NDB was founded by the BRICS member countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in 2014 and formally opened in Shanghai in July 2015. The goal of the bank, with an initial authorized capital of $100 billion, is to fund sustainable development infrastructure projects in emerging economies.

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Overall, NDB has 23 projects costing $6 billion, including $1.7 billion in China and $1.8 billion in India. Each member country has a 20-percent shareholding and voting rights.

The agency has assessed the bank’s financial profile as “extremely strong,” acknowledging robust shareholder support as a key factor.

Commenting on the ratings, NDB’s President K.V. Kamath said: “Today marks a momentous step for NDB towards establishing itself as a premier multilateral development finance institution.”

He explained that “given the scale of our future ambitions, the AA+ ratings from S&P and Fitch put the bank in an exceptional position to mobilize financial resources at competitive rates thereby greatly enhancing our lending capacity to our members.”

Earlier this month, Fitch has assigned NDB a long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of AA+ with a stable outlook and a short-term IDR of F1+.

According to Kamath, the ratings also “mark the beginning of an exciting period for the bank wherein it will look to establish itself as a benchmark issuer in global capital markets. This milestone enables the bank to offer a full suite of financial products to its public and private sector clients.”

He said: “The AA+ ratings from the two agencies are a recognition of the bank’s strong financial profile as well as an endorsement of its prudent future growth plans and sound risk management practices.” He added: “We are proud of this exceptional achievement…”

The general assembly is themed "Leaving no blind person behind - ten years of the UNCRPD (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), what we have achieved so far and the next decade of advocacy."

Some 200 domestic and foreign representatives, including WBU President Fredric Schroeder and leaders of 18 Asia-Pacific organizations providing services to the blind and visually impaired are expected to attend the event, Gerel Dondovdorj, head of the federation, told a press conference.

During the quadrennial event, the participants will discuss the most pressing issues for the blind and visually impaired, including employment and ways to eliminate the barriers they face, she said.

There are 285 million blind and partially sighted people across the world, according to the World Health Organization.

In Mongolia, there are some 16,610 visually impaired people, with about 96 percent of them unemployed, Gerel said.

According to customs statistics, the region’s exports value amounted to 12.78 billion yuan, up 12.4 percent, accounting for 59.6 percent of the total export volume in the same period; while its imports were 26.42 billion yuan, up 3.7 percent, making up 72.6 percent of the total import.

Inner Mongolian’s foreign trade with the Belt and Road countries saw the growth due to increasing trade scale and deepening of the opening-up of the region. Erenhot customs will continue to simplify procedures to facilitate foreign trade. (Editedby Wu Shuang, hupingchao@xinhua.org)

Five months ago, MP L.Enkhbold was the first to reveal 268.3 tonnes of coal being stolen from the Tavan Tolgoi mine and requested that the case be investigated. After that, the working group led by Ch.Khurelbaatar, was established at the request ofthe Prime Minister to Cabinet. The working group includes officials from over 10 agencies of Mongolian Government such as General Agency for Specialized Investigation, Mongolian Customs Administration and the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia. MP.Enkhbold is dissatisfied with work of the Independent Agency for Anti-Corruption.

According to a statement from the General Authority for Border Protection, a total of 849,121 coal trucks entered the Mongolian custom zone between 2013 and 2017. However, this does not tally with a report from the Mongolian Customs Administration which that it was 814 thousand coal trucks. So, there is 35 thousand coal trucks difference. A coal truck transports 80-125 thousand tonnes each time.

"There are no other projects in the world like the BRI which connects (about) 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania," Dashdorj Bayarkhuu, a professor at the Mongolian Diplomatic Academy, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to him, under the BRI framework, international cooperation in areas including infrastructure and the economy could benefit the whole world.

This year marks the fifth year since the BRI was first put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to expand cooperation and relations between China and other countries.

"Mongolia has supported the BRI from the onset and actively participated in it," Bayarkhuu said.

He added that Mongolia's wish to dovetail its Prairie Road development strategy with the BRI is an example of Ulan Bator's support for the initiative.

Highlighting landlocked Mongolia's geo-strategic location, he said it can gain a lot from the BRI. The construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor, for example, will bring benefits to the Mongolian economy and all Mongolian citizens.

Mongolia and China should continue to deepen cooperation in this regard and accelerate the implementation of bilateral agreements as soon as possible, he added.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi last Friday met with the governors of five western provinces of Mongolia. The officials expressed their readiness to strengthen cooperation, especially with their neighboring Chinese provinces, in areas including agriculture, tourism, border trade, cultural exchanges and infrastructure

He expressed confidence that the project “will become a symbol of Russian-Japanese friendship and a bridge between our countries.”

Japan’s Deputy Minister of State Lands, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Toshihiro Matsumoto, noted that the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) has a great development potential for both Russia and Japan.

“We believe that Japanese companies are interested in using this route, and I hope that we will reach a deeper understanding between the carriers of the two countries in the process of implementing this pilot project,” he said.

The shipments will be carried out in containers fitted with temperature, humidity and vibration sensors.

According to Russian Railways (RZD), the first 40-foot container has been dispatched this month from the Japanese port of Kobe to the port of Vostochny in Russia’s Primorsky Krai.

The container is planned to be transported further by rail to Russia’s Kaluga region and after the customs clearance procedure it will be finally delivered by road to the Moscow region. The approximate delivery date is 1 September 2018, which will result in a total travel time of just 14 days.

The next test shipment from Japan to Russia along the Trans-Siberian Railway is scheduled for 31 August 2018, according to RZD.

Current freight transport between Japan and Russia mainly uses sea and air routes. It takes between 53 and 62 days to ship freight from Japan to Moscow using a sea route that crosses the Indian Ocean. The new freight route via the railway will significantly cut transportation time between the two countries and costs could be reduced by up to 40 percent.

The Trans-Siberian Railway connects Moscow with the Russian Far East with a travel time of seven days. It is 9,289 km (5,772 miles) in length and spans a record eight time zones.

The balance of payment (BoP) came out positive in the first half of this year driven by foreign exchange (fx) inflow and foreign direct investment (FDI) reaching USD 879 million. Officials explained that Oyu Tolgoi investment was the key driver in the growth with over USD 700 million, accounting for 80 percent of FDI. The remaining was formed by coal sales, according to the BoM. Furthermore, experts expect the fx inflow to keep the pace and forecast the outflow to be stagnant as there are no major debt repayment due this year. The Government was obliged to repay MNT 3.8 trillion in loans this year and settled MNT 2.7 trillion in the first seven months. On the contrary, USD 836 million will be brought into Mongolia within the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Fund Facility program. Thus, the BoM expects the MNT rate to remain stable in the upcoming months and forecast the BoP to result USD 200-300 million in surplus. As of June, Mongolia’s fx reserves stood at USD 2.9 trillion, which is 2.5 times higher than the same period of last year.

Furthermore, the ministry plans to reserve 51,000 tons of wheat seed for the next year’s harvest, as well as supplying 330,000 tons of food-purpose wheat to manufacturers for the flour demand of the population. In addition, the ministry is now working to establish crop zones and implement the Government’s decision of May on setting up security fences along forests. Preparations of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi IPO complete Another key topic at the Cabinet’s meeting was the IPO of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC (ETT). The working group responsible for the initial public offering announced that the preparatory works of offering the 30 percent stake of ETT at domestic and foreign stock exchanges have been finished. In accordance to the decision on IPO, the working group informed that the company’s rules must now be amended; thus, an irregular meeting of shareholders has been scheduled next month. The team also announced that their assignments, such as international auditing, legal and financial advisory services, and renewal of deposit reserves, have been completed.

Particularly, exports rose by 2651.5 tons compared to June this year, increasing income by MNT 14.3 billion, which indicates an average export of 3281.5 tons of meat per month.

In comparison with 2017, exports of horse meat grew by 1.4-fold, mutton and goat meat by 4.3-fold, heat-treated meat by 2.6-fold on average. The increase in meat export indicates the outcome of Government’s policy on creating an opportunity to export value-added products by improving the competitiveness of grocery production and becoming a food exporter country by developing processing plants in line with international standards, as well as the successful implementation of the first campaign of meat and milk, officials said.

M.Anudari

Cabinet allotted 59.6 billion MNT for 860 mortgage loans, while the Bank of Mongolia has financed 1,187 mortgage loans with 96.2 billion MNT.

It is expected that a total of 300 billion MNT will be allocated for mortgage loan financing in 2018 for an estimated number of 5,000 borrowers.

As of July, the total number of mortgage loan borrowers exceeded 93,000, with outstanding mortgage loans valued at 4.2 trillion MNT.