The South Korean government announced on Monday it will collect up to 24.2 percent of corporate and local income taxes from the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges this year, local news agency Yonhap reported. The country has one of the world's biggest private bitcoin exchanges, with more than 2 million people holding bitcoin.

Bitcoin was trading near the $10,400 mark on Tuesday following the news, as cryptocurrency investors are worried that regulation will become tighter. Ethereum was down 11 percent at $951, ripple plunged 11 percent to $1.25.

Last month, South Korea announced it was banning cryptocurrency exchanges from issuing new trading accounts. If the ruling is violated, the exchange can be shut down, authorities said. The South Korean commission added that all cryptocurrency trading should be done under individuals’ real names.

Regulators will have trouble banning cryptocurrencies, as the internet allows people to register new domains anywhere in the world.

“The widespread announcement of measures to tackle mining and trading of cryptocurrencies in some countries results in the short-term emotional consequences. They, first of all, negatively influence the confidence in this young market, but they can hardly cause a deep protracted fall of the latter,” Vladimir Rozhankovsky, investment analyst at Global FX, told RT.

Reducing disaster risk, protecting the country, people and environment from natural and other disasters are priorities of Government policy and Mongolian Government highly appreciates implementing actions by the UNISDR to coordinate international efforts in reducing disaster risk, emphasized the Prime Minister. He also mentioned the Government is working to ensure social, economic and environmental sustainable development at national level and in the region through reducing disaster risk and adapting in climate change. Moreover, the Government pays special attention on coherence and efficiency of implementation of Sustainable Development Goals 2030, Paris Agreement on Climate Change and The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. PM U.Khurelsukh affirmed that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was invited to the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Ms.Loretta Hieber Girardet expressed her gratitude on Mongolia's host the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, leading the region in disaster risk reduction. She said she believes that the Conference will provide opportunity to promote policies and actions in disaster risk prevention and to work in wider range.

B.Batchimeg

First on the list was Fidel Espinoza Edgardo Sandoval, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile. The sides discussed to intensify bilateral cooperation and the need for establishing Trade and Economic Partnership. Mr. Fidel Sandoval informed to establish Mongolia-Chile group in the National Congress of Chile.

The meeting continued by covering the consumption of natural resources, specifically copper extraction, processing, trade and price. Chilean side stated the importance of establishing a trilateral agreement between Chile, Peru and Mongolia to become a major player in the copper market.

In order to conduct effective cooperation between the Parliaments, sides agreed to cooperate on increasing transparency of legislative bodies and responsibility of its members. Chilean delegation noted that Chile has been focusing on education sphere and is making a system reform; thus, the delegation offered cooperation in this field.

In response, Mr. Enkhbold Miyegombo expressed his interest to study the practices of Chile's investment and resource funds, as well as pension insurance system.

Furthermore, Mr. Enkhbold Miyegombo addressed the significance of extending the traditional cooperation in agriculture and health sector, as well as the opportunities of exporting carpets, meat and meat products to Laos and import woodworks and fruits, during his meeting with Lao Defense Minister Sengnuan Saiyalath.

He said, “The two countries should cooperate on Belt and Road initiative of People’s Republic of China and use the Kunming- Vientiane route railroad, which will establish soon. Therefore, it is important to prepare preagreement on establishing Mongolia-China-Laos route railroad."

After noting the importance of mutual support in the international and regional cooperation, Mongolia requested Laos’ support in joining ASEAN.

Mr. Sengnuan Saiyalath expressed his shared opinion with Mongolia’s Parliament Speaker on the economic cooperation and requested to exchange practice of law making and monitoring, as well as to cooperate on staff training.

Tugsbilig.B

The decision follows “commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns,” according to an EU press release on Tuesday. “Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Panama, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring,” the statement said.

It added that the European Council had agreed that the step was justified in light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by those countries.

“Our listing process is already proving its worth,” said Vladislav Goranov, minister for finance of Bulgaria, which currently holds the EU Council presidency. “Jurisdictions around the world have worked hard to make commitments to reform their tax policies. Our aim is to promote good tax governance globally.”

The decision leaves nine countries on the list of ‘non-cooperative jurisdictions’ – American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago.

The blacklist was initially announced by the EU on December 5, 2017. To determine whether a country is a "non-cooperative jurisdiction" the EU index measured the transparency of its tax regime and tax rates. It also checked whether the tax system encourages multinationals to unfairly shift profits to low tax regimes, avoiding higher duties in other states.

Forty-seven other nations were included in a public ‘gray’ list of countries which are currently not compliant with EU standards but have committed to change their tax rules. The lists followed the recent Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks.

The price of the seven-year Gerege bond rose by 0.01 percent for a value of 102.91 USD, while the price of the ten-year Chinggis bond rose by 0.2 percent for a value of 100.93 USD.

Increasing exports in 2017 have opened the door for greater revenue for Mongolia, with export value totaling six billion USD for the first time. Mongolia’s budget deficit saw a decrease in 2017, and the balance of payments surplus increased.

The Government of Mongolia issued two bonds in 2017, valued at a total of 1.4 billion USD, which helped reduce the financial needs of the Government of Mongolia, Moody’s highlighted.

Eight jurisdictions have been removed from the EU's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, following commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns, said a press release issued by the European Council.

“Mongolia, Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Panama, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates are moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring”, it said.

The Council agreed that a delisting was justified in the light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by these jurisdictions to address deficiencies identified by the EU. In each case, the commitments were backed by letters signed at a high political level.

In an effort to leave the list, Minister of Foreign Affairs D.Tsogtbaatar took some urgent measures such as the appointment of an Ambassador-at -Large, forming of a working group made of representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, sending an official letter to Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission and Foreign Ministers of 28 EU member states, and reiterating Mongolia’s commitment to the EU Ambassadors in Mongolia.

As such, the delisting restores Mongolia’s opportunities to develop its cooperation with the EU and its member states.
Kh.Aminaa

The two sides discussed ways to strengthen the relationship by setting up a joint working group to explore:

· whether funding costs can be reduced to improve benefits from the Oyu Tolgoi project for all shareholders

· an accelerated path of development for a power solution in Mongolia

· an acceleration of Oyu Tolgoi's strategy to enable private and public investments towards sustainable community development in Khanbogd, the town proximate to the mine

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said: "Rio Tinto remains fully committed to Oyu Tolgoi and Mongolia. Our nearly 14,000 employees and the people of Mongolia should be proud that Oyu Tolgoi is one of Rio Tinto's safest and most productive mining businesses in the world. We remain committed to creating opportunities for talented Mongolians to build their careers on a global stage.

"We want to work with the Government of Mongolia to create long-term sustainable solutions that benefit all stakeholders and the country while staying true to the established investment frameworks.

"We will continue to work together to solve outstanding issues as the joint working group progresses win-win solutions on matters such as power and community development."

As a result, the immigration officers discovered nearly 40 illegal foreign workers; they have already been expelled from Mongolia.

The Ministry of Road and Transport Development in cooperation with Mongolian Railway Company is organizing the international meeting with support from the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry and Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Minister of Road and Transport Development J.Bat-Erdene delivered opening remarks and said, “ Mongolia can efficiently connect its two neighbors and the route would be the shortest gateway connecting Asia with Europe,” emphasizing the relevance of the Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor Program, which was signed in June, 2016.

The international meeting focuses on Eastern Railway Corridor, one of the 32 projects projected in the Trilateral Economic Corridor Program, and is expected to play an important role in the development of not only Mongolia, but also the Northeast Asian region.

The Eastern Railway Corridor will connect Russia with northern Chinese ports by a 500-750 km shorter route than the Manzhouli- Zabaikalsk corridor, thus creating possibilities of cost-efficient circulation of the Far Eastern region natural resources. It is believed that the Eastern Railway Corridor can play a major role in the achievement of a goal set by Russia and China to increase bilateral trade volume to USD 200 billion by 2020.

Minister J.Bat-Erdene expressed his confidence that the trilateral consultation will help develop practical calculation of freight to be transported through the Eastern Railway Corridor in correspondence with the current state and future trends of mineral resources in Mongolia’s eastern region and volume of transit freight, and intensify trilateral cooperation in this area.
Kh.Aminaa