BMW, the owner of the Mini brand, said it had agreed an outline deal with Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motor.

Cars made under that partnership will be for the Chinese market.

The deal will not affect BMW's plan, announced last year, to assemble the first electric Minis in Oxford from 2019. Those cars will use electric motors made in Germany.

BMW and Great Wall Motor still have to work out the exact location of their production line and how much they will invest.

BMW already has a joint venture with Brilliance Auto to build BMW-branded cars in China.

As well as two plants assembling cars, the joint venture has an engine plant which includes a battery factory.

Last year, BMW sold 560,000 cars in China - more than double the amount sold in its next two largest markets, the US and Germany, combined.

By Theo Leggett, BBC business correspondent
BMW is an ambitious company. It wants to expand, and it wants a bigger share of the fast-growing market for electric vehicles.

China scores highly on both counts - it has a huge number of consumers, and government policies there heavily favour electric cars.

BMW thinks that in order to take full advantage, it needs a local production base.

So where does this leave Mini's UK factories? Initially at least, the Chinese factory will produce vehicles for the Chinese market.

The cars made there there will be a different model from the electric Mini due to be built in Oxford from 2019, and BMW insists the Mini brand can expand internationally without calling into question its commitment to the UK.

But the announcement may send another signal to the government - that Mini can survive without the UK, and is more than capable of moving production elsewhere if it finds the business climate after Brexit too uncomfortable.

Rio Tinto, the second biggest miner by market capitalisation, has listings in London and Australia, a headquarters in London and an Australian office.

In addition, it has created a commercial and marketing hub in Singapore and three global hubs.

Rio Tinto said in an emailed statement its operating model was not changing, but it was "adjusting where work is done by creating three global hubs" and it was starting a consultation with British employees as some roles would be moved to one of the three hubs. It did not specify where the hubs would be.

Earlier the Financial Times reported the plan.

The biggest miner BHP , which like Rio has a dual structure, is under pressure from activist investor Elliott Advisors to simplify its set-up, but BHP says the evidence so far is that any gains would be less than the cost of change.

Rio CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said he regularly reviews Rio's structure and is comfortable with it.

136 out of 204 events in total included in the program were implemented last year and 68 will be implemented in the first half of this year. The positive results appeared when key indicators of macroeconomics and society before and after the program implementation were compared.

For instance, the economy rose, budget deficit and the loss in the GDP declined, external trade circulation, export and currency reserve increased, currency exchange rate stabilized, confidence in Tugrug restored and savings in Tugrug rose, Mongolia’s special drawing rights improved as well as conditions met to restore investors’ confidence.

M.Unurzul

The regular meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation will be led by Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister U.Enkhtuvshin and Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergey Donskoy.

The 11th meeting will review the implementation of the protocol of the 10th meeting and address bilateral cooperation on construction of a power plant at Eg River, border region development, road and transport, energy, environment and agriculture sectors.

Moreover, the Sub-Commission on Regional and Cross Border Cooperation will meet to discuss the implementation of the Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor program and bilateral cross border cooperation.

The Sub-Commission meeting will be led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg from Mongolian side and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexey Gruzdev.
Kh.Aminaa

The notable changes of Trading Rules are as follows:

Closing price to be calculated as a weighted average of the trades within the last hour prior to trading close
Upper price limit for block trade to be removed
New order types such as Fill or Kill, Minimum Fill and Iceberg order to be enabled. 
Changes of Listing Rules:

The regulations for dual-listing including the waivers and exemptions are provided;
Listing criteria and requirements are updated including a new section for mining companies
Listing fees are set to be calculated from the total market capitalization
In order to promote the sustainable activities of listed companies, the companies with operations that promote sustainable development shall receive discounts on their listing and annual fees.
Two new indices start retrospectively from January 2, 2018

Additionally, the MSE has introduced 2 new indices Board I and II (MSE-A & MSE-B). MSE informed that this will allow investors and market participants to understand which board of securities is driving the market performance as well as laying a foundation for introduction of index based products in the future.

Calculation of Board I (MSE A Index) and Board II (MSE B Index) indices start retrospectively from January 2, 2018 with the initial value of 10 000 each and from the start of the year, MSE A Index has gained by 7.9 percent and MSE B Index by 0.8 percent.

On 15 February 2018 the Government of Mongolia cancelled the Southern Region Power Sector Cooperation Agreement (PSCA). The PSCA laid out a framework for cooperation between the Government of Mongolia and Oyu Tolgoi LLC to deliver a comprehensive energy plan for the South Gobi region. The Government of Mongolia’s primary intention was to develop the Tavan Tolgoi Power Project (TTPP), a new independent power plant at the Tavan Tolgoi coalfields, with Oyu Tolgoi as off-taker rather than owner.

The cost of building a power plant by Oyu Tolgoi is not included in the $5.3 billion investment approved for the development of the underground in May 2016.

The formation of the PCSA and prioritisation of discussions and evaluation of TTPP, at the specific request of the Government of Mongolia, resulted in the suspension of Oyu Tolgoi’s plans to start construction its own power plant in 2012. It also suspended Oyu Tolgoi’s obligation under the 2009 Investment Agreement to source power from within Mongolia by 2017 because it was recognised by the Government that the TTPP process would take longer than four years.

While TTPP is moving forward and despite considerable efforts by the Government’s Project Implementation Unit, MCS (TTPP’s domestic shareholder), Rio Tinto and Oyu Tolgoi to progress the project, its development has been slow due to limited investors and lenders appetite. TTPP currently lacks a lead investor to develop a viable technical and commercial proposal for Oyu Tolgoi to consider and it is unable to secure financing without a credible lead investor. Extensive negotiations and lender due diligence would still be required once those key issues are resolved. TTPP would therefore not be operational within four years.

Oyu Tolgoi has been reviewing other options that can be implemented within the four year timeframe, including refreshing previous plans to develop its own power plant at the Oyu Tolgoi mine site. In this context, Oyu Tolgoi will be engaging with the Minister of Energy to ensure the necessary permits and approvals are in place, including the application of permits that were submitted for renewal in January 2017, but which have not been granted, and to ensure overall alignment on the way forward.

The cost of building a power plant by Oyu Tolgoi is not included in the $5.3 billion investment approved for the development of the underground in May 2016.

On the secondary market for block government securities, 1,997 bonds worth MNT197.5 million were traded.

The TOP-20 Index decreased by 3.38 percent to reach 20001.38 points. The MSE market cap stands at MNT2,413,079,369,346.00

Mongolia plans to implement ‘Cashmere 2’ programme in 2018-2022. The four-year program is expected to increase the country's production and export of final cashmere products 5.7 times. The aim is to increase production of finished goods by 60-70 percent.

For this propose, the Cabinet has established the Cashmere Development Fund. The MNT 500 billion fund will support the cashmere industry.

Mongolia exported 5400 tonnes of washed cashmere to China in 2017. This accounted for 60 percent of total raw cashmere and 54.3 percent of revenue.

The Schneider Group is a global specialist in the processing and trading of fine wools and high value fibres. The company was set up in the early 1920's in Australia.

An Iranian passenger ATR plane belonged to Asseman Airlines hit Dena Mountains, 120 km from Semirom, Isfahan Province Sunday morning.

The debris of the plane was found Monday. All 66 people onboard were killed in the tragic incident, and the dead bodies that have been found so far are being transported to Yasouj, the capital city of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province in southwestern Iran.

The census plan was approved at a meeting of the State Commission on Population and Housing Census 2020 chaired by Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Hurelsukh.

The regular census will start at midnight of Jan. 8 through Jan. 9, 2020 nationwide and will run for seven days. The final results of the census will be announced in June of the same year.

The Statistical Law of Mongolia states that a national census will be conducted every 10 years. Mongolia's population reached 3.2 million by December 2017, according to the latest data released by the National Statistical Office.