The Express Rail Link connects Hong Kong to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 40 minutes - less than half the time taken by older trains.

Chinese authorities will be able to operate at a joint checkpoint at the station, and on the trains.

This is controversial as it marks the first time Chinese criminal law will be enforced in Hong Kong territory.

Critics say this violates Hong Kong's freedoms and mini-constitution.

The rail link was launched at a ceremony on Saturday, with one local lawmaker praising the first bullet train journey to Guangzhou South as "very quiet, like I was on a plane".

Government officials say the rail link will boost businesses in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

How part of Hong Kong became ruled by China overnight
When a railway station gets political
The rail link will open to the public on Sunday - and also boost train connections with the rest of mainland China, including the capital Beijing.

However, pro-democracy legislators boycotted the opening ceremony, and staged a protest outside the station, saying the rail link undermines Hong Kong's independent legal system.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997, under an agreement that the territory would enjoy "a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs", for 50 years.

As a result, Hong Kong has its own laws, protections for certain rights and freedoms, and most mainland Chinese laws cannot be applied in the territory.

The new rail link will mark the first time Chinese officials can enforce Chinese law in Hong Kong, in parts of the station, and on trains.

China's top legislative body has said the arrangement does not undermine Hong Kong's autonomy, and its proponents argue it streamlines the immigration process.

However, legal experts from the Hong Kong Bar Association have criticised the arrangement, saying it contravenes Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

The rail link project has also been criticised for being delayed by three years, and going over budget by close to $3bn (£2bn).

“We continue consultations... If we agree on the ‘Western Route’, then it will be more than 80 billion cubic meters [for all supply routes, including LNG – Ed.] a year. This means that Russia will take the first place among gas suppliers to China,” Bekri told TASS.

China is seeking to increase gas purchases from Russia and a number of other countries, according to the State Committee for Development and Reforms. The Committee’s head He Lifeng said the reason...

Russian energy giant Gazprom’s CEO, Alexey Miller, said earlier that Russia and China have agreed to get approval for gas supplies via the ‘Western Route’ in the shortest possible time.

Demand for Russian gas supplies is increasing in China, and according to Miller, by 2035 it could reach 80 – 100 billion cubic meters a year.

Administration showed that the world’s second-biggest natural gas importer, China, will account for at least a quarter of all global natural gas consumption growth between 2015 and 2040.

Supplies via the ‘Eastern Route’ (the Power of Siberia) are expected to start by the end of next year. Initial volumes will stand at 5 billion cubic meters, reaching 38 billion cubic meters per year by 2024.

The 3,000-km (1,900-mile) pipeline will be longer than the distance between Moscow and London. The deal on the ‘Eastern Route’ took more than a decade to negotiate. In May 2014, Gazprom and CNPC signed a $400-billion, 30-year framework to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China annually.

In 2017, Gazprom invested 158.8 billion rubles ($2.4 billion) in the project. This year it plans to invest another 218 billion rubles ($3.25 billion).

Russia’s Arctic region will also be a major source of gas supplies to China. At the moment, Russian gas producer Novatek is working (in cooperation with CNPC) on the implementation of Russian-led energy project Yamal LNG. China has already purchased the first two batches of liquefied natural gas from Yamal.

At the regular meeting of the intergovernmental commission, the sides exchanged opinions on broadening trade and economic cooperation between the two countries and agreed some issues.

To achieve a goal to increase bilateral trade turnover to USD10 billion by 2020, the Mongolian side proposes to renew commercial structure, to develop value added production, to improve capacity of border checkpoints as well as to widen trade of agricultural products.

Moreover, the Mongolian side expressed its willingness to establish General Agreement on Energy Sector Cooperation between the Governments of Mongolia and China as soon as possible. They also requested to cooperate in implementation of major regional projects, such as building a gas pipeline and establishing Asian Super Grid which were discussed during the meeting between heads of the two states in Vladivostok, Russia.

During the meeting, the sides signed a special loan agreement on a project 'Construction of 67 km paved road in route Tosontsengel -Uliastai' to be implemented with the soft loan of Chinese government.

The sides backed proposals on expanding agricultural cooperation and agreed to collaborate in increasing Mongolia’s export of meat and meat products to China.

On trade, the U.S. and Mongolia expressed their commitment to implement their obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation and will seek to identify sources of capacity building and technical assistance available by donors. They also re-affirmed their intent to deepen U.S.-Mongolia commercial relations through the full implementation of their obligations under a bilateral transparency agreement.

Additionally, new opportunities will be explored to increase mutually beneficial bilateral trade that is free, fair, and reciprocal, and to promote the introduction of new sectors and areas of bilateral trade, including by leveraging the Ex-Im Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation for infrastructure development.

Noting the United States is a good friend and partner of Mongolia, Khurelsukh said the Mongolian government is willing to cooperate closely with Washington to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas including trade, investment, agriculture and renewable energy, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The two sides outlined a roadmap for further strengthening economic cooperation, the statement added.

"Implementing the roadmap is an important part of Mongolia's goal of diversifying its economy and enhancing cooperation with the United States in various sectors such as trade, agriculture and renewable energy," the ministry said.

During the meeting, Khurelsukh invited Pence to visit Mongolia at an appropriate time.

Pence thanked the Mongolian side for its humanitarian aid of camel hair blankets worth 100,000 U.S. dollars to people affected by Hurricane Florence.

"Our government has attached great significance to the bilateral relations. Agreement worth 350 million U.S. dollars between U.S. aid-giving body Millennium Challenge Corporation and Mongolia is an example of it," he said.

Khurelsukh arrived in Washington D.C. on Tuesday for a three-day official visit to the United States.

"The BRI is a world-class project that offers great opportunities for cooperation between China and the rest of world in a wide range of areas, including infrastructure and trade," said Gelegpil Chuluunbaatar, first vice president of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday.

The BRI aims to build infrastructure and trade networks in areas along ancient trade routes to seek common development and prosperity. Chuluunbaatar described the initiative as "the most impressive development project of this century," saying it "is significant to not only us, but also people around the world."

The Mongolian scholar believed that his country will benefit a lot from the initiative proposed by China in 2013.

"Mongolia shares its 4,710-km land border with China, which is one of the world's fastest-growing economies and world's second-largest economy," he said.

"People all over the world have admired the achievements of China's socio-economic development in recent years. China is our country's main trade partner and biggest export destination," said Chuluunbaatar.

Mongolia has great potential to reap tangible benefits from the BRI, he said.

"Particularly, Mongolia has integrated its Development Road Initiative with the BRI," he added.

"I am fully confident that the integration will promote the landlocked Mongolia's development in various sectors such as infrastructure and economy," he said.

Regarding the BRI, China calls for win-win cooperation, mutual benefit and an alignment with the local development strategy in its implementation.

Chuluunbaatar said it is the right choice for Mongolia to accept an invitation to ride on China's "express train of development" and make more efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation with China.

No sands were encountered at the shallower of two primary targets although drillers observed gases and an oil sheen in the drilling mud across the interval.

The gases are believed to indicate an active petroleum system in the basin. The oil is suspected to have entered the well from a prospect bounding fault that might be acting as a conduit for migrating oil.

No oil or gas shows were observed in the well’s deeper objective.

Petro Matad focuses on oil exploration in Mongolia. Its assets involve production-sharing contracts over the following exploration blocks:

• Matad Block XX with an area of 10,340 sq km in the far-eastern part of Mongolia near the Chinese border.

• Bogd Block IV and Ongi Block V, adjacent to each other in west central Mongolia, covering about 50,000 sq km.

The fresh round of returns, which will be funded with the proceeds from the company’s sale of its last remaining Australian coal assets, follows Rio’s previous promise to return up to $7 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Rio said it would conduct an off-market share buyback for up to 41.2 million of its Australian-listed shares, worth about $1.9 billion.
Not surprisingly, investors welcomed the news, with shares closing Thursday 3.58% higher in Sydney to A$78.10, while they were up 2.81% in London to 3,827p by 1:38 p.m. local time.

Rio said it would conduct an off-market share buyback for up to 41.2 million of its Australian-listed shares, worth about A$2.7 billion ($1.9B), as well as on-market purchases of its London-listed stock.

Previous buybacks have favoured the London arm of the Anglo-Australian miner and further returns to shareholders may be just around the corner as Rio has yet to complete its $500 million sale of the Aluminum Dunkerque smelter in France.

“Returning $3.2 billion of coal disposal proceeds demonstrates our commitment to capital discipline and providing sector-leading shareholder returns,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said in the statement.

Top Pick
Since Jacques took the helm in July 2016, Rio has focused on cutting costs, generating cash and returning as much of it as possible to investors through dividends and share buybacks.

BMO Capital Markets praised Rio’s move in a note Thursday calling the company its “top pick” among the diversified majors .

It also note that while Rio’s buybacks amounted to a shareholder return well ahead of its peers, the miner would eventually have to find other options to drive value, including possible acquisitions.

The construction project has registered 700,000 man hours without lost time incident since financial closing in August, 2017 and has been finalized 2 months ahead of schedule. The height of the construction mobilized around 400 workers, of which more than 95 percent Mongolians.

The celebration of the 55 MW Sainshand wind farm was attended by representatives of the Mongolian government, parliament members, organizations of energy sector, local government representatives, German Ambassador, representatives of the French Embassy, lenders, investors and other major stakeholders of the project.

The wind park and other ongoing energy developments will enable the Dornogobi aimag (province) to supply cities like Sainshand and Zamiin–Uud with renewable energy. Furthermore, the installed energy generation capacity also enables to export the sustainable energy to the South–Gobi grid.

Sainshand Salkhin Park will supply more than 100,000 households with energy and contribute to a greener economy with a potential reduction of more than 200 thousand tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The wind park project was initiated by Mr. Davaanyam and developed by the German Ferrostaal GmbH with world leading french energy company Engie. The total investment of 120 million USD is financed by lenders European Investment Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development & EKF from Denmark together with the equity investors and developers including the Danish Climat Investment Fund.
source: Sainshand Salkhin Park LLC