GDP www.zgm.mn

In the first half of 2019, the Government debt reached 54.5 percent of GDP at the present value. It is a decrease of 4.4 percentage points from late 2018.

Government to continue online, transparent and effective budget policy in 2020 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. After discussing the bills on State Budget for 2020, Health insurance fund for 2020, budget framework statement for 2020 general budget of Mongolia and amendments to budget assumptions for 2021-221 and others, the Cabinet backed up and decided to submit them to the Parliament.

UK will now let international students stay for much longer after university www.cnn.com

London (CNN)International students will be offered a two-year UK visa after graduation with or without a job, the country's Home Office announced Wednesday, reversing one of the major aspects of former Prime Minister Theresa May "hostile environment" strategy.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the changes, which will come into force next year, meant that overseas students would not be forced to leave four months after finishing a degree -- making it easier for them to start careers in the UK.

"Britain has a proud history of putting itself at the heart of international collaboration and discovery," Johnson said in a statement, adding that the country's scientific breakthroughs "wouldn't be possible without being open to the brightest and the best from across the globe to study and work in the UK."
"That's why we're unveiling a new route for international students to unlock their potential and start their careers in the UK," he said.
The new policy applies to international students at the undergraduate level or above, and to trusted institutions with a track record of upholding immigration checks, the Home Office said in a statement.
No cap will be placed on the number of students eligible for the visa, nor will there be restrictions on the kinds of jobs they can seek.
'Silly policy'
The changes mark a return to a policy that was previously scrapped by the coalition government in 2012 when immigration was considered the most critical issue among the British electorate.
At the time, then Home Secretary May branded the two-year post-study visas as "far too generous" and a "symbol of a broken and abused immigration system."
A rosier attitude towards immigration appears to have emerged since the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union -- which was partly driven by concerns over migration.
Wednesday's announcement was well-received amongst lawmakers and business groups who have argued that international graduates provided value to the British economy.

UK Chancellor Sajid Javid celebrated the news Wednesday, saying the "silly policy" should have been reversed "years ago."
"Britain should always be open to the best talent from across the world," he wrote on Twitter.
Conservative MP Jo Johnson -- the Prime Minister's brother who resigned as universities minister citing "unresolvable tension" between "family loyalty and the national interest" -- praised the move.
"Brilliant move by PM (Prime Minister) @borisjohnson. Serious leadership on this issue," he tweeted.
"The British Chambers has long called for the two-year post-study work visa to be restored so this decision is welcome, if not overdue," Mike Spicer, Director of Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce said in a statement.
"This visa allows British universities and companies to benefit from the talent and energy of some of the students they have work so hard to train."
However, the lobby group Migration Watch UK called the changes "unwise" and a "retrograde" step which would "likely lead to foreign graduates staying on to stack shelves, as happened before," according to the UK's Press Association news agency.

UN human rights expert presents findings on Mongolia’s financial and economic issues www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The United Nations Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, conducted an official visit to Mongolia from 2 to 11 September 2019, at the invitation of the Government. Today, September 11, the Independent Expert held a press conference to present his preliminary findings and conclusions of his visit.

The UN expert worked in Mongolia to identify good practices, challenges and potential gaps through the collection of firsthand information and examination on a range of economic, financial and fiscal issues from a human rights perspective and to examine measures and policies aimed at ensuring debt sustainability and inclusive economic growth, including by the development of a range of economic sectors – from foreign direct investments to extractive and infrastructure projects. He also got acquainted with the activities of Oyu Tolgoi, the largest ongoing mining project in Mongolia during his trip to Mongolia.

His preliminary report states that the Mongolia’s economy heavily dependent on mining creates social inequality as the sharp fall of mining commodities’ price on global markets on 2015-2016 triggered economic crisis in the country, posing direct risks to the lives of the people and increasing poverty and inequality. The growing gap between the poor and the rich violates human rights. Mentioning the lack of economic diversification of Mongolia, the report suggests the government to stay consistent with its measures toward economic diversity and growth of competitiveness and to put more investment for innovation, academic research and technology.

According to the UN expert, one third of the Mongolian population lives in poverty. Notified in his report that the fixed 10-percent individual income tax levied on all citizens is not the most adequate measure and it is important to exert all efforts to have a tax system where imposed tax varies with respective income. In addition, the report recommends to introduce a floating royalty in the mining tax, so that the royalty rates differ depending on the market price. It is also found that the foreign debts of Mongolia equal to 58.9 percent of the country’s GDP, which is not an alarming number compared to that of other countries. However, human rights based approach should be considered when it comes to topics of budgeting and debts. In terms of tax, income and debt issues, the UN expert underlined that the current system should be altered and relevant recommendation will be delivered to the Mongolian government.

Regarding his trip to the Oyu Tolgoi mine, the expert made recommendations to reach for a solution with the local residents on issues concerning drinking water supply, mining activities and so on, in align with international human rights standards in international development financing. Expert Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky underlined that he met with the local herders near the mine, who expressed their concern over the water issues due to mining activities despite that fact that the Oyu Tolgoi company has built a large number of water wells in the area.

The government was recommended to create a standing platform ensuring multilateral participation to discuss mining-related environmental issues. As highlighted by the export himself, the recommendation concerns all companies engaged in mining activities, which influences the livelihood of the local herding communities. Speaking of mining, the experts noted the insufficient fund for economic protection when the economy remains mining-dependent. Therefore, he remarked the importance of environmental impact study when granting mining licenses.

The Independent Expert will submit a comprehensive report about his visit to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2020.

World class machine shop opens in Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. An opening of fully-automated and latest technology Machine Shop was held in Ulaanbaatar on September 10.

Government of Mongolia, ADB Promote Private Sector Opportunities www.adb.org

ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA (11 September 2019) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Ministry of Finance of Mongolia co-hosted a private sector opportunities workshop today in Ulaanbaatar, which was attended by over 150 local and foreign private sector companies operating in the country. Mongolia’s Vice Minister of Finance Ms. Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar and ADB’s Deputy Country Director for Mongolia Mr. Declan Magee opened the event.

Mongol Basalt’s trade reaches MNT 886 million at MSE www.zgm.mn

MSE tier-II listed Mongol Basalt JSC’s shares worth MNT 886 million were traded at the secondary market. As of August, foreign investors account for 80 percent of the Mongol Basalt’s trade. There has been a sharp rise in foreign investors’ activeness over the last four months. Also, it has the largest number of foreign investors among the companies that launched an IPO in 2017.

Government bonds to expire in 2020 www.zgm.mn

21 bonds worth MNT 86.9 billion, which were traded before the Ministry of Finance closed government bonds in 2017 are about to expire this year. Accordingly, remaining yields and bonds will be fully settled for investors.

Entrée Resources to stop trading at NYSE www.zgm.mn

Entrеe Resources, one of the owners of Oyu Tolgoi licenses, announced its decision to cease ordinary shares trading listed at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

John Bolton Will Hold This Grudge www.theatlantic.com

Donald Trump tweeted this morning that he had fired his national security adviser, John Bolton, and that Bolton’s “services are no longer needed at the White House.” The cold language was not accidental, and it was a strategically odd way to fire a man best known for being hell-bent on revenge against those who have crossed him. This is not how you release a valued counselor who has rescued you from repeated embarrassment, but whose views have gently deviated from your own. This is how you fire the pool boy. This is how you fire the guy you overheard cracking wise in the break room about your haircut. This is how you fire someone who has strong opinions, and who has gradually made clear that one of those opinions is that you are a complete imbecile.

Bolton is a prideful man, and in the past few months that pride has been severely tested. In June, when Iran shot down an American drone, Bolton—who has a long history of aching to bomb Iran—advised the president to respond with force. Only the counsel of others, including Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford, prevented American sorties from reaching their targets. In the matter of North Korea, which Bolton has, for the past 20 years, urged U.S. presidents to treat with maximum distrust, Trump again ignored his advice. The president not only met bilaterally with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, but line-danced across the DMZ with him, becoming the first U.S. president to, in effect, recognize his authority, by entering his territory as his guest. (Bolton pointedly avoided participation in that meeting and went instead to tend to more pressing geostrategic affairs in outer Mongolia.)

Then there was Tucker Carlson, a figure without precedent in American politics. On the June 21 broadcast of Carlson’s show, just as Bolton was urging a military response to Iran, Carlson devoted a long segment to comparing Bolton to a “tapeworm” that had infested the Republican security establishment and that now was feasting on the ample guts of Trump himself. Carlson has reportedly served as an informal adviser to Trump, and his show sometimes seems intended for an audience of one (the occupant of the Oval Office). Days after that show, when Bolton was packing his bags for Mongolia, Carlson accompanied Trump to Korea. By all evidence, the president preferred his advice to the advice he was getting in-house.

The question I asked at the time—how long can Bolton put up with this?—now has an answer. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration,” Trump tweeted after firing Bolton and before thanking him for his service. Bolton, in his own tweet minutes later, sounded stunned: “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow’”—implying that Trump’s tweet amounted to saying, “You can’t quit—you’re fired!” (No doubt the dispute about whether Bolton was fired or quit voluntarily will affect Bolton’s COBRA coverage. But that is a matter for White House HR.)

Because Bolton has expressed himself with such pungency and clarity over the course of decades in public life, we know what he thinks, and it is easy to discern the nature of his disagreements with the president. Bolton thinks that self-described enemies of the United States—especially nuclear proliferators such as North Korea and Iran—should be punished, rather than rewarded; that friendship with such regimes is dangerous and dishonorable; and that willingness to project American military force is a necessary precondition of lasting peace. Trump, we now know definitively, disagrees with each of these propositions. He will happily strike deals, and his proposed move in North Korea is to lure Kim with visions of condominiums and resorts overlooking the Yellow Sea.

Earlier this year I wrote a profile of Bolton. In my interviews with him, he sometimes prefaced a statement with “The president thinks,” or “It’s the president’s view that.” This preamble, I came to understand, most often meant that Bolton was about to say something that he personally thought was nonsense. “It’s the president’s view that he will meet with anyone, at any time,” Bolton once told me, poker-faced. Indeed, Trump was willing, until the last minute, to meet with the Taliban at Camp David, on the eve of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He has met with Kim twice. Trump’s willingness to hold talks may or may not be wise, but there is little doubt that Bolton considers it comically naive. He would prefer that Trump line up the world’s dirtbag dictators and read them a riot act for a new century, with a guarantee of humiliation and ruin for anyone who defies America and its allies. This riot act would not mention luxury condos.

With Bolton gone, the Trump administration is now almost free of influence and advice from the old Republican Party. Neither the so-called neoconservative wing of the party, which had influence under George W. Bush, nor the Cold War Republicans, who held power before him and of whom Bolton is a late example, remain, with the exception of Attorney General William Barr. Also absent is anyone other than Barr with pre-Trump White House national-security experience. Instead, we have an ex-lobbyist, Mark Esper, at Defense, and Mike Pompeo at State. Pompeo spent 1986 to 1991 in the Army, but just 10 years ago was selling oil equipment at an obscure company in Wichita, Kansas.

Most Trump appointees have left quietly, and have begun murmuring their discontent only after a decorous interval. Bolton’s dismissal has come after an unusually long prelude of disrespect, both by Trump and by favored allies such as Carlson. And the tweet itself must sting. Obviously it was intended to. Bolton might not observe the same period of silence. In talking to his former associates, I heard many marvel at his energy. He wakes up before dawn to plot against his adversaries. He accepts every invitation to write op-eds and go on television to ridicule those who disagree with him. Trump has, in firing Bolton, made an enemy of a man incapable of rest and letting grudges go. Tomorrow morning he will wake up and start plotting, as he usually does. It’s 3 a.m. Do you know who your ex–national security adviser’s enemies are?

By Graeme Wood