D.Bulgamaa from a project “Green Gold-livestock health” of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Mongolia introduced about a nationwide network that conducts monitoring activities on pastureland use and performs an annual study on 1500 points throughout the country. “The study, which released nationwide reports in 2015 and 2018 to put forward to the Government of Mongolia, concluded that 65 percent of total pastureland of Mongolia, mostly in the central region, had hit by some forms of land degradation. However, pasture renovation is possible for 90 percent of those deteriorated grazing land with the help of alleviation of the burden on pastureland by allowing alternative use of grazing land. Also, the number of livestock animals should reconcile with pasture carrying capacity. In order to do this, the animal quality should be improved to encourage sales of the animals”.

The meeting highlighted that it has become important to raise herders’ awareness on this issue and use a mean of economic incentive to increase herders’ willingness. Officials from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry expressed their position that 20 million livestock animals should be put into economic circulation in order to prevent from pasture degradation.

At the meeting, Byron Shelton, Senior Program Director of the Savory Institute and Rolf Pretorius of the Olive Leaf Foundation introduced about the activities of the Savory Institute and outcomes of their study carried out on pasture land in Ider soum of Zavkhan aimag and Ikh Tamir soum of Arkhangai aimag. The Savory Institute is a worldwide nonprofit organization that promotes large-scale restoration of the world's grasslands through holistic management to address the global issues of desertification, climate change, and food and water insecurity.

On the conditions and management of pastureland of Mongolia, Byron Shelton said the pastureland management in Mongolia is what plays an important role, not the number of livestock animals. If it continues that way, overgrazing is quite near and the land would probably face the risk of desertification or even more serious problems. Therefore, herders should use grazing land, considering the grazing readiness and growth period. The participants also exchanged opinions on improving the quality of fine wool sheep breeds “Khangai” and “Orkhon” and their benefits.

The Asian country's GDP totaled 8.6 trillion Mongolian tugriks (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period and the growth was mainly attributed to good performance in the industry, services and mining sectors, which recorded 9.3, 7.4 and 13 percent growth respectively, according to the NSO.

The mineral-rich country's economy expanded 8.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, which was the strongest GDP growth rate since the third quarter of 2014 when the figure stood at 9.1 percent.

The World Bank has predicted that Mongolia's economy would grow by 7.2 percent in 2019 and 6.9 percent in 2020.

The third expo’s co-organizers are Mongolia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Road and Transport Development, Customs General Administration, General Agency for Specialized Inspection, Ulaanbaatar Railway JSC, and the Agency for Standardization and Metrology.

Head of Department of SME and Cooperative Policy Implementation of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ya.Erdenesaikhan said, “Meetings and forum on the development of economic cooperation and trade and investment discussions will be held at the expo besides a trade fair for promoting Mongolian-made products to the Chinese market.” A cashmere forum, exhibition, and fashion show are also planned to be organized.

Furthermore, an exhibition about Mongolia’s culture and traditions will be mounted in one of the three venues, Ulanqab. The expo’s theme will be about tourism, agriculture, and mining. One of the events featured in the expo program is the Northeast Asia Regional Cooperation Forum to be attended by around 700 representatives. Other events include a forum on Mongolian and Chinese legal services in trade, Mongolia-China standardization cooperation forum, Mongolia-China-Russia education forum, second Mongolia-China technology transfer forum, and cashmere forum between Mongolia, Russia, China, Italy, and South Korea.

Officials highlighted that the Mongolia-China Expo 2019 coinciding with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and China will be of importance in achieving the goal to bring trade turnover between the two countries to USD 10 million by 2020.

The guests will deliver speeches and have informative and constructive discussions on “U.S.-Mongolia Relations: Moving Forward with Strategic Partnership”. The meeting will be held on August 26 at Blue Sky Hotel & Tower in Ulaanbaatar.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Mongolia is an independent membership-driven organization that seeks to build, strengthen, and protect business between the United States and Mongolia and to actively promote Mongolia as a destination for American investment.

AmCham Mongolia is accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as its official affiliate in Mongolia.

"The aviation group comprises eight helicopters - four Mi-24 helicopter gunships and four Mi-8AMTSh assault transport helicopters," the press service said.

The helicopters will provide fire support and reconnaissance for Russian and Mongolian forces taking part in the exercises.

The Russian-Mongolian military exercise, headlined Selenga after the river that originates in Mongolia and flows into Russia’s Lake Baikal, are held on an annual basis. This year, the drills will be held at Mongolia’s Munh Hat range on August 15-24. They will involve over 1,000 servicemen from both sides.

The Eastern Military District said in July it would also send motorized rifles and tank units, a mortar battery, MLRS, self-propelled artillery, NCB protection, reconnaissance and a medical team.

Ministry of Defense is working as contractor of the apartment construction and building companies in Dornogobi aimag are also taking part. The apartment complex will have staff apartments, an office building, primary and high schools and a kindergarten. The financing is being made from the Development Bank of Mongolia. Infrastructure development works of the oil refinery are now underway and as the MONTSAME News Agency has reported recently, construction of a railroad to the oil refinery is already complete. According to plan, the oil refinery with a processing capacity of 1.5 million tons per year is projected to put into full operation in 2022.

However, monthly average spending per households have also risen to MNT 1.3 million; an increase of 203.5 thousand from July, 2018, due to an increase of non-foods products and other expenses by MNT 159.4 thousand.

In the first quarter of 2019, household revenue can be grouped as follows:

– Households that have monthly revenue of less than MNT 300,000 increased by 38.5 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue of MNT 300,000-500,000 increased by 20.9 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue of MNT 1.6-2.1 million increased by 24.6 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue above MNT 2.1 million increased by 39.9 million.

“International School of Ulaanbaatar”
Most expensive international school in Mongolia – registration fee is USD 150 and additional USD 4500 for contingency fund.

Elementary grades – USD 21,000 (MNT 56 million)

Middle grades – USD 25,600 (MNT 68 million)

Upper grades – USD 27,300 (MNT 73 million)

“British School of Ulaanbaatar”
This school offers an educational program from pre-school to Year 13 for students of all nationalities wishing to study under the British national school curriculum. Its registration fee costs USD 150.

Elementary grades – USD 10.000-14.970 (USD 27-40 million)

Middle grades – USD 16.680-17.920 (45-48 million)

Upper grades – USD 17.920-19.350 (48-52 million)

‘American School of Ulaanbaatar’
The private school has an international accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), based in California, USA.

Elementary grades – MNT 16 million

Middle grades – MNT 20 million

Upper grades- MNT 24 million

‘Hobby School of Ulaanbaatar’
The first independent national school in the country – the Hobby School was founded in 1994.

Elementary grades – MNT 9 million 192 thousand 960

Middle grades – MNT 10 million 342 thousand

Upper grades- MNT 10 million 910 thousand 610

‘Putonghua Chinese language school’
The school implements bilingual teaching to students and a strong mathematical programme.

Elementary grades – MNT 3 million 500 thousand

Middle grades – MNT 3 million 500 thousand

Upper grades- MNT 4 million

‘Goethe School’
The Germany-funded Goethe School teaches lessons in German and English.

Elementary grades – 5 million

Middle grades – 6 million

Upper grades- 6.5 million

‘Empathy School’
The Empathy School was founded in 1994 as part of a series of agreements between an independent educational company (Empathy) and the Ministry of Education of Mongolia. The school teaches pupils from the 6th grades.

Yearly fee – MNT 3 million 300 thousand,

Dormitory- MNT 2 million 300 thousand

Meals- MNT 1 million

‘The Shine Mongol Harumafuji School’
The school was founded in 2018 by Harumafuji (D.Byambadorj) – a professional sumo wrestler.

Elementary grades- MNT 4 million 700 thousand

Middle grades- MNT 6 million 800 thousand

Upper grades- MNT 4 million 900 thousand

Mongolia managed to get out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s grey list in 2014 after taking action to combat terror funding and money laundering. At the time, it had no direct impact on citizens and enterprises due to the simple international control and small economy of the country. If we get into the grey list, all foreign transactions and foreign investments will halt, lowering the credit rating.

However, the performance in the 11 targets can be improved over five years, according to the officials. It is crucial to prove that Mongolia’s AML/ CTF system will be solid through 2022 at least. 40 recommendation of FATF is a concern to the whole nation, including the government bodies on all levels.

Mongolia became a member of APG in 2004 and passed its Law on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in July 2006. Since then, it has been intensifying actions to eliminate and prevent this type of crime.

Bank of Mongolia (BoM) is paying special attention to this issue, assigned a working group to present the report on AML/CTF measures. The working group will report the fulfillment of FATF’s recommendations before the APG annual meeting in late August in order to prevent greylisting.

Bob Long just became the oldest winner of the 1,000-kilometer Mongol Derby, the world's longest horse race on Thursday.

“It’s nothing – you just ride 650 miles. There’s nothing to it,” Bob in a news release. “I’ve only stayed overnight at one horse station; I’ve been staying with local families. They’re spectacular.”

Asked how it felt to be the oldest winner of the Derby, he replied dismissively: “Age is just a number.”