Rio Tinto Hits Cost Blowout at Mongolia Copper Expansion www.reuters.com

(Reuters) - Rio Tinto on Tuesday flagged a cost blowout of up to $1.9 billion and a delay of up to 30 months at its Oyu Tolgoi underground copper mine in Mongolia, the miner's key growth project.

Russia Approves ‘Shortest’ Europe-China Highway – Reports www.themoscowtimes.com

The Russian government has approved construction plans for a toll highway that will dramatically cut cargo shipping times between Europe and China, the Vedomosti business daily reported.

Chinese central bank unveils plan on digital currency www.chinadaily.com.cn

The central bank is accelerating its efforts to introduce a government-backed digital currency, aiming at securing a cutting-edge position in the global cryptocurrency race, a senior official said on Monday.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, is organizing market-oriented institutions to jointly research and develop a central bank digital currency and the program has been approved by the State Council, the country's Cabinet, Wang Xin, director of the PBOC Research Bureau, said at a seminar at Peking University.

The central bank has been watching the emergence of a new global digital currency called Libra, introduced by Facebook, the world's biggest social network company, on June 18.

"We will keep a close eye on the new global digital currency," said Wang, making the latest comment on Libra from the country's monetary authority.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Libra is described in a Facebook white paper as a currency "fully backed by a reserve of real assets". A basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities will be held in a Libra reserve to guarantee its value.

Twenty-seven companies and entities have joined the Libra founder group, including the world's traditional payment giants Visa and Mastercard.

Facebook has indicated it intends to establish a worldwide independent governance body, based in Geneva, aiming to ultimately include 100 members by the scheduled launch time in 2020.

"From the government's perspective, we pay more attention to its influence on financial services, monetary policy and financial stability," Wang said.

He said that if Libra can be successfully launched, it may challenge the existing United States dollar-centered international monetary system, a possibility that must be closely monitored.

Huang Yiping, director of the Digital Finance Research Center of Peking University and a former member of the PBOC monetary committee, said the birth of Libra serves as an "alert" for China's digital currency innovators and regulators.

Any role for Libra beyond the payment function could bring changes to the rules of the global monetary system, and regulators should pay close attention to that possibility, Huang said.

The world's economies have yet to decide how to cope with the challenge by the Libra system, though accelerating the launch of their own digital currencies could be a counterbalance, according to Wang of the PBOC.

Wang also said that the central bank digital currency could be a new monetary policy tool, or an investment asset that carries an interest rate to satisfy investors' demand for value. Wang's discussion of the matter indicates it might also be used as a reference for bank interest rates on deposits.

"A digital currency issued by the central bank can improve the efficiency of monetary policy, and help to optimize the payment system," he said.

Some experts suggested launching a Chinese version of Libra, using Facebook as a reference, to compete in the global cryptocurrency race, and they said the Chinese digital currency also could be used domestically. But "everything is just under discussion", the PBOC's Wang told China Daily.

Li Zhenhua, executive director of the Ant Financial Research Institute, part of the Alibaba Group, said the market is worried about whether Libra will develop into a type of credit money. If that were to happen, it would challenge central banks' monetary sovereignty. Li said. Credit money is a future monetary claim, like an IOU.

"We will improve international coordination and cooperation in digital finance, and to enhance global communication on Libra and CBDC. China will push forward the establishment of unified standards and regulatory rules," said Wang.

The PBOC was one of the earliest central banks to start digital currency innovation. The program began in 2014, led by former governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

China's monetary authority identifies the nature of digital currency as "a substitute for cash", rather than a speculative instrument, according to the central bank.

Research work is led by the PBOC's Currency Gold and Silver Bureau. The department, primarily in charge of traditional currency management, is shifting to digital currency innovation because the use of cash is declining in China amid booming digital payment systems.

Peking University launched a new program on Monday called Open Research Initiative of Digital Finance to provide a research platform for innovation in digital financial products.

First aircrafts landed on new airport www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Aircrafts of national airlines including MIAT Mongolian Airlines, Hunnu Air and Eznis Airways were landed on the New Ulaanbaatar International Airport at Khushig Valley on July 5 during the ceremony to launch a new airport management project.

Working group on ‘Mongolia-China Expo’ meets www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Working group of the People’s Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region worked in Mongolia in connection with the upcoming ‘Mongolia-China Expo’ to be held on September 6-10 in Hohhot, Ulanqab and Tung lio cities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.

New airport management launched www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A ceremony to launch a new airport management was held at New Ulaanbaatar International Airport in Khushig Valley on July 5.

An Indian billionaire doubles down on controversial coal mine www.bloomberg.com

The Indian billionaire behind the controversial Carmichael coal mine in Australia is hitting back at criticism the endeavor will be both unprofitable and too dirty.

In an interview in New Delhi, Gautam Adani took aim at two major faults opponents have flung at the development: that the mine’s low-quality coal won’t earn enough money to justify his $2 billion investment, and that the world must abandon the fuel in favor of renewable energy to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Gautam Adani
“If the project wasn’t viable, we wouldn’t have pursued it,” said Adani, whose net worth of $9.8 billion makes him India’s sixth-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “Renewable energy is good for the nation, but it can’t meet our baseload power needs.”

Adani bought the resource in Australia’s Galilee Basin in 2010 as Indian companies rushed for overseas energy supplies amid forecasts of booming demand. But as coal prices fizzled through the first half of the decade, Carmichael’s output — closer to lower-quality Indonesian coal than the high-value varieties Australia is known for — is seen unable to fetch a price strong enough to be profitable.

“The commerciality of Adani’s Carmichael mine remains challenging given the significant capital spend and low-quality thermal coal product expected from the mine,” said Brent Spalding, a principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

Climate warnings
Australia’s Newcastle coal, a benchmark in Asia, would need to rise above $100 a metric ton, from about $78 now, for Carmichael to break even, according to Spalding.

Carmichael, which cleared final state approvals last month, will open up a new mining basin in the Australian outback amid increasingly dire warnings of the need to cut carbon emissions to avoid the ecological and economic havoc of climate change. Though coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, Adani has found a relatively friendly host country in Australia, where the economic heft of the resource industry helped re-elect a pro-coal federal government and overcome staunch opposition from environmentalists.

“We entered Australia with two overarching goals; contributing to energy security in India and creating job opportunities for the locals,” said Adani, 57, who started as a diamond trader in Mumbai before setting up Adani Group in 1988. His conglomerate — spanning ports, energy and mining — has become one of India’s key infrastructure service providers, while also venturing overseas.

Surplus generation
Coal’s use has been on the decline in Europe and the U.S. amid cheaper alternatives and pressure to ditch the most-polluting fossil fuel. Yet it dominates power production in much of Asia, a position it’s expected to sustain despite a boom in cleaner sources, such as wind and solar, as energy demand continues to grow.

Adani said the board approved 10 million metric tons of annual output from Carmichael’s first phase, which will head to his power plants in India, including Mundra and Godda. Adani Group is headquartered in Gujarat the state where current Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as the chief minister for little over a decade before he swept national elections in 2014.

India’s per-capita consumption of electricity “is way below the global average,” Adani said. “India’s development is linked to the availability of more power. And coal will play a big role in this as a baseload supplier.”

India’s challenges supplying reliable power to every home have been more about distribution than whether it has enough power plants or coal. The nation already has a surplus of generation capacity, but it’s money-losing, debt-saddled state utilities struggle to purchase and distribute enough power, leaving some power stations shuttered and homes in the dark.

When the company decides to raise the capacity of Carmichael — peak annual capacity is now seen at 27 million tons, down from an original 60 million — it will explore selling washed coal to buyers in Japan and Korea, according to Adani. Construction has already begun, he said, reiterating the company’s two-year timeline for first output.

“The need of the hour,” Adani said, “is to get started.”

(By Rajesh Kumar Singh, Anurag Kotoky and Debjit Chakraborty)

START Mongolia merges with StartupJohor to form a united brand START www.e27.co

The new entity aims to build a global acceleration hub for startups in Johor region of Malaysia, while at the same time becoming the gateway to global expansion for Mongolian startups

START Mongolia and StartupJohor, the ecosystem developers in their respective regions, have merged together to form a unified brand​.

Called START, the new entity aims to build a global acceleration hub for startups in Johor region of Malaysia, while at the same time becoming the gateway to global expansion for Mongolian startups.

The merger further expands the existing market reach for both parties. StartupJohor is based in Iskandar Malaysia, the southern economic development region of the Johor province of Malaysia. The city is strategically located beside Singapore and Indonesia that allows companies based within to have an easy access to the market opportunities in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and southeast asian countries.

This strategic location, along with a relatively cost-effective environment compared to Singapore with a ready-built world-class infrastructure in Medini, Iskandar Puteri, will be a gateway for Mongolian startups to expand their operations to overseas market.

Furthermore, Mongolian distinct geographical location, and East European and Asian cultural mixture will be a gateway for Malaysian startups into central Asia. So, Mongolia’s location in between Russia and China will be a gateway to markets beyond Mongolia, eastern region of Russia and Stan countries.

In the future, START will showcase Mongolian and Malaysian startups to investors, synchronise their operations, best practices of ecosystem building and ​database platform comprises of the two ecosystem​. On the innovation front, START will open tech-driven hubs and expand into corporate innovation programs.

The idea of merger became inevitable to each party when the hubs were promoting their startups overseas. So, given the potential for further ecosystem development and market reach, the new START brand will bring mutual benefits to startups in Mongolia and Malaysia in the area of market reach, product testing, operational synergy, investor and partnership diversification.

StartupJohor, established in 2014 and has dedicated in building startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem in southern region of Malaysia, has multiple signature programmes under its umbrella and incubates its startup companies in its five co-working offices in the southern region of Malaysia, Johor Bahru and Iskandar Puteri.

Similarly, ​START Mongolia, since its establishment in 2011 as Startup Mongolia NGO and WorkCentral Mongolia, is an ecosystem developer with community building programmes in startup community and track record in the corporate world. START Mongolia incubates companies with a global aim in its three co-working offices in Ulaanbaatar, and it has launched first co-working and incubator in Darkhan, the center for the northern region of Mongolia.

“In general, the markets in central asian region have had a limited exposure to the global startup ecosystem. However in Mongolia, the home-grown startups, given the high internet and smartphone usage and culture to adopt new technology, are altering the landscape intensively in this region. Tech and startup arena in Mongolia already have gave birth to home-grown fintech, martech, insurtech and blockchain startups. On the local stock exchange, number of microfinancing fintechs and blockchain tech companies have successfully raised funding through IPO,” said Zolboo Bayarsaikhan, CEO of START Mongolia.

“Many great companies are coming up from Johor Bahru. These companies have been acquired, raised substantial funding and on the path to IPO in the local stock exchange, and we are seeing a clear trend and movement that many best startup may not necessary coming out from first-tier cities such as Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. There is a rising amount of great companies from tier-two cities or even countries as well,” said Feng Lim, CEO of StartupJohor (now START Malaysia).

“Following to this changing landscape, the traditional business are keen to digitise their business operations, but in most industries, the tech solutions, and the corporate culture and structure to deal with the outcome are not readily available. This is where START Mongolia has the team, expertise and community to help them. Now through this merger, START is setting up the channel for the rest of Asia to enter into rapidly changing startup ecosystem and market of Mongolia and Central Asia,” added Bayarsaikhan.

Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Xing Haiming hails 70 years of China-Mongolia relations www.globaltimes.cn

Editor's Note: China and Mongolia share the longest borderline of 4,710 kilometers. The two countries are good neighbors, good friends and good partners linked by mountains and rivers. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and Mongolia. Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will pay a friendly visit to Mongolia on Wednesday. In an exclusive interview the Global Times' reporter Zhang Dan (GT) in Ulan Bator, Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Xing Haiming (Xing) tackled topics of the bilateral relations and Mongolia's attitude toward Belt and Road initiative (BRI).

GT: What have the diplomatic ties over the past 70 years have achieved and what is the future course they are likely to take?

Xing: Mongolia has established diplomatic relations with China since the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 as one of the first 10 countries that established ties with China at that time. Even though the two countries have experienced some setbacks since then, good-neighborliness and friendliness have marked ties.

In 1994, the two countries revised the Treaty on Friendly Relations and Cooperation between China and Mongolia, which laid the political and legal foundation for the healthy and stable development of the bilateral relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Mongolia in 2014. The two countries upgraded bilateral relations to comprehensive strategic partnership, marking a new historical chapter in the bilateral relations.

At present, the "three carriages" - mutual political trust, economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people and cultural exchanges are driving bilateral relations fast forward.

High-level exchanges are frequent, meanwhile, mutual political trust has deepened. In 2018, the heads of the two countries met twice, reaching a consensus on a series of important issues and giving a boost to bilateral cooperation.

In April, Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga paid a state visit to China and attended the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The meeting between the two top leaders was a significant one in the year of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and Mongolia.

In terms of trade cooperation, Mongolia has been supporting and participating in the China-proposed BRI. The two sides are speeding up the alignment of the BRI and Mongolia's Development Road Program.

China has been the biggest trading partner, the most important source of investment and aid to Mongolia for years. Last year, Mongolia's trade volume with China reached $8.53 billion, accounting for 66.2 percent of Mongolia's total foreign trade volume, 26.9 percent higher than that of 2017. The two sides are working together to achieve the goal of bilateral trade volume of $10 billion by 2020.

China and Mongolia are accelerating joint research on FTA. The two countries have signed an inter-governmental agreement on a joint economic zone, which comprises land in Erenhot, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Zamyn-Uud, Mongolia.

On July 10, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will pay a visit to Mongolia, which will take bilateral relations into a new phase in the new era.

GT: Amid anti-globalization, unilateralism and trade protectionism, what is the significance of the joint research by the two countries on free trade zone (FTZ) and its implementation?

Xing: Currently, the main challenge for the global economy is the rising anti-globalization, unilateralism and trade protectionism. The US-led trade friction with China has aroused global attention.

I recently published an article with some facts about the trade friction and laid out China's stance in Mongolian media, which triggered a strong reaction in Mongolia.

I talked with people from all fields in Mongolia, and most of them understand and support China's position. They hope that China and the US can properly resolve trade disputes through dialogue and consultation.

China has been dedicating to protecting the free trade system and carrying out economic and trade cooperation with other countries based on equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect.

The FTZ cooperation between China and Mongolia demonstrates that most countries, including Mongolia, safeguard multilateralism and the system of free trade, instead of supporting unilateralism and trade protectionism.

The China-Mongolia FTZ is part of the consensus reached between the top leaders, which will open a huge market of almost 1.4 billion people.

It is to be noted that the population of Mongolia is less than 3.4 million. As a result, it shows China's sincerity to carry out economic and trade cooperation with Mongolia and care about Mongolia's development. The two sides are working hard to speed up feasible research on the FTZ and look forward to positive results as soon as possible.

GT: What is Mongolia's approach to the BRI?

Xing: Since China proposed the BRI, Mongolia has given active response to and support for it. Mongolian officials said many times that the country will actively participate in and support the BRI.

Mongolia also took the initiative to make changes in its development plan and proposed the alignment of its Development Road Program with the BRI.

The foreign minister of Mongolia has publicized the BRI several times at multilateral forums, appealing to more nations to participate in and build the BRI together.

It is notable that Mongolia has established the BRI fast-pass channel at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and some ports and stations. People participating in the BRI projects with approved certificates can pass through the BRI fast-pass channel.

In addition, Mongolia gives important suggestions in order to support and implement the BRI projects, which also shows its positive attitude.

GT: Is the cooperation between China and Mongolia mutually beneficial?

Xing: President Xi Jinping proposed building a community with a shared future for mankind. This proposal will work better when looking at neighboring countries. You cannot move your neighbors. We should have cooperation, gain mutual benefits and win-win results - these are our goals.

Probably Mongolia may gain more benefits from some projects. However, generally speaking, our cooperation is mutually beneficial and supportive of each other.

China's borderline with Mongolia is longer than that with Russia. If the border is peaceful and stable with friendly people-to-people exchanges, it will for sure bring benefits to both sides.

GT: Apart from China's support, Mongolia has accepted aid from Russia, Japan, South Korea and other countries. How is aid from these countries different and is there competition among them?

Xing: Mongolia's territorial area is very large - about 1.56 million square kilometers with the population of approximately 3.3 million.

Under such circumstances, the priority for the country is to develop friendly and cooperative relations with its two neighbors. The next step is to develop relations with other countries.

China is pleased to see Mongolia carrying out normal and friendly cooperation with other countries. However, we do not allow unfriendly actions taken place at our surrounding areas. We do not allow behaviors that do not respect China's key benefits. Mongolia said that it will respect China's core benefit completely.

GT: How can Mongolia better attract Chinese investors and protect their rights?

Xing: Investment is in fact a way of cooperation and is usually controlled by the company itself. It is not inter-governmental cooperation.

I suggest investors first learn about the country's investing environment. After evaluating the investment amount and budget, you can finally invest.

I think the first principle is to pay mutual respect; second, we should gain mutual benefit and win-win results. No one should eat the food alone. Third, Chinese companies should shoulder social responsibility in the invested country. They should not only care about making profits.

I believe if all of the above work is done well, it is very prospective for a Chinese company to invest in Mongolia.

GT: How do you comment on people-to-people exchanges between China and Mongolia?

Xing: When President Xi Jinping visited Mongolia in 2014, he announced a plan to strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in fields such as youth, media and language exchanges.

China has offered 25 TV series for free to Mongolia. I can tell you there is currently a trend in Mongolia to watch Chinese TV series. It shows that Chinese culture is very popular and welcomed in Mongolia.

Moreover, the Chinese government provides Mongolia with a large number of scholarships every year. Each year, when the embassy holds tests for Chinese government scholarships, it is as popular as the college entrance exam in Mongolia.

Our embassy keeps trying innovative work to promote cultural exchanges. We have translated four great Chinese classical novels into Mongolian, which has been well received in Mongolia.

Forest fire in Inner Mongolia extinguished www.xinhuanet.com

HOHHOT - A fire that broke out in a primeval forest in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region Sunday has been basically put out, after an overnight battle by more than 300 firefighters.