State authorities granted

38,553 preliminary work permits to foreign workers in 2015,
27,526 in 2016, and
19,715 in 2017.
It is estimated that there were 4,703 foreign experts and workers in Mongolia at the end of 2017.

Minister of Labor and Social Welfare S. Chinzorig stated, “The number of foreign workers would be reduced by up to 30 percent in 2018, and by 25 percent in 2019.” Income from employment fees for foreign employees is deposited to the state's Employment Support Fund, and used to strengthen the domestic labor market, increase the number of employment opportunities, and to organize vocational trainings.

The third South Korea-Mongolia joint committee meeting was held in the Mongolian capital, on the 28th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Minister of Environment and Tourism N.Tserenbat led the discussions.

As part of efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation, South Korea requested that Mongolia allow more South Korean airlines to join the Korea-Mongolia air route, which is currently limited to only one Korean air carrier. Mongolia responded that a legal revision is under way to address the issue, the ministry said.

The Mongolian side called for an increase in scholarships for its students who are studying in South Korea and for the expansion of Korean visa issuance for its nationals.

The two sides also agreed to work together in fighting air pollution, with Seoul pledging to review measures to help reduce microdust in Mongolia.

Minister Cho also paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister U. Khurelsukh and ensured that the two countries will work together to further increase exchanges between their peoples.

In 2012 he was responsible for leading the working group for implementing the project. The agreement for constructing railway connecting Mongolia's strategically important Tavan Tolgoi, which contains an estimated 6.4 billion tonnes of coking coal and the Gashuun Sukhait border crossing with China, was signed by Energy Resources LLC. The rail project was seen as essential for speeding up coal transport and was expected to have been completed by 2016. However, the company’s investment to the project was stopped by the Mongolian Government at the time.

It will be recalled that last autumn gigantic queues of coal trucks taking Tavan Tolgoi coal to China formed on the road to the Gashuun Sukhait border crossing. At times the queues exceeded 100 km! Clearly, an alternative mode of delivery has to be found.

Currently, there are two options for the implementing the rail project: either the coal transportation companies unite to cover the costs or China, which buys the Tavan Tolgoi coal invests.

The transaction makes of Rio Tinto the first major miner to exit the coal industry, and comes only a week after it announced the $1.7 billion-sale of its Hail Creek Mine, also in Australia, to Glencore, as well as an undeveloped project in Queensland to Whitehaven Coal for $200 million.

The sale of its 80% stake in Kestrel brings the total amount Rio Tinto has collected with the latest three coal sales to $4.15 billion, which it said would be used for “general corporate purposes.”

The sale of its 80% stake in Kestrel brings the total amount Rio Tinto has collected with the latest three coal sales to $4.15bn.
“I would like to thank the many people at Rio Tinto and the communities where we operate, whose hard work and commitment has contributed to the success of the coal business over many years,” chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said in the statement.

Since announcing the company's decision to exit the coal sector last year, the executive has repeatedly said that Rio was not turning its back to coal because of environmental concerns, but because it had better investment opportunities in iron ore, copper, aluminum and bauxite.

Under his direction, the company has focused on cutting costs, generating cash and returning as much of it as possible to investors through dividends and share buybacks.

The strategy helped Jacques announce last month a record dividend as 2017 profit hit a three-year high. It was his first annual report as Rio’s CEO, as he only took over from former boss Sam Walsh in July 2016.

Cloud on the horizon
Despite the financial success, the miner is facing hard times as is still battling reputational damage brought by a series of incidents, including a probe into a questionable payment made to an external consultant over the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

It is also facing fraud charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the country’s top securities regulator, related to the miner's and two former executive’s alleged covered-up of multi-billion-dollar losses on a coal investment in Mozambique, allegations which the two men and the company deny.

Rio has also been recently accused of dodging $700 million in taxes at its massive Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia.

The company said Kestrel deal was subject to regulatory approvals and was expected to be completed in the second half of 2018.

China and Russia are actively reducing dependence on the dollar in bilateral trade. In October 2017, Beijing launched a payment system for transactions in yuan and Russian rubles. This means that settlements for Russian oil deliveries to China, which have reached 60 million tons per year, can be done without using the dollar.

After Monday's launch of the yuan-backed oil futures in Shanghai, there have been negotiation between Russia and China on mutual promotion of oil futures in national currencies, RIA Novosti reported. In 2016, the St. Petersburg exchange in Russia launched Urals oil futures in the Russian ruble, and support from China could prop up Russian crude futures.

China's new oil benchmark had a hugely successful debut. On the first day of trading in Shanghai, 62,500 contracts with more than 62 million barrels of crude traded for a notional value of nearly 27 billion yuan ($4 billion), Zerohedge reported. Glencore, Trafigura, Freepoint Commodities and other huge oil-trading corporations took part.

Russia held its position as China's largest crude oil supplier in February. Russia supplied 5.052 million tons, or 1.32 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Reuters, quoting the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

The increase in volume happened as a result of a second Sino-Russian oil pipeline, which began operations on January 1. It doubled China’s capacity to pump oil from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) system. ESPO connects Russia and China with a direct

Japan's Nikkei 225 index was up close to 2% in morning trade, led by the tech sector.

The US last week announced proposed tariffs against China, which sent US and Asian markets tumbling.

But China's premier Li Keqiang said on Monday that China and the US should maintain negotiations.

Mr Li's comments followed those made earlier by US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told US media on Sunday he was "cautiously hopeful" that the US and China could come to an agreement on trade issues.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 finished Monday's session up 2.7%, the Dow Jones gained 2.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended up 3.3%.

By the lunch break on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index was up 1.7% to 21,110.68, with tech shares, which would be hurt in an ongoing trade war, keeping the index in positive territory.

Tokyo-listed stocks in the semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron were up 2.4%, while shares in robot maker Yaskawa Electric Corp were up 2.25%.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index was up 0.5% to 2,449.4 points, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.7% to 5,828.4.

In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.8% to 30,80 points, while the Shanghai Composite had gained 1% in mid-morning trade to 30,794.36.

Tariff talk
US President Donald Trump announced the tariffs against Chinese goods on Thursday, saying they were a response to allegations of intellectual property theft by China.

China then responded to news of the planned tariffs by saying it did not want a trade war, but it was "absolutely not afraid" of one.

Some analysts have said if a full blown trade war is not averted, China could make things difficult for US companies doing business in China, among other measures, while others have said China is more likely to try and avoid escalating the problem.

In response to US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports announced by Mr Trump earlier this month, China has already announced its own set of proposed tariffs worth $3bn.

The US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports came into effect last week.

Departing from Caofeidian Port, a train loaded electrical appliances, furniture and raw materials will travel via Erenhot Port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and finally arrive in Ulan Bator.

"This was the first international freight train service launched in Tangshan City," said Wang Kesheng, president of Caofeidian Port Group Incorporation.

He said steel products and construction materials produced in Tangshan would be exported to Mongolia and European countries through the new route.

Caofeidian Port will also be built to access the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, according to a strategic cooperation agreement signed by Caofeidian Port Group Incorporation and the government of Ulanqab City of Inner Mongolia.

Caofeidian is an economic development zone in Bohai Bay, about 200 kilometers east of Beijing.

Saudi Arabia regained its second spot after losing out to Angola in January. Data showed that last month’s supplies came in at 4.635 million tons (1.21 million bpd), down 2.9 percent on year but up from 1.01 million bpd in January.

The third-ranking Angola delivered 973,800 bpd, up 14.7 percent versus a year earlier. Shipments from Brazil have seen the fastest growth among major suppliers. They reached 2.4 million tons or about 626,160 bpd, which is a 54 percent increase on last year.

Imports from the US were 909,117 tons (237,020 bpd) last month, down from 472,500 bpd in January.

Exports of Russian oil to China have more than doubled over the past six years, up by more than 550,000 barrels per day. They gained 21 percent for the January-February period compared with a year earlier, according to data. This was partly due to a second East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline which started commercial operation in January.

In 2011, Russia began supplying China with crude through the Skovorodino-Mohe branch of the ESPO pipeline. That followed Rosneft, Transneft, and China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) signing agreements.

Rosneft and CNPC inked a 25-year oil deal in 2014 worth $270 billion under which the Russian company is expected to supply 360.3 million tons of crude to China. Since then Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest crude supplier.

Last year, Rosneft agreed crude oil deliveries with China’s CEFC Energy. According to the agreement, the Russian oil major will supply CEFC with 60.8 million tons of oil annually until 2023.

Experts say Chinese imports of Russian oil are likely to stay high over the coming years due to long-term crude supply contracts and rising demand from the world’s biggest oil consumer.