Russia sets standards for organic food production www.rt.com

President Vladimir Putin has signed a new law regulating production, storing and transportation of organic produce in Russia. The decree bans agrochemicals, pesticides, antibiotics growth stimulators and hormones.
The new law, previously approved by both chambers of the Russian Parliament, will enter force on January 1, 2020. The regulation introduces references to “organic produce,”“manufacturer of organic produce” and “organic agriculture,” as well as sets control over producing, storing, labeling, selling and transporting goods of the kind.

Why a nomadic homestay in Mongolia is the ultimate camping experience www.independent.co.uk

“That’s dinner,” my host told me, gesturing to the lone sheep tethered outside my guest ger that bleated gently as I returned from an invigorating six-mile trek through the pastel green hills to see the ruins of the Erdene Khambiin Khiid monastery.

Within two hours, the animal was slaughtered, shorn, blowtorched and butchered for the pot, leaving nothing to waste. It was a brutal lesson in the realities of nomadic life, which balances freedom, fresh air, and the vast Mongolian countryside with the challenges of self-sufficient and utterly remote living.

I was experiencing a nomadic family homestay in Khogno Tarna national park, attempting to switch off from my overwhelming city life by embracing a simpler way of being. The park offered the ultimate opportunity to get off grid, with grazing animals outnumbering people, vehicles and homes combined, and the evening entertainment consisting of a sky full of stars.

It was also a staging post for reaching Kharkhorim, the long destroyed capital of Ghengis Khan.

I was staying with Khadu, 40, his wife Oyon, 38, and three of their four children, 180 miles from the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The family had three gers – circular structured tents insulated with wool and pitched around a wood-burning stove. Two of them were kept for guests, usually brought by a small Mongolian agency, Nomad Planet, with whom the family have collaborated for a decade.

Six hard single beds lined my guest ger in a hexagon around a woodburner, the flue poking through the centre of the tent. Unnecessary in the summer, the family explained it was kept burning constantly during winter, including throughout the night.

The modest camp, which also included a 4x4, a motorbike and a couple of rickety animal pens, was set upon a small, sandy knoll in between folds of rocky hills, a small lake and the rolls of the Elsen Tasarkhai sand dunes. Only a handful of other gers were visible for miles.

With no running water, Khadu fetched supplies for cooking and washing daily from the province’s well. The toilet was an open-air pit straddled with two planks and sheltered on three sides by a makeshift cubicle. By the time the sun reached its zenith, it was swarming with flies.

Food was predominantly animal produce: salty milk tea was all the family drank, and it was also used to warm up dried meat.

But what was lacking in amenities was amply compensated by nature. Only the lowing of the cows broke the dawn peace, and with the only electricity provided by a solar panel and a car battery in the main family ger, the pace of life fell into the circadian rhythm of the long summer days.

“I tried living in the city for a month and it felt like 10 years,” said Khadu, explaining that when the seasons were stable, his family might move four times in a year, seeking shelter in the valleys from the unforgiving winter winds and snow. “Here, it’s easy. If you need money, you sell an animal. If you need food, you kill an animal.”

It felt like an oversimplification but the family’s day-to-day life certainly seemed low-stress. There was a steady flow of activities involving the entire family, from milking the cows to keeping watch over the herds, making yoghurt, butter and curd, and maintaining the gers.

Guests were welcome to help; otherwise, we were left to relax, take in the scenery and go exploring on foot, horseback or in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). From the serene grounds of the Lama Erdene monastery at the foot of Khogno Khan mountain to the sand dunes at sunset, the attractions were all free, deserted and set beautifully in nature.

I helped Oyon and her 14-year-old daughter Nandin make traditional dumplings filled with mutton and chopped vegetables, which they expertly crafted by hand to steam over the woodburner.

One morning, the Buddhist calendar indicated it was a good day for a haircut so Khadu shaved his seven-year-old son Luvsan’s head. Later, he sharpened his scissors to shear the sheep.

In the afternoon, I helped the children herd the goats, bred for their cashmere. It took some time to move them along from a patch of grass, mainly thanks to Luvsan’s pet kid Zuzu, an orphaned black goat that insisted on being carried and was bottle-fed like a baby.

Such tenderness and care for the goats followed by the killing of a sheep for food highlighted the completeness of their relationship with animals. And even the inherently violent act of slaughter was performed with respect: Khadu maintained that the traditional method of stunning the animal, slitting its stomach and pinching its main artery was the most humane way. The sheep was quickly senseless, and dead within two minutes.

Cooked in a pot with water, hot stones, potatoes, onions and carrots, it was enough to feed 15 to 20 people. Everyone ate hunks of flesh, fat and skin using their fingers and a sharp knife, leaving nothing behind except the offal, which would be used later by the family.

On the day I left, Khadu was up early to say goodbye before setting off to hunt wolves in the nearby sand dunes. The family had heard them attacking the sheep overnight and had gathered their neighbours to hunt the animals before they could kill more. The men set off on horseback and motorbikes with old rifles slung across their backs, slipping into the folds of the distant sand dunes without looking back.

63 killed in Mongolia floods www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Floods in Mongolia have killed 63 people, including 15 children, so far this year, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday.

BoM President receives IMF Executive Director www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ President of Bank of Mongolia N.Bayartsaikhan met with IMF officials led by newly appointed Executive Director for Mongolia Hohyun Jang.

Shanghai's further opening-up attracts more foreign investors www.xinhuanet.com

SHANGHAI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- At the forefront of China's opening-up drive, Shanghai is attracting more foreign investors with a spate of new measures in multiple sectors.

On July 10, authorities in Shanghai introduced a total of 100 new measures covering five areas, including the banking and securities sectors, in a bid to further expand the city's opening-up.

In less than a month, 74 of the 100 measures have gone into effect. The further opening-up is not only a choice of Shanghai, but also a showcase of China's determination to deepen reforms to embrace the world.

Since the central bank announced further opening up of the country's financial sector, Shanghai has rolled out 32 related measures to benefit many overseas banks, insurers and asset management firms.

ICBC-AXA Life, partly owned by French insurance giant AXA, has won regulatory approval to set up an asset management firm in Shanghai. Willis Insurance Brokers Co. and JLT Insurance Brokers. Co. have became the first two to benefit from business scope expansion.

A survey of Renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors by Standard Chartered Bank showed that investors are thinking when to make investment on the onshore market, rather than whether or not.

Many countries and regions along the Belt and Road are also issuing bonds on China's inter-bank bond market and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

After increasing investment quotas for the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect program, local authorities are making preparations to launch the Shanghai-London stock connect program within the year.

Shanghai's opening-up is also expanding into advanced manufacturing, and shipping and telecommunications sectors.

Also on July 10, U.S. carmaker Tesla Inc. announced that it will set up its first overseas plant in Shanghai, with a planned annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars.

With the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project, Tesla became the first to benefit from a new policy that allows foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.

Other foreign carmakers are also revving up expansion to get a larger share of the world's largest auto market.

In the aviation sector, Chinese and Russian engineers are working on the development of the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft, a 280-seat jet with a range of 12,000 kilometers, in Shanghai.

Shanghai is scheduled to host the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), which signals a new round of China's high-level opening-up, from Nov. 5 to 10. Over 130 countries and regions and more than 2,800 companies have confirmed participation in the CIIE.

The country's financial and business center is also improving its business environment, including better protection of intellectual property rights and more efficient government services.

The efforts have yielded results. In the first half of the year, Shanghai's contractual foreign investment hit 21.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 18 percent year on year. Meanwhile, further 17 multinational firms set up regional headquarters in Shanghai, raising the total number to 642.

In addition, foreign-funded businesses in Shanghai saw revenues and profits up 10.3 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, in the January-May period.

China's Didi to invest $1 billion in its auto services platform www.reuters.com

BEIJING (Reuters) - Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing service, said on Monday it will invest $1 billion in its auto services business as part of a wider rebranding of the unit.

Russia Tasks Hollywood Actor Seagal With Improving Russia-U.S. Ties www.themoscowtimes.com

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had made U.S. actor Steven Seagal its special representative for Russian-U.S. humanitarian ties, a role it said was meant to deepen cultural, art and youth ties between the two countries.

Mongolia Balance of Trade 1997-2018 www.tradingeconomics.com

Mongolia's trade surplus narrowed to USD 115.9 million in June of 2018 from USD 173.1 million in the same month of the previous year, as imports jumped 36 percent year-on-year to USD 580.3 million while exports grew at a softer 16.1 percent to USD 696.2 million. Considering the first six months of 2018, the trade surplus decreased 30.4 percent year-on-year to USD 822.2 million from USD 1181.3 million in the previous year. Imports soared 43.4 percent year-on-year to USD 2759.1 million, boosted by machinery & equipment & electrical appliances (44.2%); mineral products (34.9%); vehicles & parts (64.9%) and base metals & articles thereof (92.6%). Meantime, sales rose 15.3 percent to USD 3581.4 million, mostly driven by mineral products (18.5%); textiles & textile articles (16.3%) and live animals & animal’s origin products (94.6%). Balance of Trade in Mongolia averaged -7.81 USD Million from 1997 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 361.60 USD Million in December of 2016 and a record low of -369.80 USD Million in July of 2012

‘Khuvsgul Altan duulga" JSC to hold roadshow meeting for public www.mse.mn

‘Khuvsgul Altan Duulga’ JSC, a Tier 3 listed company, will hold a roadshow meeting for public on August 6, 2018 at the Blue Sky Hotel at 4 pm.

Mongolia Inflation Rate 2007-2018 www.tradingeconomics.com

Inflation rate in Mongolia went up to 7.2 percent year-on-year in June of 2018 from 6.1 percent in the previous month. It was the highest inflation rate since June of 2015, as prices advanced faster for food & non-alcoholic beverages (10.8 percent from 7.1 percent in May); housing & utilities (14.9 percent from 13.8 percent); furnishings & household equipment (6 percent from 5.9 percent); recreation & culture (6.4 percent from 3.9 percent); health (10.7 percent from 9.7 percent) and miscellaneous goods & services (5.3 percent from 4.8 percent); while inflation was steady for transport (4.9 percent, the same as in the preceding month). Contrarily, cost slowed for clothing & footwear (2.6 percent from 3.2 percent); restaurants & hotels (5.1 percent from 5.8 percent); alcoholic beverages & tobacco (8.2 percent from 8.4 percent) and fell further for communication (-1.2 percent from -1 percent). On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.5 percent from 0.6 percent in May. Inflation Rate in Mongolia averaged 10.23 percent from 2007 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 34.20 percent in August of 2008 and a record low of -0.20 percent in August of 2016.