Mongolian Government always encourages licit foreign investment www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Government of Mongolia has declared that it has been and will always be supportive of foreign investments that comply with international agreements and the country’s domestic legislation.

However, regarding Erdenet Mining Corporation (EMC) and Asgat and Salkhit deposits, that have lately been drawing public attention, the Government took note of and the corresponding legal bodies are inspecting them as criminal offences of tax evasion, corruption, bribery and money-laundering have been found in their operations. It is worth to note that explorations of these deposits were conducted and their reserves were defined with funding from the State Budget.

For instance, exploration of the Salkhit deposit in Gurvansaikhan soum of Dundgobi aimag was conducted in 1983 with the State Budget funding and the deposit was licensed to GPF LLC for mining until 2043, 2047. The reason for the government’s revocation of the deposit’s special license lies on the fact that the investor concealed its tax liability, got involved in corruption and the adjudication was delaying too much. The company avoided paying tax worth over MNT 930 million, filing a false tax return. In particular, it did not pay mineral royalties from its silver ore sales income of MNT 13.19 billion in 2014. Hence, the General Department of Taxation imposed re-taxation of MNT 659.9 million, a penalty of MNT 197.9 million, and interest of MNT 71.7 million. In the early 1970s, researchers of Mongolia and the former Soviet Union conducted a joint exploration at the Asgat silver deposit located in Nogoonnuur soum of BayanUlgii aimag. Since this strategically significant deposit was licensed to the Mongolrostsvetment LLC in 1993 due to its location in a high mountain zone, no work was carried out at it. Therefore, on January 7, 2019, the Government assigned the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority and authorities of Mongolrostsvetment and Erdenes Mongol companies to transfer Asgat and Salkhit deposits to the Erdenes Mongol LLC and put them into economic circulation. The Government of Mongolia is paying attention to imposing liabilities on the companies conducting illegal activities as well as to proper use of state properties by means like these. One more instance is the issue regarding ownership of the 49 percent stake in Erdenet Mining Corporation. On June 28, 2016, the Government of that time announced that Mongolia has claimed full ownership of EMC as a result of the deal with the Rostec Corporation of Russia, transferring the 49 percent stake to Mongolia and having acquired by the Mongolian Copper Corporation (MCC). However, in fact the Government of that time purposely refused its preference to buy the 49 percent stake and privileged a private entity to obtain it instead and that 72.4 percent of USD 400.2 million paid on buying the stake might be taken from state source, informed the Cabinet Secretariat to the public on March 6, 2019. Considering the deal of the purchase of EMC’s 49 percent stock a probable act of illegal acquiring of state property and money laundering, the Independent Authority Against Corruption of Mongolia and National Police Agency have sent a request to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Capital City for running investigation. With an aim to implement Parliamentary Resolution No. 23 of 2017 and a recommendation H05/05 of the National Security Council, the Government on March 6 set a sixmonth emergency regime at EMC and Mongolrostsvetmet LLC. During the period of emergency regime, there will be no interruptions in the operations of the enterprises and only the financial activities will be inspected. Afterwards, on March 11, authorities of MCC made a proposal to the Government on holding negotiation and the Trade and Development Bank, which worked as a financial advisor in the purchase deal of 49 percent stock also expressed to take part in the negotiation, sending an official letter to the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh: “The Government will consistently support foreign and local investors who are respecting laws. In the last two years Mongolia’s economic growth has been revived, foreign trade and investment augmented and budget revenue has been over fulfilled. I want to make it clear to our foreign partners that foreign investors have been doing businesses with Mongolians and it will be open for doing businesses with Mongolians. We resolve issues within legal framework and fulfill established agreements”

As a result of the implementation of the Extended Fund Facility Program in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, Mongolia’s economic growth reached 6.9 percent in 2018, which was 1.2 percent in 2016. Furthermore, investors’ trust has been restored and direct investment of USD 85­220 million in each month of 2018 or a total of USD 1.9 billion was made in Mongolia. Some 80 percent of this investment targeted to mining sector. Furthermore, the Government expresses to back foreign investors, opening Invest in Mongolia Center, one stop service center (OSSC) in this February besides setting up Investors’ Protection Council in 2016.

'Invest in Mongolia center' one stop service for investors

The ‘Invest in Mongolia center’, a one stop service for investors has started to operate with aims of providing foreign investors with easy and quick access to government services, creating a favorable environment for investment, minimizing time to spend for resolution of some issues and eliminating the difficulties that investors are facing. At the center, General Agency for State Registration, General Department of Taxation, Mongolian Immigration Center, General Authority for Social Insurance and other departments and agencies whose operations are associated with foreign enterprises provide government services through a single interface.

The center’s services include:

• Provide information and advisory services on investment legal framework

• SIRM /Systemic Investor Response mechanism/–Maintain an e-system for Investor’s grievance, complaint and petition related to the public services

• Provide information and advisory services on investment law and environment

• Advice and information on tax and non-tax investment and guarantee

• To receive petition related to activities of state bodies from investors and operate decisive electronic information system

• Services on registration of foreign invested legal entities, confirmation of proper name, its change, reference and definition, investor’s card and other additional services, advice and information related to it

• Advice and information on tax, tax payer’s registration, to grant digital signature, to give reference, to receive report as well as to collect vehicle tax from foreign invested companies and investors

• To grant Mongolian visa and visa permission, to make registration of permanent residence and its elimination, to give permission of residence, to make extension of the term, to provide information and advice related to it

• To receive social insurance fund registration and report, to give reference and definition and additional information and advice related to it.

Address: Invest in Mongolia Center. Behind the 2nd Government building United Nations Street, Chingeltei District

Timetable: 8.30 am-5:30 pm

At the opening ceremony of the center, Foreign Minister D.Tsogtbaatar said, “State administrative body in charge of foreign investment in Mongolia has experienced organizational and structural changes for many times in the past, changing its name. It is certain that instability of this institute causes difficulties for investors and causes trouble in their operations. Therefore, I am confident that establishment of One Stop Service Center with intention of running constant stable operation will make tangible progress in promoting investment”

Mongolia leaves benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11 pct to bolster economy www.xihuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's central bank has decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11 percent, local media reported Saturday.

The first official sponsor of Growth Summit Ulaanbaatar 2019 is Petrovis, Mongolian Business Database's official partner and also partner for inclusive and combined growth. www. mongolianbusinessdatabase.com

"Growth Summit Ulaanbaatar 2019" is fast approaching with top notch international and local speakers and sponsors. Growth management systems have been developed the last 10 years or so to codify how companies are scaling up and growing 10x, 100x, or more. Our goal is to share this knowledge.

K-Pop in crisis: Scandal threatens to end the 'Korean Wave' and exposes culture of toxic masculinity www.cnn.com

Seoul (CNN)South Korea's entertainment industry is a cultural juggernaut that has allowed the East Asian nation to punch well above its weight in terms of global soft power.

But a digital sex scandal that police say involves some of K-Pop's biggest stars has rocked the K-Pop world, leaving it facing a reckoning from which some believe it might not recover.
In the past month, four major K-Pop idols have apologized or announced early retirement after being linked to a group chat in which members shared sexual videos of women who were allegedly filmed without their consent. On Thursday, singer Jung Joon-young was arrested in connection with the scandal.
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The allegations tie in with a wider problem in South Korea of illicit recordings and voyeurism.
This week it emerged that about 1,600 people had been secretly filmed in motel rooms in South Korea. Police say the footage was live-streamed online to paying viewers. Last year, in Seoul, a squad of women inspectors was deployed to search the capital's 20,000 or so public toilets for spy cameras.

K-Pop stars have long been placed on pedestals, with management companies highly protective of their squeaky clean images.
Allegations linking some to the dirty world of online voyeurism have rocked South Korea, and exposed how the longstanding problem of toxic masculinity -- the idea that the male role involves violence, dominance and devaluing women -- has penetrated every level of society.
Speaking at a protest Thursday over the scandal, Kim Yong-soon, co-president of Korean Women's Association United, said "the rape culture (in Korea) that has used women for erotic videos has been maintained for a long time."
"The male-centered ... rape culture did not stop even after feminism and the growth of the feminist movement and #MeToo," she said, adding now there was an opportunity "to sort out finally the male-centered culture that has traded women's sexuality (for so long)."
At an emergency meeting with concerned groups and activists this week, South Korea's Minister of Gender Equality and Family Jin Sun-mee had a simple message for the country's men.
"Please stop," Jin said. "Please report it. Women are humans with souls who can be our colleagues, friends or sisters who live and breathe next to us."

When South Korean police depicted a spy cam voyeur in a public awareness campaign designed to protect women, amid an epidemic of voyeurism and upskirt photography, their typical perpetrator couldn't have looked less like a K-Pop idol.
The posters showed an overweight, rosy-cheeked man dressed like a child in suspenders and shorts.
Police apologized, and the campaign was quickly withdrawn, deemed wildly inaccurate and offensive to the millions of women living in fear of illegal filming. There is little evidence to suggest spy cam operators and upskirt snappers are badly socialized losers rather than regular men brought up in a society that has taught them to see women as objects.
The latest allegations bear out that reality. The accused K-Pop stars are famous young men at the height of their industry, feted in the press and fawned over by millions of fans.
The sale and distribution of pornography is illegal in South Korea, and porn sites are blocked or difficult to access online. However, some men share explicit videos on messaging apps and social media, including potentially illicitly filmed footage.
"(This issue) is prevalent in every part of society," said Choi Mi-jin, president of the Women Labor Law Support Center. "It is not just a problem with certain celebrities."
This scandal, Choi said, exposed the way that men generally "currently perceive women." In 2018, tens of thousands of women protested against surge in illegal filming in central Seoul under the slogan "My Life is Not Your Porn." However, many women at the events covered their faces for fear of being identified or harassed online afterward.
Park Kwi-cheon, a labor law professor at Ewha Law School in Seoul, said that because Korean men often view women as merely sexual objects, they might not fully understand why filming a sexual partner without consent is wrong.
"For example, in colleges there have been incidents when male students would secretly take pictures of female students or disparage women sexually in group chats," Park said. "There is a culture where they don't think of such behavior as crimes but think of it as a kind of game."

K-Pop labels and management companies begin the development of some artists from an early age, said Jung Duk-hyun, a pop culture expert. Recruited into K-Pop training camps, the future stars are highly controlled and molded to be as close as possible to perfect performers in both voice and look.
While undergoing as much as a decade of pop-star training, some artists are cut off from society, as they focus on working their way up the ranks of a K-Pop stable, hoping to one day burst onto the music stage. When they do go public, artists are often forbidden by their contracts from dating for several years, in part, some experts say, to appease fans who dream about dating their idols.
That transition from isolation to sudden fame creates fertile soil for misbehavior and a pronounced power imbalance between artists and fans, Jung said. The limiting conditions of the contracts stars sign with the labels can also create skewed expectations of how stars should act.
Stars can go from relative nobodies to widely recognized figures overnight, with no anonymity, leading them to seek refuge in places like dark and isolated VIP rooms of bars and clubs, Jung said.
Seungri (center), a member of the K-Pop boy group BIGBANG, speaks to the media as he arrives for questioning over criminal allegations at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Seoul on March 14, 2019.
Seungri (center), a member of the K-Pop boy group BIGBANG, speaks to the media as he arrives for questioning over criminal allegations at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Seoul on March 14, 2019.
Burning Sun, a popular nightclub in the upmarket Gangnam area of Seoul, may have been such a refuge for Seungri, a member of global chart-topper Big Bang. The 28-year-old oversaw publicity for the club and sat on its board, until it shuttered last month amid accusations by police that some on the club's staff secured prostitutes for VIPs, rape, drug trafficking and drug use.
Seungri has since quit his position with Burning Sun, and apologized to fans over the scandal. With regard to the alleged sharing of illicitly filmed videos, he has promised to "fully engage in (the police) investigation with truthful answers."
The club did not respond to requests for comment, but a spokesperson had previously said it was "actively cooperating" with police.
Closed off VIP rooms are symbolic of the arms-length relationship between the K-Pop industry and the public, Jung said. Fans are sold a fantasy from a heavily guarded, almost impenetrable system.

For some, the K-Pop scandal had been a long time coming.
While some labels that had initially threatened legal action over negative reports about their stars have now apologized, for years they have protected the reputation of their top talent. Previous scandals involving male pop stars have not forced the level of reckoning being seen today.
Another young star named by police in the scandal is Jung Joon-young, who admitted earlier this month to having "filmed women without their consent" and shared it online.
Jung was arrested Thursday and faces up to five years in prison. Speaking to the press outside court, he said he was "truly sorry."
"I admit to all charges against me. I will not challenge the charges brought by the investigative agency, and I will humbly accept the court's decision," he said. "I bow my head in apology to the women who were victimized by my actions."
The singer has faced similar accusations in the past, with prosecutors dropping a case in 2016 due to "insufficient evidence" against the young singer. Jung did not respond to a request for comment about that case.
The allegations did little to dent Jung's stardom, with the singer appearing on a popular television show shortly after the scandal.
"The management companies focus all their power on shielding the artists from consequences. The artists end up thinking that their mistakes will not affect them," said journalist Jung Duk-hyung, the culture expert.
According to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, it hasn't just been labels shielding K-Pop stars. Police officers have also been accused of intervening in investigations to protect stars. This month, South Korea's head of police Min Gap-ryong vowed to "root out" police collusion no matter the rank of those involved.

K-Pop is not just an industry that only produces male stars -- scantily clad female groups including Girls' Generation and Red Velvet are also wildly popular. But the highly sexualized image of female K-Pop stars has been blamed by some of driving the objectification of women.
"The mistreatment of women in Korean society, particularly the voyeuristic and sexually objectifying treatment of women's bodies, is deeply enmeshed in K-Pop," said CedarBough Saeji, an expert in Korean culture and society at the University of British Columbia.
"Videos of male idols often (feature) objectified female dancers, and videos of female idols objectify the idols themselves," Saeji said. "Young women and men are being sold the idea that a woman's success is tied to being an object, and this has dangerous ramifications for society."
Female fans cheer at a K-Pop event in Suwol, South Korea, in 2016. The recent scandal has exposed the wide power imbalance between men and women in the East Asian nation. 
Female fans cheer at a K-Pop event in Suwol, South Korea, in 2016. The recent scandal has exposed the wide power imbalance between men and women in the East Asian nation.
South Korea struggles with other gender issues, with the pay gap between men and women among the worst in the developed world. In 2018, the country ranked 30 out of 36 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations for women's employment, even though the country has the highest tertiary education rate of the group for women age 25 to 34.
"You can never feel comfortable in your own body if you're a woman here," one spy cam victim told CNN last year. "Just because I'm born as a woman, people objectify me. People objectify my body, even when I'm in the most private place."
With that sort of harassment so entrenched, experts warn that progress in tackling how men exploit women's bodies could be slow.

Belt, Road high on visit agenda www.chinadaily.com.cn

Ambassadors anticipate reinforced cooperation, boosted multilateralism on Xi's trip to Italy

President Xi Jinping left Beijing for Rome on Thursday, kicking off his first overseas trip of the year — one that is aimed at broadening areas of cooperation and injecting new impetus into Sino-European ties.

During his state visit to Italy, the first stop of a six-day tour that will take him to three nations, Xi and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will jointly witness the signing of intergovernmental cooperation documents in fields of diplomacy, economy and trade, and culture, as well as commercial agreements in infrastructure, machinery and finance.

The two countries will also work to strengthen Belt and Road cooperation.

The ambassadors of the two countries said they also hope Xi's visit will send out a clear signal that China and Italy are joining hands in promoting open and fruitful cooperation, and will serve to uphold multilateralism and rules-based global trading.

"It is in the interest of the two peoples as well as the entire international community," said Italian Ambassador to China Ettore Sequi.

"We need to work together within a fair, rules-based international trade system on a level-playing field to pull the global economy back on a path of strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth," Sequi told China Daily in a written interview.

Further opening up of our economies, societies and cultures is also conducive to the development of the two countries, he added.

The Italian ambassador described the two countries as good trade partners whose bilateral trade has been growing steadily.

Last year, bilateral trade volume reached $54.23 billion amid a global economic downturn, and two-way investment between China and Italy exceeded $20 billion, according to sources at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We want to expand our exports to China, rebalance our trade deficit and bring more products and services from Italy to the Chinese market," Sequi said.

"Italy can offer the Chinese people quality, innovation, design, and customer care among other things," he added, noting that Italy has been closely watching the reforms and policies made by the Chinese government related to market access for foreign products and services.

Calling Italy "a trusted friend and good partner within the European Union", Chinese Ambassador to Italy Li Ruiyu said Xi's visit will open a new chapter in the bilateral relationship — one that has already been on a fast track for many years.

He described bilateral cooperation in various areas as being "full of vitality" and described high-level contacts between the two countries as "maintaining sound momentum".

The Italian government has responded positively to the Belt and Road Initiative, a move that Li said shows Italy believes there is much to explore in terms of win-win cooperation between the two countries.

Paolo Gentiloni, then prime minister of Italy, attended the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May 2017.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio signed a memorandum of understanding with China covering third-party market cooperation during his visit to China last year.

Li said many Italian port cities are increasingly interested in participating in the infrastructure and logistical cooperation associated with the BRI, and that they have noted the investments made by China COSCO Shipping Ports and Port of Qingdao in expanding and modernizing the port of Vado Ligure, near Genoa.

Contact the writers at zhoujin@chinadaily.com.cn

Building bridges: Last steel beam linking Russia-China railway bridge connected www.rt.com

The first cross-border railway bridge between China and Russia over the Amur River has been connected from both sides. The bridge, which will be operational this year, is expected to take bilateral trade to new highs.
The 2,209-meter-long (1.4 miles) structure links Russia’s Far East with China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province. The full completion of the cross-border bridge (railway and highway parts) is scheduled for July.

ADB, LEAP to back 15 MW in Mongolia with $18.7m loan www.pv-magazine.com

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) have agreed to provide an $18.7 million loan to support the development of a 15 MW solar project in Mongolia.

Erdenet Mining Corporation becomes 100 percent state-owned enterprise www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ “Erdenet Mining Corporation becomes a state-owned enterprise according to the decision of today’s Cabinet meeting, reported Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Ts.Nyamdorj.

Ulaanbaatar city competitiveness index rises 7 percent www.zgm.mn

The Economic Policy and Competitiveness Research Center (EPCRC) disclosed the results of research on district competitiveness, which was conducted for two years since 2017.

More Border Blues! Mongolian coal denied entry to China www.news.mn

Chinese Customs officials at the Urad Middle Banner, an administrative region in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, rejected 182 trucks containing 19,540 tonnes of “unqualified” Mongolia-origin coal during the period between last November 27 and March 9, according to ‘China Quality News’, a news portal operated by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.