“In general, of course, in the future there will certainly need to be legislative regulation. The Central Bank has already repeatedly formulated its attitude to this case, just as the government has.

"The CBR behaves conservatively, but, in my opinion, there are grounds for this conservatism, because it is known that there is nothing behind cryptocurrency, it cannot be a means of accumulation, it has no material value behind it and it is in no way secured,” he said.

“In certain situations it can be a way of paying that can be done quickly and efficiently. You can pay, but there are no savings and no guarantee, so the Central Bank approaches this very carefully. The fluctuations are colossal: today you invested everything, and tomorrow everything is lost.

“If we regulate, but not efficiently enough, then the government will be responsible for the difficult situations that people can get into. Right now it is the responsibility of the person himself and the government can only say ‘you can do this but you can’t do that,’ and if it’s still not clear then there will be some problems that need to be solved.”

Opinion on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remains divided, with some financial experts believing it is a worthy investment, as the price fluctuations and its meteoric rise in value will eventually even out, while others consider it a bubble that will burst sooner or later.

The Russian government is currently mulling over how to best regulate cryptocurrencies, with Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev suggesting in December that mining bitcoin and other forms of online money would be illegal, but buying them or trading them would remain within the law.

The WB says that Mongolia's GDP will increase by 7.3 percent in 2019 and 5.5 percent in 2020. Asian Development Bank expects three percent growth for Mongolia in 2018, but the International Monetary Fund predicts that the economy will expand by 4.2 percent.

The Government of Mongolia says that investors’ trust in Mongolia was regained in 2017, and notes that GDP growth reached 3.8 percent in 2017, as predicted. The WB stated in its flagship report, Global Economic Prospects, that the economies of developing countries will grow by 4.5 percent as the supply of commodities continues to increase in 2018.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s also released its 2018 outlook, and predicts that the economies of developing countries will grow by 5.9 percent this year. Moody's noted that the economies of the Asia-Pacific region's developing nations will reach 6.5 percent.

At the beginning of the meeting, the parties appreciated intensive activity of a project team, established on November, 2017 responsible for formulating technical documentation of the project on extension of Biocombinat state owned enterprise. Extension work of Biocombinat will be implemented with interest free soft loan of USD 25 million from the Hungarian Government.

They talked over toconclude negotiaton on documentation of the project and technical design in February, to launch bid process in Hungary and to commence the extension work by June, establishing the loan agreement.

Biocombinat state owned enterprise was constructed and put into operation with non-refundable aid from Government of Hungary in 1973. The renovation will allow Mongolia to produce most of animal vaccines at home.

At the end of the meeting, Minister B.Batzorig asked the sides to closely and actively collaborate in commencing the work and expressed his confidence that the work would be implemented successfully.

B.Batchimeg

The planned 3D survey, which focused on defining and de-risking near term drilling targets within the Tugrug basin has been completed. All the Company’s technical objectives were met during the 3D acquisition and preliminary processing (in field) has confirmed excellent data quality. The full 3D dataset has now been transmitted to the processing contractor, Western Geco and full Pre-Stack Time Migration (PSTM) and Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PSDM) processing is underway. Expected turnaround time will be mid first-quarter 2018 for final PSTM data and end first-quarter 2018 for full PSDM data.

The Tugrug basin has a proven working petroleum system which was confirmed with a stratigraphic core hole drilled by the Company in 2011 near the basin margin. The core hole contained live, un-biodegraded oil in good quality sandstone reservoir. The newly acquired 3D data will enable the Company to optimize the drilling location in the Falcon prospect, a target for the 2018 drilling program.

The Company had initially planned to proceed with a small 2D seismic acquisition program in the Tugrug basin following the completion of the 3D survey. However, as this 2D program was designed to identify additional prospects and leads for potential drilling beyond 2018, and therefore does not impact the choice of locations for the 2018 drilling program, the Company has decided to not acquire the Tugrug basin 2D seismic at this time. A factor in this decision is that the Mongolian winter has been harsh and there are only a few grazing lands still accessible to livestock, one of which is in the area where the Tugrug basin 2D survey was planned. Herders and their livestock have therefore entered the area in large numbers. The Company therefore felt it prudent to postpone the 2017/18 Block V 2D seismic program.

The seismic crew has mobilized to Block IV and has commenced the planned 204-km 2D seismic acquisition program over the Khangai basin in the northern part of Block IV, which is anticipated to complete by early February 2018. This survey aims to better define, for potential drilling in future, certain attractive leads identified on regional 2D seismic, gravity and magnetic surveys acquired in 2015.

Further details on the Company's work programme plans in 2018 and 2019 will be announced in due course.

In 2017, Mongolia processed about 1.2 million copper concrete, 20 thousand tons of gold and 7.2 million iron ore. As of preliminary report of December 2017, total production of industrial sector reached MNT 11.8 trillion and it showed increase of 33.7 percent or MNT 3 trillion compared to the same time of last year. 47.567.3 thousand tons of coal was extracted and 40.728.63 thousand tons of coal sold, of which 33.320.3 thousand tons exported. It means coal extraction was increased by 135.53 percent, sale by 120.39 percent and export by 129.1 percent compared to the same time of last year.

Minister D.Sumiyabazar emphasized "Within the framework of ‘Gold 2’ campaign, we planned to extract 18 tons of gold in 2017 and we have overfulfilled the basic task of the program, extracting 20.01 tons of gold."

B.Batchimeg

A signing ceremony for the collaboration took place in the Asian country on Thursday.

Volvo plans to develop the bodies of 12-meter-long, 40-seater self-driving buses in Sweden and elsewhere. Then it will test the vehicles at Singaporean facilities, such as the university's circuit, starting next year.

Singapore's government seeks to introduce autonomous buses for public transportation in 2022. Volvo says it is studying the option of participating in a bid to be held by the government.

Other automakers and IT firms are already test-running automated buses in the United States and European countries.

Volvo Buses President Hakan Agnevall said his company now has the potential to test various solutions under realistic conditions in a major city.

He added the technology developed in Singapore can contribute to future autonomous applications by Volvo Buses.

Chilean authorities accuse SQM of underpaying royalties, environmental violations and illicit political financing, which have made the sale process complex, raising at the same time the specter of delays or a steep price discount, local paper Diario Financiero reports (in Spanish).

Decision to withdraw offer for Nutrien’s 32% stake in SQM, worth about $5 billion at current market prices, doesn’t mean Rio Tinto has abandoned plans to capitalize on the electric-car boom.
The company has denied those allegations, adding it is sure a high-stakes arbitration with the government over royalties in Chile's Atacama salt flat will be resolved in its favour.

Rio’s decision withdraw an offer for Nutrien’s 32% stake in the Santiago-based lithium miner, worth about $5 billion at current market prices, doesn’t mean the company has abandoned plans to capitalize on the electric-car boom, the article says.

Nutrien, formed through Canada’s Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (TSX, NYSE:POT) recent friendly merger with Agrium, must sell its stake in SQM to meet a condition imposed by Indian regulators when approving that link-up.

They have given the fertilizer company until April 2019 to divest its stake in the Chilean miner.

SQM, which has a market value at just over $15 billion, produced roughly 44,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate last year and is developing new projects both in its home-country and Australia.

Laws enacted in the 1970s and 1980s classify lithium as a “strategic” commodity for Chile on the grounds it can be used in nuclear-fusion power plants. While the South American nation is very unlikely to build one of those facilities any time soon, controls on lithium production remain and only two firms — SQM and US chemical company Albenarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) — are currently allowed to mine the white metal used in electric car batteries.

The operation of the "iCloud" services will be transferred to a local partner in Guizhou Province starting February 28th. Apple says the move is to comply with Chinese laws.
Beijing restricts data transfers outside of the country.

iCloud users are worried their photos, documents and other data could be handed over to authorities.

Other US and European IT companies are considering moving their data centers to China. Yet they are also worried that the tightening of the country's Internet regulations may end up hurting their business.