“This commitment is based on friendly China-US cooperation and the rational and objective premise of bilateral trade,” Ma said Wednesday. “The current situation has already destroyed the original premise. There is no way to deliver the promise.”

While promising to “promote the healthy development” of Sino-US trade, the 54-year-old entrepreneur noted that the “previous basis for trade has been undermined,” amid ongoing trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

“Trade is not a weapon and cannot be used for wars,” he added, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua news agency. “Trade should be the propeller of peace.”

Instead of helping American small businesses reach Chinese consumers, one of the richest men in China said Alibaba will seek business opportunities elsewhere, mainly in Russia, Europe, South America, and Africa.

Ma, who recently announced his departure as the chairman of the Chinese retail giant next year, slammed Trump’s policies just two days after Washington announced a 10 percent tariff on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing hit back on Tuesday with levies on $60 billion of US products.

Along with the overseas IPO of ETT, the government is also aiming to attract more foreign investment into the coal sector, according to the Mongolian Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry, Dolgorsuren Sumiyabaza, during the 8th Coal Mongolia International Conference. To this effect the government is looking to introduce more advanced technology to coal mining operations in order to improve the competitiveness of Mongolian coal exports. (Fitch Solution)

The current Northern Mongolian border was established in 1911, but at that time, Mongolia shared it with two countries, the Tuvan Republic and the Soviet Union. Now, it is shared only with Russia, after the Soviet Union annexed the Tuvan Republic in 1944. The Tuvan section of the Mongolia/Russia border has always been problematic due to cattle thefts across the border and a thriving smuggling trade, subsequently Border Crossing No. 487 was considered particularly challenging.

Border Crossing No. 487 is set deep inside thousands of hectares of Siberian forest, both on the Mongolian and Russian side. On the Mongolian side, very few hamlets can be found across this desolate landscape, and the infrastructure is extremely poor. What is more, winter brings abundant snowfall and subarctic temperatures (reaching -55 degrees F), making these places reachable only by horses and the sturdiest 4×4 vehicles.

Since its closure, Border Crossing No. 487 has become a destination for a trickle of local tourists. The two posts delimitating the Mongol and Russian territories are set about 10 feet apart, and a white stump of a post was placed in the middle to demarcate the exact border point. It is a simple sight, but in historical and geographical terms, it is a truly remarkable place. (atlasobscura)

To determine the sales managers’ index, World Economics takes into account five main factors: the employment rate, business confidence index, market growth, sales, and price changes.

According to World Economics analysts, Mongolia's employment rate was at 61.7 percent in September – its highest rate over the last five years. Price changes have consistently scored more than 50 points since April, indicating that inflation has been rising.

The USD/MNT pair rose sharply to 2,510 in the country's domestic market, exceeding the level of 2,500 for the first time. The exchange rate stood at 2,490 on Monday.

The rise was mainly attributed to increasing imports and seasonal business activities that lead to the outflow of dollars, experts from the central bank said, adding that the Tugrik's depreciation was a temporary phenomenon. Enditem

The first project will provide support for wool and cashmere manufacturers in pushing for a green, sustainable development of the cashmere industry, according to a visiting EU delegation to Mongolia.

Mongolia is the world's second-largest producer of raw and washed cashmere, with a goat population of more than 27 million and an annual cashmere output of up to 9,400 tons.

Some 90 percent of the cashmere is exported and only the remaining 10 percent is made into final products.

On Wednesday, the Mongolian government also launched two other EU-funded projects aimed at boosting environmental protection in the capital Ulan Bator.

One of them will help build new, warm homes for a total of 1,000 low-income households living in the ger districts or shantytowns. Another project is intended to increase public awareness about air pollution.

Ulan Bator suffers from some of the world's most severe air pollution in winter months.

More than 800,000 residents, or over half of its population, live in shantytowns with no tap water, central heating, sewerage systems or regular garbage collection. They usually burn raw coal and other flammable materials such as plastics and old tires to keep warm and cook meals during the six-month-long winter.

The three EU-funded projects will last three years with total funds of 5 million euros (5.8 million U.S. dollars).

Producers in the world’s largest shipper face an order backlog of 18 months as they can’t get hold of additional mining equipment, Pandu Sjahrir, chairman of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association, said in an interview in Jakarta. The slow ramp up in supply will probably keep coal prices buttressed at about $100 a metric ton through the end of next year, he said.

“Supply restriction is still quite real,” Sjahrir, who’s also finance director at miner PT Toba Bara Sejahtra, said on Monday. “It’ll be the end of 2019 before they can fulfill some of their orders today.”

That’s bad news for President Joko Widodo’s government, which is trying to rein in a current-account deficit and bolster the currency that’s tumbled to the weakest level since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. A rally in coal prices and the abundant reserves in Indonesia makes the commodity an ideal target in the government’s drive to boost exports and shore up dollar earnings.

Major coal producers and contractors in Indonesia are having difficulties accessing additional mining equipment, Shirley Zhang, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in an emailed note Monday. “Upside for Indonesian coal exports from their current level is limited” in the near term, she said.

Asia-Pacific benchmark Newcastle prices have rallied about 10 percent this year and are averaging $105, the highest level since 2011, amid resilient demand in China, the world’s largest user. The prospects for tighter supply to support prices at about $100 have also been flagged by Australia miner New Hope Corp.

The Indonesian government approved an extra 22 million tons of coal output for the rest of the year, about a fifth of the 100 million tons it was open to endorsing. While an increase of about 30 million tons in the next six months might be possible, according to Sjahrir, that would still be a relatively small amount compared with overall output.

Indonesia produced 461 million tons in 2017 and shipped about 389 million, from 456.2 million tons and 370 million respectively a year earlier, according to data from BP Statistical Review and Bank Indonesia compiled by Bloomberg.

(By Yoga Rusmana and Fathiya Dahrul)

Tokyo Website: https://frontier-conference.com/j/