UB to Seoul by train! www.news.mn

South Korea and Mongolia are planning to further their cooperation in two major projects: firstly, the Northeast Asian Super Grid Project and, secondly, the East Asian Railway Community Project.

The super grid project has the aim of integrating the power generation assets of northeast Asia: such as linking up China and Mongolia’s wind and solar power plants with the  hydroelectric dams and LNG projects in the Russian Far East to the two Koreas and Japan.

The railway community project is to establish a new rail line between South Korea and Mongolia. This would, of course involve crossing part of China and North Korea.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon met with Mongolian Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh in Ulaanbaatar on 26 March. “Mongolia is a key partner for the South Korean government’s new northern policy and the government is looking forward to more cooperation with Mongolia on these two projects,” Lee said at the meeting.

“The super grid project is highly important for regional energy security and the Mongolian government is aiming to attract more infrastructure investment,” the Mongolian PM said in response, adding, “Mongolia provides full support for the two projects.”

The two countries are going to hold a conference in the near future so that details of the projects can be discussed in depth. In addition, they are going to work more closely with each other in the fields of environment, healthcare, culture and reducing air pollution in UB.

Symposium held in Ulan Bator to discuss Chinese investment in Mongolia www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A symposium about investment of enterprises based in China's Heilongjiang Province in Mongolia was held here Tuesday to discuss bilateral commercial prospects.

At the opening of the symposium, Cheng Zhiming, vice-governor of China's Heilongjiang Province noted that bilateral trade volume between China's Heilongjiang Province and Mongolia reached 148 million U.S. dollars in 2018, with an average annual growth of 40 percent over the past three years.

With China's Belt and Road Initiative and Mongolia's Development Road Initiative being efficiently linked, the commercial ties and personnel exchanges between China's Heilongjiang Province and Mongolia will become increasingly close, Cheng said, adding that the cooperation opportunities will increase and the cooperation prospects will be broadened.

For his part, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy to Mongolia Song Xuejun said that enterprises from Heilongjiang Province have a good reputation in Mongolia, hoping they will continue to make great contributions to the friendly relations between China and Mongolia.

The symposium was hosted by China's Heilongjiang Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia. Representatives from more than a dozen of Chinese companies attended the meeting.

Germany wants Europe to join China's new Silk Road after criticizing Italy for doing the same www.rt.com

Mongolia puts brakes on 'dangerous' winter horse racing www.aljazeera.com

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - The mere thought of stepping outside during a Mongolian winter is enough to chill one's bones. For years, Mongolian children have braved the frigid winter for a taste of glory, risking life and limb to win prize money for their families. Thanks to the efforts of human rights advocates, they will no longer.

Consultative meeting between Foreign Ministries of Mongolia and Russia held www.montsame.mn

Mongolian Foreign Minister to visit China www.news.mn

Xi, Macron strengthen China-France ties www.nhk.or.jp

China and France announced trade deals worth billions of dollars as the presidents of the two nations met in Paris on Monday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the French capital on the last leg of his three-nation European tour.

After the summit talks, a string of business deals between Chinese and French firms were announced. These included China's purchase of 300 airplanes from Airbus, the European aerospace giant headquartered in France.

Other agreements include a contract valued at 1.2 billion euros, or about 1.36 billion dollars, to build 10 container vessels.

At a joint news conference, French President Emmanuel Macron praised China's deal with Airbus as important progress.

Xi said that China and France had agreed to safeguard multilateral trade frameworks based on rules.

During his trip to Italy, Monaco and France, Xi made it clear that China hoped to strengthen ties with Europe amid trade tensions with the United States.

Prime Ministers hold official talks www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh and Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Lee Nak-yeon, who is on official visit to Mongolia, held official talks.

Mongolia to establish independent agency for water management: PM www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia is working to establish an independent agency for water management, the country's Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh said Monday.

Mongolian Central Bank keeps policy interest rate www.news.mn

The Central Bank of Mongolia has decided to leave the policy interest rate unchanged at 11 percent. “The decision aims to bolster economic growth and cope with the inflation target framework in the medium term,” said B.Bayarsaikhan, head of the bank’s monetary policy council.

The central bank has set a goal to stabilize inflation around the target rate of 8 percent in the medium term, B.Bayarsaikhan said, adding that annual inflation was at around 6.9 percent in February.

In addition, Mongolia’s central bank has maintained its forecast for economic growth to be at least 6.9 percent this year.

Foreign direct investment in the resource-rich country, an increase in coal exports, and activity in non-mining sectors will be the main drivers of the country’s economic growth this year, according to experts of the central bank.

Mongolia’s gross domestic product in 2018 expanded 6.9 percent year on year to reach 18.1 trillion Mongolian tugriks (6.8 billion U.S. dollars).