City officials touched on lighting problems in the city, implementation of the National Program to Introduce Information Technology to State Archives and Records Management, incentives for top schools and kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar, access to educational institutes, and measures to take for preventing influenza-like illness (ILI), also known as acute respiratory infection.

“People spend nearly 90 percent of their life indoors, breathing the air in offices and homes. Many factors can degrade indoor air quality such as outdoor air pollution, use of stoves, poor sanitation and hygiene practices, smoking, and air ventilation. Exposure to carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds from these factors can cause pneumonia, low birth weight, and lung cancer,” stated L.Tumurbaatar, the Head of the Ulaanbaatar Health Office.

L.Tumurbaatar noted that quite a large sum of funds are required for taking preventive measures for ILI and that health organizations aren’t able to generate necessary funds on their own.

“We need a budget for purchasing air cleaning devices intended to remove pollutants from indoor air and prepare additional beds at hospitals and clinics.”

Head of Policy Planning Department at the Ulaanbaatar Mayor’s Office G.Ulziibayar reported that 70 percent of projects in the Ulaanbaatar Economic and Social Development Guidelines for 2017 have been completed. He reminded that there are still two months left for completing the projects and updated on the situation on guidelines for 2018.

“Requirements, criteria, targets, and required funds for the 2018 guidelines have been developed in accordance with the 2016 Government Resolution No. 249. In total, 489 measures, including ongoing projects that will resume next year and completely new projects, have been planned within the scope of 26 targets. We have planned many social projects to pay more attention to public development in 2018,” G.Ulziibayar said.

At the end of the meeting, Ulaanbaatar Mayor S.Batbold told his council to plan out more interesting and innovative projects for next year and urgently take ILI preventive measures before more people get affected due to colder weather.

“The Ulaanbaatar Health Organizations must take action against ILI as soon as possible. Health officers of every district need to study procurement opportunities for air cleaning devices that reduce household air pollution,” he instructed.

Officials agreed to meet again this week to review the issues.

The construction of the library began in 2014 and cost MNT 16 billion. The bulk of the funding has come from the university’s budget.

The 6-storey library has modern interior and provides a comfortable atmosphere for 700 students to study. Reading rooms are located on the 1- 4th floors, while laboratories and lecture halls are situated on the 5-6th floors. The library also includes six reading rooms for natural sciences, sociology, humanities, cyber technology and electronics. Each room has own interior design and furniture.

During their meeting, Speaker M.Enkhbold stressed that the two countries’ legislatures should work together to deal with challenges in customs, taxation and transportation, and focus on enhancing their legal and regulatory environment to increase trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

He added that as a medium-term program for the development of Mongolia-Russia strategic partnership is the basic guideline of mutual cooperation and the main goal of strategic partnership for the next five years, the two countries’ legislatures should urge their governments to implement the program.

Kalashnikov noted that at a meeting between the Russian Federation Council Committee and the Mongolia-Russia Inter-Parliamentary Group in the Mongolia’s legislature in Novosibirsk City of Russia last year, the sides discussed future plans and pointed out that a mechanism to promote cooperation between the two nations’ legislatures, which has been of great importance to developing efficient and constant collaboration in all sectors of the two countries.

BoM is holding policy to centralize gold exchange at home and within its framework, the bank is focusing on informing the public. Accordingly, ‘Mongol Alt’ /Mongolian Gold/ campaign has launched, regularly organizing training for micro miners and private entities, as well as cooperating with related agencies.

On September 29, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang expressed gratitude to Battulga. According to Lu, Battulga said that mutually cooperation fully serves the interests of the two peoples; Mongolia is willing to move forward the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership based on the principle of respecting each other’s core interests. Battulga also expressed appreciation for China’s assistance and concessional loans to Mongolia. The Mongolian president’s website doesn’t mention the message.

Mongolia depends overwhelmingly on China: almost 90 percent of Mongolia’s exports go to China, and one-third of its imports come from China. In addition, failing to pay debt on time, Mongolia in February asked China to extend a 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) currency swap agreement.

Battulga ran his populist presidential campaign by stoking anti-China sentiment among the Mongolian public. As The Diplomat reported, during the campaign, Battulga repeatedly mentioned “threats” from the east, meaning China. In addition, he played the ethnic card, implying that his rival was not a true son of Mongolia, but instead had mixed Mongolian and Chinese heritage. Battulga also said in a 2014 television interview: “The resources will finish in 40 to 50 years and there will definitely be conflict between the Mongolians and the Chinese.”

Numerous observers of Mongolian politics expressed concerns about China-Mongolia relations after Battulga won the election, fearing that Mongolia would significantly reduce its dependency on China and shift its focus to either Russia, it’s only other physical neighbor, or other countries such as India.

Regardless of Battulga’s previous rhetoric, China has maintained an even tone on the relationship. Lu, in the recent press briefing, referred to China and Mongolia as “friendly neighbors” and said, “China stands ready to… promote the sound and steady growth of the China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership based on the series of political consensus reached by the two sides.”

The speakers exchanged ideas on further advancing the U.S.-Mongolia commercial relationship and spoke to the meeting’s guests about the current U.S. administration’s messages for Mongolia. The meeting convened senior executives from AmCham member organizations, as well as AmCham Mongolia board members, and included a comprehensive Q & A session on key topics of interest.

Ambassador Galt commented on the joint efforts being made by the U.S. Embassy and AmCham to improve U.S.-Mongolia commercial partnership. During her welcoming remarks she said, “Without a doubt, increasing the U.S. private sector presence and partnerships with Mongolia is the most effective way to deepen our bilateral economic relationship.”

In his keynote address, Deputy Assistant Secretary Alan Turley said, “The Trump administration is committed and engaged to Asia in all spectrums of partnership, and we are looking to directly establish bilateral trade agreements with Asian countries. We believe that Mongolia has great potential in agriculture, herding, and food processing among others, and we have great companies in those sectors that can provide expertise and equipment.”

Chairman of AmCham Mongolia Mr. Jay Liotta delivered the meeting’s opening remarks and stated, “As we see greater and greater engagement from China, Russia, Japan, Korea, the European Union, and others in Mongolia, it is so good to have the U.S. Department of Commerce increasing its role with Mongolia. AmCham looks forward to continue working with you as your local partner to advance commercial ties between the United States and Mongolia.”

About AmCham Mongolia

AmCham Mongolia is an independent membership-driven organization that seeks to build, strengthen, and protect business between the United States and Mongolia, and to actively promote Mongolia as a destination for American investment. AmCham Mongolia is the official local affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business federation in the world with over 3 million member companies. AmCham Mongolia is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce, consisting of 29 American Chambers of Commerce in the Asia-Pacific region.

Erdene Continues to Define New Zone at Bayan Khundii, Receives Positive Metallurgical Results

Erdene Resource Development Corp. ("Erdene") announced additional assay results from their ongoing 2017 drill program at the Bayan Khundii project in southwest Mongolia. A total of 19,386 metres have been drilled in 2017 and during the fourth quarter Erdene will be testing a series of geophysical and geochemical targets within the larger Bayan Khundii prospect area.

Results from drilling completed during the third quarter have continued to define a high-grade zone between the Midfield and Striker Zones. Hole BKD-194 is the latest in a series of holes confirming the continuity between these two high-grade zones. Three holes were also drilled to test potential continuity of gold mineralization west of the Midfield Zone (BKD-183,189 and 190) and a single hole (BKD-198) was drilled 130 metres west of the Striker Zone to test the down-dip potential of previously completed hole BKD-32 which returned a broad zone of low-grade mineralization during 2016 drilling. This hole confirmed higher grades at depth. Drill highlights include:

BKD-188: 120.0 metres of 1.1 g/t gold from 110.0 metres including 3.0 metres of 33.1 g/t gold from 176.0 metres;
BKD-194: 128.0 metres of 1.1 g/t gold from 49.0 metres including 22.0 metres of 3.3 g/t gold from 115.0 metres;
BKD-196: 22.0 metres of 2.4 g/t gold from 112.0 metres including 1.0 metre of 43.1 g/t gold from 118.0 metres;
BKD 197: 6.0 metres of 2.7 g/t gold from 130.0 metres;
BKD-198: 25.0 metres of 1.4 g/t gold from 144.0 metres including 3.0 metres of 7.8 g/t gold from 145.0 metres; and
BKD-30ext: 58.0 metres of 1.2 g/t gold from 59.0 metres including 16.0 metres of 2.8 g/t gold from 87.0 metres.
The results from Phase I metallurgical testing at Bayan Khundii has come back positive with two master composites indicating that gold from the project is free milling and amenable to conventional processing techniques.

Sandstorm has a 2.0% NSR royalty on Erdene's Bayan Khundii and Altan Narprojects.

Reported intervals are not true width. For more information and for complete drill results visit Erdene's website at www.erdene.com and see the press releases dated September 14, 2017 and September 12, 2017.

The company is seeking to shore up its reputation after a series of scandals and to move beyond a battle between Kalanick and Uber investors spearheaded by Silicon Valley’s Benchmark Capital.

The company in a statement said the board had agreed to move forward with the SoftBank (9984.T) deal in coming weeks and governance changes at Uber “that would strengthen its independence and ensure equality among all shareholders.”

One person familiar with the matter said that a group of investors including SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic would be allowed to buy $1 billion to $1.25 billion of new Uber shares at a company valuation of $69 billion and 14 to 17 percent of stock from current investors at a discounted valuation.

The person and a second source said governance changes include expanding the size of the board to 17 directors from 11. The board would include three independent directors, an independent chairperson and two seats controlled by SoftBank once its investment closes.

Shareholders will now have one vote per share, ending a class of supervoting shares in a move that substantially decreases the power of Kalanick and some other early investors.

On the secondary market for government securities, 19,522 bonds worth MNT 1,790,860,322 were traded.

The MSE ALL Index rose 0.11 percent to stand at 1070.48. The MSE market cap stands at MNT 2,085,774,463,293.