However, one of them, Hanaro Mart has been caught selling food items which have passed their sell-by date. Hanaro Mart also changed the receipts to hide their crime. On Wednesday (17 October), the Metropolitan Professional Inspection Department (MPID) held a press conference regarding the issue. After receiving complaints from the public over the sale of the expired foods, MPID conducted a thorough inspection at Hanaro Mart. Officials seized 1541 out-of-date and overstocked products worth MNT 22 million and put seal on MNT 11 million 648 thousand worth of products the recipes for which had been changed.

According to MPID, the Mart was also selling products that had not been registered by Mongolian customs.

Within Transparency and Efficiency in Public Financial Management project, works targeted to strengthen IT infrastructure of tax department and improve budget planning, monitoring and capacity will be carried out.

The purpose of Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector project is to improve energy supply of western region or Altai-Uliastai energy system. In frame of it, it is planned to erect 5 mWt and 10mWt wind farms as well as 5 mWt and two 10 mWt solar power plants and to create renewable energy source through installing ground source heat pumps.

Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Mongolian side to the Mongolia-China intergovernmental commission for the trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation U.Enkhtuvshin was instructed to approve the action plan and oversee the implementation.

The two sides concurred to renew the trade structure, develop value-added production, increase capacities of border checkpoints, reduce trade barriers as well as to expand agricultural trade.

During the intergovernmental meeting, the sides also discussed intensifying implementations of the projects that being financed with the soft-loan and non-refundable aid of the Chinese Government.

The Mongolian side expressed that Mongolia is attaching a significance to constructions of the 20.9 km long auto road from Gachuurt intersection to Nalaikh and Choir intersections, of a new Wastewater Treatment Plant of Ulaanbaatar and of a hydro power plant of Erdeneburen.

Moreover, they reached an agreement to develop infrastructures of the border checkpoints, construct apartment complex for 1008 households and formulate joint action plan to implement projects in 2018-2020.

It could take several months before the negotiations begin, it said.

The move is part of US President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape trade policies to support his "America First" agenda.

It comes as the US has been fighting a trade war with China, the world's second largest economy.

"We will continue to expand U.S. trade and investment by negotiating trade agreements with Japan, the EU and the United Kingdom," US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said.

"We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses."

The US plans to start negotiations with Japan, the world's third largest economy, "as soon as practicable, but no earlier than 90 days from the date of this notice," Mr Lighthizer wrote in a letter to Congress.

Negotiations with the United Kingdom will start "as soon as it is ready" after it leaves the European Union in March 2019, he said.

The aim is "to address both tariff and non-tariff barriers" and to achieve free, fair and reciprocal trade" Mr Lighthizer said.

Mr Trump's preference for bilateral deals over multilateral ones is part of a more protectionist trade policy he has carried out since taking office in 2016.

He pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal early in his administration and has renegotiated a trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico.

Mr Trump's trade war with China continues to escalate, with companies already feeling the pinch and experts warning it will harm global growth.

The UK, which is seeking to broaden its trading partners as it heads towards Brexit, welcomed the news.

"The UK welcomes the US Administration's confirmation that it intends to begin negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement with the UK once we have left the EU," a government spokesperson said.

While the UK is not able to negotiate trade agreements until it formally leaves the EU, a US-UK working group launched in 2017 has been preparing the ground for a potential future trade agreement.

The long-awaited construction of the new refinery began in June. The Indian-funded project is expected to end the country’s dependence on Russian fuel. Currently, 40 percent of construction of building the road, electrical power infrastructure has completed. Over 500 people with more than 260 specilised vehicles are working on site.

The refinery is located 18 km from Sainshand, the provincial centre of the Dornogobi province, covers 150 hectares and will be capable of processing 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Currently, reserves are projected at 40 years. The new refinery, planned for completion in late 2022, will meet all of the nation’s demand for gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Mongolia produced 7.6 million barrels of crude oil last year, about 21,000 bpd, amounting to 6 percent of its total export earnings. Currently, all of this is exported to China.

The construction of a complex which is responsible for disinfecting male sheep and goats to be exported is 50 percent complete, the press office said in a statement.

The complex covering an area of 600 hectares in Zamiin-Uud soum (administrative subdivision) in the southeastern province of Dornogovi is expected to be commissioned within the first quarter of next year.

According to the authorities, the complex will have the capacity to export about 5,000 sheep and goats per day.

The work is part of the government's efforts to diversify its mining-dependent economy and support nomadic herders.

The logistics center has 11,6 km long railway, 1.6 km long auto road, 19 m long ferro-concrete bridge and other facilities and buildings, covers a total of 128 hectares of land. Moreover, two tower cranes with 50 tons of carrying capacity, allows to transship 620 containers a day.

Minister of Road and Transport Development Ya.Sodbaatar:

“According to our calculations, by having the logistics center built, transship capacity of transit transport of commodities, such as consumer goods and mined commodities, will increase and have a positive impact on the economy”.

The regional logistic center is expected to give an impetus to augment transit transport, raise its efficiency, improve passing capacity of the state border checkpoint and develop mixed transport system. Specifically, it will make contribution to the development of Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor and improvement of commercial and trade turnover.

These are the words highlighted by Mr Paul Akiwumi, Director of Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes at the UNCTAD /United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development/. He gave a speech at the sub-regional workshop with the theme “Fostering Structural Transformation and Export Diversification in Selected Asian Landlocked Developing Countries”.

Co-organized by the International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC) and the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the workshop was attended by delegates of LLDCs/ International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries/ in Asia: Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Laos and Bhutan, experts and researchers of international organizations such as the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Mineral Fund to discuss ways to no longer depend on mining commodities and diversifying the economy and share experiences.

Executive Director of the International Think Tank for LLDCs E.Odbayar

“Some landlocked countries that are economically dependent on few types of mining products have yet to find a way out of the situation. But instead, some of those countries have found interesting solutions to how the economy can be further developed using the sector, what kind of funds should be established and how the income should be correctly spent and allocated, which are being discussed at the workshop”.

The 2-day-workshop will issue policy recommendations on solving challenges that the regional countries face.

Shipments from its Australian mines fell to 81.9 million tonnes in the third quarter compared with 85.8 million in the same period a year ago, the miner said, snapping four consecutive quarters of increases.

UBS had estimated quarterly Pilbara iron ore shipments of 82.5 million tonnes.

In August, a truck operator was fatally injured at Rio's Paraburdoo Iron Ore mine in Western Australia.

Rio, which competes with BHP and Brazil's Vale SA in the seaborne-traded iron ore market, maintained its target to ship at the upper end of the guidance range of 330 to 340 million tonnes for 2018.

The Anglo-Australian said on Oct. 11 that it expected raw materials costs for its aluminium division about $400 million higher versus a year ago for 2018 and that costs should stay elevated into next year.

Higher thermal coal prices are likely to have an additional negative impact of $100 million in 2018 for its Pacific Aluminium smelters, it added.

Rio Tinto, which has contracts with sanctions-hit aluminium maker UC Rusal, continues to monitor the impact of the U.S. sanctions but has not declared force majeure to date, it said.

The weak quarter comes after a brisk first half, when all of the big four iron ore miners bolstered shipments to China which seeks higher grades to comply with stricter environmental regulations.

China buys just over half of Australia's commodity exports.

In an effort to maintain production capacity to feed China's giant steel industry Rio said on Oct. 1 that the miner and its Japanese joint venture partners will spend about $1.55 billion at two iron ore projects in Western Australia.

The announcement came as Rio has been selling off its coal assets in order to focus on its core commodities.

In other metals, Rio’s copper output jumped 32 percent to 159,700 tonnes in the quarter thanks to robust production from its Kennecott Utah Copper business.

(By Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)