The refinery, located in Altanshiree soum in the southern Dornogovi province, will be capable of processing 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year, said Mongol Refinery, the state-owned company responsible for the project, in a press release. That is about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). Currently, construction of the oil refinery infrastructure is fully underway. This phase, which is the responsibility of the Mongolian government, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. After that, an Indian company will construct the refinery itself. A road connecting the refinery and Sainshand, the administration center of Dornogovi province, has been constructed by over 200 soldiers from the 7780th military unit with more than 80 bulldozers, graders and other vehicles.

Mr. Munkhbaatar said, “MCC has submitted a request to Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa. The obligation to conclude a deal with our company was provided to the Cabinet by a Parliamentary resolution in 2017. The court had adjourned to restore our company’s ownership of 49 percent stake in the EMC due to the fact that the sides did not settle on a deal. In connection with recent events, we are requesting again to negotiate. Previously, our request was submitted several times to the Prime Minister and other related authorities. The Parliament has approved the Resolution No.23 to instruct the Cabinet to hold negotiations with our company. A deal is a document signed by both parties. However, we have not done that.”

“Investigation on the 49 percent shares of EMC has been going on for over a year. I have given over 10 testimonies to both the Criminal Police and the Independent Authority Against Corruption. We see the Government's actions as a social demand. We are still willing to settle the issue. Our position remains unchanged and to confirm it, we are submitting the request to the PM,” noted Mr. Purevtuvshin.

Registered unemployed increased by 565 persons or 2.3 percent from the same period of previous year and increased by 381 persons or 1.6 percent from the previous month. A breakdown by gender shows that 12.6 thousand or 52.7 percent were women among total number of registered unemployed. By region, 7.6 thousand unemployed or 31.8 percent of total registered unemployed were in Ulaanbaatar, 6.2 thousand or 25.8 percent were in Khangai region, 4.3 thousand or 17.8 percent were in Western region, 3.4 thousand or 14.3 percent were in Central region and 2.5 thousand or 10.3 percent were in Eastern region.

From total registered unemployed at national level, 406 or 1.7 percent were with disabilities, of which 198 or 48.8 percent were women.

In February 2019, the Labor and Social Welfare Services Agencies of aimags capital have recorded 5.1 thousand newly unemployed and from registered 774 persons were hired on a new job. Due to inactive job seeking, 4.7 thousand persons were removed from the Unemployment Register.

Compared to February of previous year, the number of new registered unemployed were decreased by 645 persons or 11.1 percent and the number of persons removed from the Unemployment Register being inactive job seeker decreased by 63 or 1.3 percent, whereas the number of persons hired on a new job increased by 143 or 22.7 percent.

In February 2019, the Labor and Social Welfare Services Agencies have recorded 5143 new unemployed.

By the reasons of new registered unemployed, the highest percentage or 46.5 percent was person who dismissed from job.

By level of education attainment of registered unemployed at the end of February 2019, 47.7 percent had high school education, 30.3 percent had diploma or bachelor degree, 6.9 percent had technical and vocational training, 6.0 percent had secondary education, 4.5 percent had specialized secondary education, 2.3 percent had elementary school education, 1.2 percent had no education and 1.1 percent had masters and higher level of education.

From total registered unemployed at national level, more than half or 56.5 percent was accounted for young people aged 15-34. This rate was higher by 0.2-17.7 points in Khovd, Umnugovi, Selenge, Tuv, Dornod, Govisumber, Bayan-Ulgii, Uvurkhangai, Khuvsgul, Dornogovi, Uvs, Sukhbaatar, Govi-Altai, Dundgovi, Bayankhongor aimags compared to national average.

Source: National Statistics Office of Mongolia

At the beginning of the meeting, the President praised the achievement of national teams of 3x3 basketball, ice hockey and football, mentioning that a construction work of sports palace 'Steppa Arena’ will commence next month near Buyant Ukhaa Sports Complex according to Olympic standards, or sized 60x30 covering 12.7 thousand square meters.

He recalled his promise at their last meeting, held last year, on paying attention to creation of a winter sports complex to encourage and motivate athletes and said that as a result of talks with the Czech Republic and Canada, it was decided to build a new winter sports center 'Steppa Arena, with funding of USD15 million.

“It will be a part of preparations for Children of Asia International Sports Games to be held in Ulaanbaatar in 2020. Moreover, construction work of football and athletics arena with a capacity of 10 thousand people will start next month,” said the President.

Almost 99 percent of the infections were sexually transmitted, according to a report issued by the office.

More than half of the HIV-infected are people between 20 and 44 years old.

The first case of HIV infection in Mongolia was recorded in 1992.

In the first two months of 2019, there were a total of 6,600 cases of infectious diseases reported across the country, up by 9.8 percent year on year, the report said.

An exchange of notes on the non-refundable aid was signed today by Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Masato Takaoka.

To strengthen bilateral strategic partnership, Mongolia and Japan have been expanding their cooperation in all fields including politics, society, and economy. For instance, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe included the issue of deepening bilateral environmental cooperation in their joint statement last December. In this regard, Japan is providing the aid for conducting studies on protection of ecosystem and environment of Mongolia and equipping the Fresh Water Resources and Nature Conservation Center, highlighted the Ambassador.

Furthermore, Minister Ch.Khurelbaatar said “Projects on improvement of drinking water sources in Ulaanbaatar and reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant are being implemented respectively with USD 350 million non-refundable aid from the Millennium Challenge Corporation and CNY 1 million soft loan from the Chinese government. Thus, the Government of Mongolia is planning to utilize the aid for improving fresh water supply”

Since 1990, the Japanese government has given Mongolia grants and loans totaling USD 2.8 billion and non-project grant aid of USD 195 million for the sectors of health, education, and social protection.

India’s aviation authority is grounding the Boeing 737 MAX immediately, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

"These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations," the tweet reads.

Fly Dubai said on its Facebook page that its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 was also grounded, on a directive from UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority. It will use its fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft for flights instead to minimize disruption.

The planned activity begins with four wells located in Block XX; this is adjacent to the country’s main oil-producing area, the Toson Uul Graben in the Tamtsag Basin. Drilling will commence in Q2 in selected areas of this block, with the exact schedule to be determined by the finalization of contracts.

The first well in the campaign will be Heron 1, part of the Heron Prospect, identified as the southerly extension of a proven oil basin drilled by PetroChina in Block XIX. The prospective recoverable oil is 25 million barrels in a trap area of 5 square miles.

Once Heron 1 well is completed, personnel and equipment will be moved to the Gazelle Prospect, where Petro Matad expects to recover 13 million barrels of crude. Red Deer Prospect will follow, with recoverable resources set at 48 million barrels of hydrocarbons.

Industry regulator Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) approved the proposal for a two rig-strategy, which allows successful operations to be immediately followed by appraisal drilling.