Heading the 6th Joint Committee for Cooperation, Swaraj said, "Mongolia is well known in India for the valour of her kings and her strong Buddist heritage".

Owing to the common Buddhist heritage shared by the two countries, Swaraj said that the Indian government encourages "students from Mongolia to visit India for further study and research in the field of Buddhist studies."

The minister also shared in her speech that she will attend a birth centenary of a 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche who happened to India's ambassador to Mongolia.

Further, in her speech, she mentioned that both she and Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar are committed for capacity building programmes for the people of Mongolia specifically in the areas of English language training and Information Technology.

Thwarting terrorism was also one of the most important highlights of the joint summit.

Both the foreign ministers also held discussions for economic cooperation in areas including infrastructure development, energy, services and Information Technology.

In her speech, she highlighted the collaborative projects including the on-going refinery projects in Mongolia. India had provided one billion dollar Indian Line of Credit for the construction of the oil refinery in the mineral and oil-rich country Mongolia.

The two foreign ministers also inked several bilateral agreements.

The EU delegates arrived in Mongolia to study economic condition of Mongolia and to make analysis on whether it meets criteria of rendering budget support with non-refundable aid. If Mongolia satisfies requirements and gets the right to receive the budget support, non-refundable aid of EUR 50 millioncan be granted to the State Budget of Mongolia, Mr. Marco Ferri informed.

In turn, Head of the Standing Committee B.Choijilsuren expressed gratitude on behalf of the Parliament and the Standing Committee to delegates on visiting to Mongolia to render budget support. “Since the launch of implementation of Extended Fund Facility program of the International Monetary Fund, it brought positive changes in Mongolia’s economy. Stable price of export mining products is influencing favorably as well”, he added and briefed current state of economic condition of Mongolia.

At the meeting, the sides touched issues State Budget spending, transparency and public participation in it.

B.Batchimeg

During Prime Minister U. Khurelsukh’s visit to the PRC, Aspire Mining signed several agreements, one of which is a Memorandum of Understanding with “China Gezhouba Group” for cooperation and investment.

The MoU includes finalizing the feasibility study of a railway route between Erdenet-Ovoot by May.

Construction of this railway infrastructure will open a gateway for Aspire Mining to export coal to the Russian Federation and the PRC.

The Power of Siberia pipeline is one of the biggest projects between Russia and China. Analysts say it could help Russia become one of China's main providers of natural gas as demand in the country increases.

The pipeline’s first section will run some 2,200km from the Chayandinskoye field (Yakutia) to Blagoveshchensk (Chinese border). The second phase of the project will include the construction of a section stretching for about 800km from the Kovyktinskoye field (Irkutsk Region) to the Chayandinskoye field. The third stage provides for expanding gas transmission capacity between the Chayandinskoye field and Blagoveshchensk.

The deal on the eastern route took more than a decade to negotiate. Last July, Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) inked an agreement to start gas deliveries via the route.

In May 2014, the two companies signed a $400-billion 30-year framework to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China annually.

Moscow and Beijing plan to build another pipeline – Power of Siberia 2 or the western route – that will deliver another 30 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas.

According to the head of Gazprom, Aleksey Miller, China’s growing gas consumption, which was more than 200 billion cubic meters in 2016, is soon expected to reach 300 billion cubic meters.

Earlier today, S.Amarsaikhan, Chairman of the UB Citizens' Representative Khural (Council) received delegates from the UB city Road Development Agency, the General Agency for Specialized Investigation, the Master Planning Agency of the Capital and the UB City Administration. At the meeting, the UB Mayor issued a decree to start the relocation of the Zuun Ail market from May.

The Zuun Ail market is located in the Sukhbaatar District of Ulaanbaatar to the north-east of the city centre.

To be operated as a subsidiary of ‘Erdenes Mongol’ LLC, the enterprise will produce improved fuel with the processed coal of Ukhaa Khudag mine.

It is one of measures to be implemented with the goal to reduce air and environment pollution. The enterprise will produce 90 thousand tons of improved fuel per year and fund its operational cost with its sales income. A ton of the condensed fuel is projected to be not higher than the price for a ton of raw coal.

M.Unurzul

‘Salkhit’, the first Mongolian wind power plant with independent energy resource and capacity of 50 MW was built in 2004. It produces 140-150 million kW of energy annually, reducing the greenhouse gas emission by 180 tons and saving 1.6 million tons of clean water and 122 thousand tons of coal.

“Mongolia produces 11.8 percent of its energy or 120 MW of electricity from renewable energy sources. In the future, renewable energy sources will increase significantly. However, we need to develop the renewable energy sector with definite regulations in coherecne with other installed energy source capacities. For instance, the renewable energy production stops when there is no sun or wind. Thus, in order to overcome these kinds of difficulties, we are planning to create a 100 MW national cumulative system for produced wind and solar energy in the next two years” said Minister Ts.Davaasuren.

Minister also noted that the initial investment will be high, but further production will be cheap. As the solar technology is getting cheaper, countries have policy to increase renewable energy use. At the same time, it is important to develop a system that accumulates energy during daytime and distributes electricity to customers during nighttime.

B.Misheel

Being regularly organized by the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ‘Business Breakfast’ meeting aims to deliver proposals and initiatives of private sector to policy makers and strengthen cooperation between them.

More than 80 businessmen and specialists from the ministry attended the meeting and exchanged views on pressing issues in agricultural sector.

“The sector requires development revolution. When a General Veterinary Authority is established, it will be in charge of controlling all agricultural products to be exported. By doing so, control will be raised and quality of products will be improved. It will be very important to satisfy healthiness, provide population with safe food and export agricultural raw materials and products,” said the Minister.

The Ministry plans to implement a Program ‘Industrialization 21:100’ and agriculture-based processing plants such as cashmere, leather, meat, milk and dairy products will be established in all aimags. Every province will have processing industry suitable for them.

“Mongolia’s livestock reached 66.2 million and is expecting to have 22 million head of offspring this spring. Therefore, we are working to have more quality raw materials and products and produce value-added final products for export,” added the Minister.

In the end, B.Batzorig summarized, “Businessmen said that the sector needs investment. We have received many proposals and suggestions, such as to lower the loan rate and increase loan volume being issued to small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, we shared views on what policy and solutions are needed in the sector and how to export agricultural products and raw materials.”

M.Unurzul

During the economic crisis in 2016, the corporate income tax revenue was 3.5 times lower than the current indicator. Foreign direct investment to Mongolia has increased due to commodity price hikes and intensification of construction projects.

The expansion in export volume also helped to increase revenue. The top 100 companies in Mongolia earned a net profit of 269.89 billion MNT, an 81.4 percent increase compared to 2016; gross losses decreased by 54 percent. The companies are raising their financial outlook accordingly in 2018.