Mongolia restores power in parts of country after massive outage www.news.mn

Mongolian power utility said on Thursday it had started to restore electricity to western parts of the country after country was hit by a massive blackout on 24 November. A snow storm from Siberia hit Mongolia last week causing a massive power blackout across western parts of the country. Three people were injured and 1600 livestock were lost in the storm.

Indian billionaire won't use tax dollars for controversial coal mine in Australia www.cnn.com

New Delhi (CNN Business)One of India's richest men is pushing ahead with a controversial coal mine in Australia, but the project will be scaled back after plans for state subsidies were dropped following huge protests.

What happens when CEOs have too much power www.cnn.com

In recent weeks, we've seen how concentrated power and a lack of diverse perspectives on corporate boards can cause systemic blind spots in organizations and lead them into avoidable crises.
Facebook, for instance, is currently in the crosshairs of regulators, business partners and users after damning reports came to light about its reaction to a drumbeat of bad news. Carlos Ghosn's devastating fall from the upper echelons at Nissan has thrown both the auto maker and its longtime partner Renault into crisis, and has cast doubts on the structure of corporate governance in Japan. And his behavior as an "imperial CEO" led to Jeff Immelt parting ways with GE, heralding a corporate meltdown of epic proportions. These are just some of the most recent and visible examples of how power — particularly absolute power with few checks and balances — can presage a crisis.
Here's how absolute power can lead a company down a self-destructive path:
Shrinks cognitive bandwidth

Practices such as having the same person serve as chairman and CEO, failing to give decision making power to truly independent directors, and selecting directors from the same tired pool of contenders, are all likely to increase the chances that corporate leadership will miss something important in the external environment. By definition, the number of perspectives weighing in on decisions are reduced if the diversity of the people making consequential decisions is limited.
Moreover, research suggests that more homogenous teams (as one finds when only a small group of people — or even a single individual — is in power) perform more poorly when tasks involve imagination, creativity and out-of-the-box problem solving. Precisely because it is harder to come to an agreement on information and its implications, more diverse teams do a better job.
Discourages sharing uncomfortable news
The people most likely to encounter evidence that the world is changing tend not to be comfortably seated in corporate headquarters. They are at what the late businessman Andy Grove long ago called the "edges" of the organization.
It's the person at Facebook who first noticed something strange going on with accounts that could be traced to Russian operatives, only for Facebook's then-security chief to be met by anger from the top of the company when he shared early findings in a conference room deliciously named "only good news," according to The New York Times. It's the whistleblower at Nissan who pointed out that all did not seem well with respect to the car company's books. And they're the external analysts looking at GE's businesses and wondering whether something wasn't "broken" over there, despite corporate management's denials that anything was problematic at all.

Enables self-interested decisions
When power is overconcentrated in a few players, executives have the latitude to take actions that are comfortable for themselves, but not necessarily consistent with the good of the organization or the people in it. While this should be obvious, we still see many examples of how long-term decisions are colored by the outcomes that will reward the most powerful, even if they prove negative in the longer term.
This can take the form of outright criminal behavior, as the allegations against Carlos Ghosn — which he has denied — imply. Or it can take the form of claiming generous retirement payments, stock options and access to company resources, as has apparently happened with Jeff Immelt, who used a spare plane for travel until 2014, according to GE. During his tenure, GE's decisions to buy back its own stock (which has the effect of strengthening the share price) were blamed for contributing to GE's cash problem.

Or it can take the form of prioritizing advertising revenue over the protection of a user's confidential information and strict adherence to the law. According to a complaint filed by the Housing and Urban Development Department, Facebook, for instance, has promised advertisers it won't show housing ads to people in protected classes, such as the disabled who might need certain accessibility, which is considered housing discrimination and actually illegal (and for which the company is being sued — Facebook said it would address HUD's concerns).

Given these obvious drawbacks, why are so many organizations working under governance structures that expose them to these risks? One reason is that good governance, challenging group discussions and quests to find real information, is hard. It takes time and effort to identify and recruit diverse board members. It can feel uncomfortable to insist that the influence of more powerful people be reduced. And bringing women and underrepresented groups into the conversation means the conversation itself is likely to be different. Nonetheless, it's an effort worth making — unless you want your organization to star in the next set of shocking corporate headlines.

Russia’s Rosneft aims for $500bn worth of energy deals with China www.rt.com

Russian energy major Rosneft has a “leading role” to play in ensuring China’s energy security, according to the company’s Chief Executive Igor Sechin.
Speaking at the first Russian-Chinese Energy Forum in Beijing, he said the total volume of Rosneft’s crude shipments to China is expected to exceed 50 million tons this year. “Rosneft is one of the leaders in terms of petrochemical supplies to China,” he said.

Mongolia-Hungary road transport agreement established www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ During the Mongolia-Hungary intergovernmental commission’s meeting held in Budapest, Hungary, an intergovernmental agreement on freight and passenger transportation by road transport was initialed.

President receives ambassadors of the European Union and its member states www.president.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Today, President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga received resident and non-resident ambassadors of the European Union (EU) and its member states to Mongolia.

Private entities request swap deals to stabilize FX rate www.zgm.mn

Yesterday, the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) received the representatives of Top 200 private entities to discuss the current business environment and economic situations. Participants addressed the necessity of swap agreements in coordination with currency volatility and corporate planning of private entities.

Mongolian Ambassador to Sweden resigns after three months www.news.mn

Mongolian Ambassador to Sweden O.Enkhtsetseg has presented her resignation letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the letter Ms. O.Enkhtsetseg requested to resign from the post for private reasons.

Why the US Should Build on Its Role as Mongolia’s ‘Third Neighbor’ www.dailysignal.com

Mongolia, a landlocked nation of about 3 million people between China and Russia, has become an increasingly important geopolitical partner to the United States.

America’s relationship with Mongolia is not insignificant and provides many opportunities for both countries.

The United States established diplomatic relations with Mongolia in 1987. Since then, the U.S. has been firmly regarded as Mongolia’s most important “third neighbor”—a country that does not border Mongolia, but has strategic relations with it.

Over the past three decades, Mongolia has been a reliable diplomatic ally of the U.S. The country’s transition to stable democracy has been notable, too, especially among former Soviet republics.

Mongolia’s multiparty parliamentary system has yielded an open society, where political dissent is the norm, parliamentary debate is spirited, and compromise between parties is not uncommon.

That contrasts starkly with the rest of post-Soviet Central Asia, where some presidential governments have resulted in autocracies.

The State Department’s Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations for fiscal year 2019 asserts that the “primary goals of U.S. assistance to Mongolia are to ensure the United States remains a preferred partner over geographical neighbors Russia and China, and to give Mongolia greater latitude to chart an independent foreign and security policy.”

More importantly, Mongolia has been considered as an “emerging partner” and as a country with which the U.S. may cooperate to achieve a “shared vision of rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.”

In fact, Mongolia has already demonstrated a strong commitment to working with the United States on strategic issues.

Mongolia is one of nine NATO “partner” nations, along with Japan and South Korea, in East Asia. Mongolia participates in United Nations global peacekeeping operations and has more than 1,000 peacekeepers deployed in Africa.

Mongolia sent troops to Iraq from 2003 to 2008, and currently has more than 200 troops in Afghanistan serving together with American forces.

All in all, Mongolia has maintained a constructively engaging relationship with the U.S. However, more can and should be done in enhancing bilateral interaction.

In particular, the U.S.-Mongolia economic relationship needs to evolve from one largely based on aid and various types of technical assistance to a partnership based much more on private sector-driven trade and investment.

The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to raise the American profile and elevate its participation in the region are well-advised. However, without a distinct trade component, they are likely to amount to little more than an empty gesture.

The U.S. efforts need substance, and substance that can count in a concrete and practical way is trade.

To that end, Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and nine other members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bipartisan trade bill concerning the United States and Mongolia.

The proposed Mongolia Third Neighbor Trade Act seeks to deepen the U.S.-Mongolia trade relationship. The bill could play a practical role in ensuring Mongolia’s ongoing economic development by incentivizing targeted economic reforms.

Over the past three decades, the United States and Mongolia have made the strategic choice to forge and defend a relationship based on “shared commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights.”

That choice must be reinforced with concrete and practical action that can further enhance the two nations’ partnership. Increased trade is the logical step forward.

COMMENTARY BY Anthony B. Kim

Anthony B. Kim researches international economic issues at The Heritage Foundation, with a strong focus on economic freedom. Kim is the research manager of the Index of Economic Freedom, the flagship product of the Heritage Foundation in partnership with The Wall Street Journal.

Rio Tinto to proceed with $2.6B iron ore mine in Western Australia www.reuters.com

Nov 29 – World No. 2 iron ore miner Rio Tinto gave the long-awaited green light for a $2.6 billion iron ore mine in Western Australia, with first production expected within three years.