"Today, we all witnessed a historic decision to improve air quality in the capital city and protect ourselves from air pollution," Lamjav Byambasuren, vice health minister of the country, said at the opening of an event on raising public awareness of air pollution.

Public participation in air pollution reduction is important, Byambasuren said, calling on residents of the city to comply with the ban on the burning of low-grade coal for domestic use.

According to a statement issued by the National Committee for Environmental Pollution Reduction, households and enterprises who violate the ban will be fined from 300,000 Mongolian tugriks (over 113 U.S. dollars) to 3 million Mongolian tugriks (about 1,134 dollars).

Households in Ulan Bator will be supplied with processed fuel instead of raw coal.

Air pollution is one of the most pressing issues in Ulan Bator, which is home to around half of the country's 3.2-million population, and poses a major threat to the Mongolian people's health.

More than 800,000 residents, half of Ulan Bator's population, live in slums, also known as ger districts. They burn raw coal and other flammable materials to keep warm and cook during the six-month-long winter.

It is estimated that 80 percent of air pollution in the city is caused by ger stoves.

Since the early 2000s, the Mongolian government has carried out a number of measures aimed at reducing air pollution in Ulan Bator. However, the city has not seen a significant reduction in air pollution levels.

Mongolia Choir Railway Platform is one of the largest private enterprises in Mongolia. The railway platform in Choir city of Mongolia is located in the middle eastern part of the country, and around 250 kilometers away from its capital Ulaanbaatar, covering a total area of 35,000 square meters, with an annual loading capacity of 1.8 million tons. The cooperation between Kaisun Holdings and China Railway Engineering Construction Mongolia will further strengthen economic ties between Mainland China - Hong Kong - Mongolia. Being the only one railway for logistics transportation between China, Mongolia and Russia, the Railway Platform will provide loading and unloading, warehousing, customs declaration and logistic services to enterprises in both China and Mongolia.

As a pioneer in the Belt and Road, Kaisun Holdings started off to plant seeds along the region as early as 2011. Since China started the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China planned its development with neighbouring countries, China-Russia-Mongolia corridor began with cooperation in logistics. Management team of Kaisun Holdings is of the view that under the current macro policy and economic trend, investment in infrastructure and logistic should be a good entry point. The Choir logistic project will also have great synergy with Kaisun's other existing investments such as Shandong Kailai Logistic Center.

The Mongolian Boxing Federation along with the Physical Culture and Sports Authority of Mongolia signed a cooperation agreement with representatives of Shimada city of Japan in Ulaanbataar on Tuesday.

A Japanese delegation visited the Mongolian capital with the aim of exchanging views on training for the Olympics jointly with the Mongolian national boxing team.

Under the agreement, seven male and five female boxers, three coaches, a sports physician and three researchers of the Mongolian national boxing team will be involved in joint training with the Japanese national team in Shimada from July 19-28.

These dates were decided so that the Mongolian boxers could acclimatise to the conditions in Japan in July, the month when the 2020 Summer Olympics will get underway.

A second joint training session will also be held in January.

Mongolia won one bronze medal in boxing at Rio 2016 - a bronze for Dorjnyambuugin Otgondalai in the men’s lightweight division.

In addition, the inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI) at the national level increased by 1 percent from the previous month, by 2.8 percent from the end of the previous year and by 7 percent yoy.

7 percent increase of CPI was mainly contributed by increases in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages group by 8.3 percent (meat and meat products by 20.4 percent, non-alcoholic beverages by 6.6 percent and milk, dairy products and eggs by 1.5 percent), alcoholic beverages and tobacco group by 3.6 percent, transport by 5.5 percent, housing, water, electricity and fuels group by 8.9 percent (electricity, gas and other fuels by 9.6 percent), and health by 9.5 percent.

The money supply (broad money or M2) reached MNT 19.9 trillion at the end of April 2019, showing an increase of MNT 188.7 billion from the previous month and by MNT 3.6 trillion from the same period of the previous year.

The national currency in circulation reached MNT 933 billion, increased by MNT 35.2 billion or 3.9 percent from the previous month. But the number is MNT 4.6 billion lower than the previous year.

In the first four months of 2019, the total equilibrated revenue and grants of the General Government Budget amounted to MNT 3.1 trillion and total expenditure and net lending amounted to MNT 2.8 trillion, resulting in a surplus of MNT 286.5 billion in the equilibrated balance.

In April, the equilibrated revenue and grants of the General Government Budget reached MNT 968.6 billion, an increase of MNT 259.5 billion or 36.6 percent, whereas total expenditure and net lending reached MNT 876.4 billion, and by MNT 59.6 billion or 7.3 percent from the previous month. In the first quarter of 2019, current and capital account balance deficit by preliminary result reached USD 277.4 million, which is USD 70.8 million lower compared to the same period of last year. The current account deficit reached USD 297.6 million, which was mainly due to USD 553.2 million deficit in services account and USD 196.2 million deficit in the primary account.

The Ulaanbaatar city administration recently reclaimed the 2.5 hectares land of Sukhbaatar Square which had been used as a car park in breach of contract from the UB Construction Company last month. One of the requirements of the original contract had been to adorn the area between the square and Peace Avenue with a fountain.

The visit and forum will aim to study possibilities of bilateral business cooperation and to bring business ties and cooperation between Mongolia and Singapore at new level, informs the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI).

The Embassy of Mongolia in Singapore and Singapore Business Federation are co-organizing the business forum in partnership with the MNCCI, the Business Council of Mongolia, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and Enterprise Singapore government agency.

In the frames of the visit, the Foreign Minister will visit the Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Manufacturing Federation while having meetings with relevant officials, getting information on Singaporean trade and investment policies and environment. Moreover, business-to-business meeting will be held.

Construction of Unit 3 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant is expected to start in October 2021, according to CNNC. It will be followed by Unit 4 in August 2022. The single unit construction period lasts 69 months, and the construction interval between the two units is 10 months.

Russia and China have been strengthening ties in the nuclear energy sector lately. Apart from the Xudabao nuclear plant units, Rosatom is building nuclear units for the Tianwan nuclear power plant, which is one of the biggest joint projects of Russian-Chinese economic cooperation. The first two of its units, each with a capacity of 1,000MW, were launched in 2007. Unit 3 began operations in 2017, and the reactor at the latest, fourth unit was launched at minimum capacity in September last year after the fuel loading was finished ahead of schedule.

The nuclear plants will help to meet China’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to Joseph Jacobelli, an independent energy analyst and Asia-Pacific CEO of clean energy producer Joule Power. They will provide air pollution-free energy at a lower cost to consumers, he explained to China Daily.

Zijin, China’s No.1 gold producer and Ivanhoe’s partner in the now massive Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the DRC, generated the additional funds by exercising its anti-dilution rights at C$3.98 per share, the Vancouver-based company said.

Ivanhoe can now finance Kakula and Kipushi mine to commercial production, and significantly advance, or achieve, production at the company’s Platreef project in South Africa.
China’s state-owned CITIC Metal, Ivanhoe’s largest shareholder pumped last month C$612 million (about $454m) into Canadian billionaire Robert Friedland’s company.

The combined funds from the two Chinese companies, accounting for more than C$679 million ($503m), will allow Ivanhoe to finance Kakula and Kipushi mine to commercial production, and significantly advance, or achieve, production at the company’s Platreef project in South Africa, it said.

Friedland, who made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s, also said that Zijin’s Chairman Chen Jinghe had been nominated for election to Ivanhoe’s board at its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders to be held on June 28.

Ivanhoe Mines has been working on Kamoa-Kakula for ten years. In 2015, its now partner Zijin got on board by acquiring a stake in the company. Citic Metal followed suit last year, becoming Ivanhoe’s largest shareholder.

Friedland has repeatedly stated that Kamoa-Kakula has the potential to become the world’s second-largest copper mine.

According to an independent pre-feasibility study (PFS) released in February, the operation is expected to reach peak annual production of more than 700,000 tonnes of copper.

The proceeds from Zijin and CITIC are expected to be received by the first week of September.

The1.5 MMTPA refinery is expected to be completed by 2022.Ties between India and Mongolia date back centuries with Buddhism seen as a major binding factor between the two countries. In recent years, the two countries have set up mechanisms like the India-Mongolia Joint Working Group for Defence and the “India-Mongolia Joint Committee on Cooperation (IMJCC)" chaired at ministerial level besides others to cement cooperation.

“For Mongolians, India is one of counter-weights to their neighbours (Russia and China), a 'spiritual neighbour,' a declared third neighbour and strategic partner and centre for pilgrimage," says a Ministry of External Affairs background note on bilateral ties.

In April last year, during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to the country, it was agreed to intensify cooperation in energy, trade and economy, IT, healthcare, animal husbandry, infrastructure development and other developmental sectors. (UNI)