Also, children under the age 12 are prohibited to participate in all horse races held between the 3rd day of the first month of spring in the lunar calendar and May 1.

The decisions were made by the Government of Mongolia in connection with the health and safety of child jockeys and preventing possible risks during horse races.

According to the Rules of the National Naadam Horse Racing, the minimum age of child jockeys is seven years of age. However, this rule does not apply to all horse races in the country organized throughout the year.

Child jockeys are at greatest risk of being hurt when horses race in the extremely cold weather and at their highest speed.

Using child jockeys during winter and spring should be viewed as a dangerous form of child labor, critics say.

According to statistics, over 1,500 child jockeys were injured during training and races in the last five years, many children became disabled for life as a result of these races, and more than 10 lost their lives during a race.

The funds will be used to construct a new production facility for fresh noodles and for the purchase of equipment by the subsidiary Agi LLC. In addition, Icemark LLC – another subsidiary of the Teso Group – will receive a portion of the loan to acquire equipment for ice cream production expansion.

Teso Group is one of the largest local food and beverage companies in Mongolia. Initially founded as a small ice cream family business, the company is today a medium-sized enterprise producing ice cream, snacks, noodles, margarine, dairy products and beverages, as well as importing other foodstuffs.

The cooperation between Teso Group and the EBRD began in 2014 when the Bank provided Mongolia’s first local currency loan equivalent to US$ 5.5 million. Local currency funding reduces the exchange rate risk for Mongolian producers but access to these funds remains scarce.

Irina Kravchenko, the EBRD’s Head of Office in Mongolia, said: “We are proud to sign the agreement with Teso Group today as it will support the expansion and growth of a strong and competitive local producer. Having been a partner of the company for more than three years now, we are impressed with the vision, drive and determination of its owners and employees to make it one of the market leaders in Mongolia. The combination of high quality and reasonable prices is a guarantee that consumers will benefit from Teso Group’s success.”

Damjin Odon, Chairman of Teso Group’s Board of Directors, said: “Teso Group started cooperating with the EBRD in 2012 on an international advisory project in preparation for our first financing from the Bank. As a result, our first project together is being implemented successfully. Today we are signing a second loan agreement to support our business expansion, which is taking our cooperation to the next level of development. I am sure that we will work with the Bank on future projects, bringing significant benefits to the Mongolian economy.”

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Mongolia, with over €1.6 billion invested in 93 projects in the country to date. The Bank’s investments aim to make the local economy more competitive, integrated and resilient.

Arrivals from Russia in 2017 surged 36.3 per cent from 2016 to 25.3 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, with December figures at 2.14 million tonnes, up 16.2 per cent from a year ago and 11.5 per cent from November.

Imports from Mongolia rose to 33.58 million tonnes in 2017, up 27.6 per cent from 2016, while December’s imports came in at 2.83 million tonnes, down 18.6 per cent from a year ago but up 2.5 per cent from November.

What will China say to US ‘blunt’ call to expel North Koreans?

China issued a ban on coal imports from North Korea in late February, about a week after the country tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile. For the rest of the year, China only reported North Korean coal imports in August and September.

In 2016, China brought in more than 20 million tonnes of North Korean coal, making it Beijing’s fourth-largest supplier after Australia, Indonesia and Mongolia.

“The majority of market share left by North Korea was grabbed by Russia, as mining costs in Russia are cheaper than in China’s northeastern region,” said Cheng Gong, an analyst at the China National Coal Association.

China’s imports from North Korea plummet to lowest level in four years

In 2017, Australia was China’s largest coal supplier for a sixth year in a row, bolstered by increasing demand for high-grade supplies due to Beijing’s crackdown on air pollution.

Coal imports from Australia rose 13.4 per cent from 2016 to 79.91 million tonnes. In December, China bought 8.07 million tonnes of Australian coal, up 19.4 per cent from a year ago.

Australian coal, with lower pollutants such as sulphides and ash and a higher energy value, is considered a high-grade fuel compared to Mongolian and Indian supply.

Arrivals from Indonesia in 2017 fell 9.7 per cent from 2016 to 35.28 million tonnes. December imports of 1.71 million tonnes were down 63.1 per cent from the same period in 2016.

China gas imports soar amid pollution crackdown on use of coal

In late November, Beijing eased some restrictions on coal imports to ensure stable coal supplies during the peak winter heating season.

Data released earlier this month showed China’s total December coal imports rose 3 per cent from November to 22.74 million tonnes.

Vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodity Forecasts suggest China in January will import around 20.9 million tonnes of seaborne coal, both thermal and coking, up from 17.2 million in December and 19.1 million in November.

At his annual dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Soros warned that social media platforms were "obstacles to innovation".

He raised concerns about their power to shape people's attentions.

However, he predicted their days were numbered because tax policy and regulation would catch up with them.

Mr Soros also called the Trump administration a "danger to the world", adding that he believed the president would be gone by 2020 "or sooner".

'Lost freedom'
But the outspoken financier reserved his strongest criticism for what he called the "unprecedented and transformative" effects of large internet firms.

"The power to shape people's attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies," Mr Soros told assembled guests.

Referencing Google and Facebook several times during his speech, he said: "It takes a real effort to assert and defend what John Stuart Mill called 'the freedom of mind'.

"There is a possibility that once lost, people who grow up in the digital age will have difficulty in regaining it."

He cautioned that this would have "far-reaching political consequences", and had already played a large role in the election of Donald Trump.

Facebook declined to comment, while Google did not immediately return a request for comment.

The 87-year-old repeatedly praised EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whom he said would be the social media companies' "nemesis".

Ms Vestager has become best known for going after US tech giants, slapping charges on Google, Amazon and Apple.

Mr Soros said the EU, which has no internet giants of its own, was best placed to "protect society against them", whereas US regulators, he maintained, were too weak.

"Internet monopolies have neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions," he emphasised.

'Societies in crisis'
The Hungary-born hedge fund manager, who initially became famous for having made $1bn by betting on the devaluation of the pound in 1992, heads several foundations devoted to "defending open societies from their enemies".

Mr Soros, a Holocaust survivor, opened his speech by disclosing that he found the current moment in history "rather painful".

"Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of dictatorships and mafia states, exemplified by Putin's Russia, are on the rise."

But he predicted that Donald Trump, whom he previously branded a "would-be dictator," might not last to the end of his term.

"I expect a Democratic landslide in 2018," Mr Soros asserted.

“The bitcoins mining, which is this accelerated and augmented use of computers to actually determine the value and incentive the functioning of the mechanism, is energy angry,” Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

“And we figure that in 2018, if it continues, that system will actually consume as much electricity as Argentina.”

According to the Bloomberg’s data, cryptocurrency miners used more than 37 gigawatt-hours a day – equivalent to 30 1.2-gigawatt nuclear reactors running at full capacity.

Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index says cryptocurrency mining could power 4,124,115 US households, and the energy consumed can be compared to Iraq’s electricity consumption.

The cryptocurrency network is mostly fueled by coal-fired power plants in China because energy is cheap there, which results “in an extreme carbon footprint for each unique bitcoin transaction,” the website claims.

“In times of climate change and when we look at how much coal is being used in some Chinese provinces to actually mine bitcoin, it’s a big concern,” Lagarde said.

With the upgraded rating, DBM has the opportunity to issue long-term and low-cost financing in the international stock market. A country’s financial system, governance, budget and monetary policy play an important role in determining a nation's credit rating. When a rating changes, international investment expenditure can swing by up to 0.8 percent.

During his attendance, D.Sumiyabazar met with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich, exchanging views on fuel supply and geology sector’s cooperation. Minister D.Sumiyabazar put proposals regarding reliable and constant fuel supply and reducing fuel price. In response, Arkady Dvorkovich told that Russian side is ready to render support on the matter. The Mining Minister agreed to hold a meeting with authorities of ‘Rosneft’, Russian Oil Company, on January 29 in Ulaanbaatar.

The same day, Minister D.Sumiyabazar met with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek and discussed about bilateral cooperation and mining sector’s outlook. The meeting was followed by another meeting with authorities of ‘Lazard Freres’ financial advisory and asset management firm of France.The firm seeks cooperation with Mongolia for conducting structural changes of state-owned companies operating in mining sector and raising money from international financial market.

M. Unurzul

Tobacco smoking is the main cause of death that is preventable. A study conducted by the Mongolian Health Ministry in 2017 on tobacco use in the country showed that 61.3 percent of teenagers have smoked once or twice. According to a WHO study, Mongolians spend an average of MNT 100 billion on 3.2 billion cigarettes annually.

“The plan is to create a standard for kilobars that can be adopted around the world, delivered anywhere, possibly using blockchain to identify the bars, their origins,” a physical gold trading source said. “Rigid standards and blockchain would bring in people who are worried they could be getting conflict metal.”

The kilobar measure dominates Asian trade as gold contracts on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing are all in kilobars.

However, lack of transparency about their origin and the absence of a global standard thwart their use on exchanges elsewhere. They cannot be accepted at London Metal Exchange clearing arm LME Clear because they differ from its standard bars which are typically around 400 ounces.

According to sources’ estimates, top consumer China imports about 95 percent of gold in kilobars, while second-largest consumer India imports 80 percent in kilobars. The WGC estimated China’s 2017 gold demand at up to 1,000 tons and India’s at 650 tons.

“The Asian consumer market is in kilobars, it dominates gold trade,” a gold industry source said. “If you want to trade on the LME and you want to lodge your collateral in kilobars in another location, why shouldn’t you be able to? There are vaults all over the world.”

“You can add a lot of information with blockchain, where the gold was mined, where it was refined, serial numbers, who owned it previously. It could bring new demand to the market,” a physical market source said.

Furthermore, environmental and social impact assessments, as well as field research and engineering geology analysis have been completed. The industry experts prioritize research and estimation of a railway project. Therefore, the working group is preparing a detailed study of the project. “Establishment of a complex infrastructure in the east will have a significant impact in the regional development and will provide transit transportation for the two neighbors, remarked Tsengel Bold, CEO of Mongolian Railways state-owned company.

A deposit with around 200-300 million tons of mineral resource is located in the Khuut-Bichigt route. The infrastructure will intensify mineral turnover and will allow Mongolian mining products to be traded in the international markets. Also, the early estimation show that some percentage of freight transports of Russian and PRC in the Trans-Manchuria railways could be transited through Khuut-Bichigt. The Government’s 2016-2020 Action Plan stated to establish Tavantolgoi-Gashuusukhait and Khuut-Bichigt route railroads. The 239 km long Khuut-Bichigt railroad will also provide around 800 workplaces. Although the investment amount is still unknown, the related officials informed that the initial cost will be around USD 1 billion.

Mongolia, Russia and PRC have agreed to establish a trilateral economic corridor within the frames of “Belt and Road” initiative of PRC and “Development Road” initiative of Mongolia. Accordingly, 33 projects will be implemented for the corridor, which will consist of central, western and eastern regional development. Additionally, the related officials and investors of Khuut-Bichigt project have gathered to convene at the Corporate hotel on January 22-23.

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