Trading report www.mse.mn

On September 20, 2017, 267,847 shares of 24 firms listed as Tier I, II, and III were traded. 11 firms’ shares increased, 7 decreased in price and 6 remained unchanged. Ikh Barilga JSC was the top performer, increasing 9.83 percent, whereas APU JSC was the worst performer, decreasing 8.12 percent.

Mongolia holds rate to stabilize inflation around target www.centralbanknews.info

Mongolia's central bank retained its policy rate at 12.0 percent "to stabilize inflation around the target rate and thereby facilitate the stability of the macroeconomic environment in the medium to long run."
The Bank of Mongolia (BM) cut its rate by 200 basis points in June, its first cut this year and the second cut following 100 point cut in December 2016 as the bank unwinds a 450-point rate hike in August 2016 to stabilize the exchange rate of the tugrik and preserve international reserves.
Mongolia's inflation rate rose to 5.0 percent in August from 3.4 percent in July, in line with its target of keeping inflation below 8 percent for 2017 to 2019.
Economic growth in Mongolia in the first half of the year topped forecasts, with growth at an annual rate of 5.3 percent, the BM said in a statement issued on September 19 and based on a meeting by the monetary policy committee on September 15.
"Furthermore, economic growth is expected to accelerate and inflation is expected to stabilize around the medium term target rate of 8 percent," the BM said, adding the economy is currently stimulated by improved external demand, relatively high prices of major export commodities and increased investment in the mining sector.
While the bank noted the positive sentiment in financial markets and the economy, it added that "further prospects are highly conditional on export prices and volume."
The exchange rate of the tugrik has been depreciating since July as it reverses a rise in the first 7 months of the year. The turgrik was trading around 2,465 to the U.S. dollar today, up 0.6 percent since the start of this year.
In May the IMF approved a 3-year, $434 million loan to Mongolia as part of a total financing package worth $5.5 billion that was supported by Japan, Korea, China, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the fourth-largest package in IMF history.
The package supports the government's economic recovery program that is aimed at building foreign exchange reserves, putting debt on a sustainable path, strengthening the banking sector and securing sustainable growth.
With minerals, such as copper and coal, accounting for 90 percent of Mongolia's exports, the country was hit hard by the sharp drop in commodity prices and a slowdown in export markets.
Mongolia's Gross Domestic Product grew by an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and a contraction of 1.6 percent in the third quarter of 2016.

The Bank of Mongolia issued the following statement:

"The Monetary Policy Committee meeting was held on 15 September 2017, and it was decided to keep the Policy rate unchanged at 12 percent.
As of August 2017, annual inflation measured by the consumer price index has reached 5 percent nationwide and 5.4 percent in Ulaanbaatar city. In the first half of this year, growth of the Mongolian economy exceeded forecasts and reached 5.3 percent (on annual basis). Furthermore, economic growth is expected to accelerate and inflation is expected to stabilize around the medium term target rate of 8 percent.
Mongolian economy is currently stimulated by improved external demand, relatively high prices of the major export commodities and increased investments in the mining sector. While the Bank observes positive changes in market sentiment and positive trends in economic activities, further prospects are highly conditional on export prices and volume.
The Bank’s decision to maintain the policy rate unchanged is consistent with its mandate to stabilize inflation around the target rate and thereby facilitate the stability of macroeconomic environment in the medium to long run.
Extracts of the meeting minutes will be released in two weeks on the Bank of Mongolia’s website."

Russia looks to become leading organic food exporter as Europe sees future in GMO www.rt.com

Last week, an EU court ruled Italy cannot ban the cultivation of an EU-approved genetically modified crop, thus publicly supporting GMO. At the same time, Russia has been ramping up production and export of organic food.
GMO has been banned in Russia since 2016.

E-commerce key to BRICS nations' business ties www.chinadaily.com

E-commerce will become a new engine of business cooperation among BRICS countries to improve both regional and global economic growth, experts said on Tuesday.

Geological information goes online soon www.mongolianminingjournal.com

It is widely accepted that potential foreign investors in the geological and mining sector will look for an improved legal environment and stable policies, but no less important is to allow them easy and detailed access to geological information. To this end, The Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) has taken up the Mongolian Geological Information Catalogue System (MonGeoCat) project to prepare, according to international standards, an integrated geosciences database which will provide Mongolia’s geological information and data to investors and others interested in them. The Australia-Mongolia Extractives Program (AMEP) is financing the project, and also providing technical assistance, while a domestic geoscience IT company, Oyunii Tsomorlig Impex LLC, is developing the metadata catalogue system.

The MRPAM made a presentation on the project at a meeting on 18 August, which was attended by, among many others, G.Nandinjargal, State Secretary, John Langtry, the Australian Ambassador, the AMEP project team, representatives from the National Security Council, and D.Amarsaikhan, Advisor to Oyunii Tsomorlig Impex.

In his introductory remarks, B.Baatartsogt, Head of the MRPAM, expressed his gratitude to all who had contributed to the development of MonGeoCat. State Secretary Nandinjargal called it “a huge first step” and added that the database was the result of the dedicated work of generations of geologists. Ambassador Langtry highlighted the major role of AMEP in the project. He said Australia could attract “quality investment only by making geological information easily accessible to all”. He was happy that Australia had now shared its experience in this with Mongolia and hoped that the system would help make the mineral resources sector become the leverage for the country’s economic development.

All MonGeoCat information will be available in both English and Mongolian. At the moment, the cut-off date for contents of the database is March, 2017. The system will be inaugurated in the fourth quarter of 2017. 

MonGeoCat provides access to the metadata on geology kept at the Mineral Resources Information Technology Centre (MRITC). This integrated system serves as an information catalogue and consists of two interfaces. The first is a web-based map interface which enables spatial searching with a WebGIS (geographic information system). It is based on the ArcGIS platform which is used for mapping and spatial analysis. The second interface is a metadata catalogue, which enables searching for basic characteristics of documents. It is based on GeoNetwork, catalogue application to manage spatially referenced resources.

The system contains over 8200 geological reports, some 200 geographic information systems and 30 information databases.
MRITC specialists described the possibilities the system opens up. For instance, it can make a spatial search in the Web GMS environment and provide information on various general map data, small and medium scale geological maps, satellite imagery, base-maps with toponyms, location of the mineral deposits, Google map data and other information. 

The metadata catalogue of geological information can be accessed through a key word, thereby offering multiple choice tools to get a summary of the information, for instance, the author, owner, size, shape, language selection, how it is linked with other information, information related to exploration, whether it has topographic connection, the access level and other information. 
The AMEP project paid for the software and hardware necessary for the development of the metadata catalogue, and facilitated several trainings for the staff of the MRITC on various aspects of the system.

Loma Linda University researchers awarded $1.4 million NIH grant to study tobacco control in Asia www.medical-center.lomalindahealth.org

Grant will develop new research methods for enhancing tobacco-control programs in Cambodia, Laos and Mongolia.

Researchers at Loma Linda University School of Public Health were recently awarded a $1.4 million grant from the NIH to develop new research methods for enhancing the effectiveness of tobacco-control programs in Cambodia, Laos and Mongolia.

Pramil Singh, DrPH, director of the Center for Health Research at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health, is principal investigator for the grant, which will allow him and a team of four U.S. co-investigators to build survey research capacity for tobacco control in the three East Asian nations. He notes that almost half the males in those countries are smokers, and calls the rate very high.

Singh and his colleagues will develop mobile applications for surveys in Asia that will enable 33 tobacco-control scientists and their staff to compile a database of where smokers are buying cigarettes. Street researchers will ask smokers for permission to photograph the tax stamps on their cigarette packets and geo-code the location of where the cigarettes were purchased. They will also record information about cigarettes that were sold without tax stamps, indicating that they were purchased illegally.

The database will help Singh and his team provide information to the governments of the three countries — each of which has ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty — about patterns of tobacco sales and use. “Local tobacco-control scientists on the award can show that information to their government and tell them, ‘You may have ratified the treaty, but here are all the places where it is being violated.’ We’re also going to be photographing and geo-coding cigarette advertisements that remain non-compliant with articles of the ratified treaty.”

In signing the convention, the three countries agreed to tax cigarettes so heavily as to put them beyond the reach of teenagers and average consumers. They also agreed to ban cigarette advertising on billboards and TV as well as cigarette advertising aimed at women and children.

Singh maintains that a tobacco price increase is the most effective way to slow the spread of tobacco use. He says that in California the high rate of state taxation on cigarettes means they currently sell for approximately $7 a pack. In Cambodia, by comparison, the average price in 2011 was just 20 cents a pack. “At $7 a pack, young people will have to decide between smoking a pack a day or making their car payment,” Singh says.

He explains that when smoking decreases in affluent Western countries due to heavy taxation, tobacco companies make up for lost revenue by selling products at vastly reduced prices in the developing countries, which encourages children and teens to take up smoking.

Singh says smoking remains a deadly proposition of epidemic proportions. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. Singh hopes his team’s work in Cambodia, Laos and Mongolia will not only allow the governments of those nations to crack down on unlawful marketing and advertising, but will also help convince smokers and potential tobacco consumers that any pleasure derived from tobacco addiction is not worth the risks.

He acknowledges, however, that there is a danger associated with raising tobacco prices too much. “It’s called price elasticity,” he says. “If you price tobacco too high, it turns into a black market. People buy cigarettes, repackage them and sell them without charging taxes. Or they buy loose tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes or pipes made of bamboo or PVC piping.”

The five-year R01 grant is funded by Fogarty International Center, an institute within the NIH that funds capacity building in other countries to stop viruses and other public health epidemics from making their way to the United States.

“It is the Fogarty International Center’s goal to advance the National Institutes of Health’s research objectives internationally in order to address global health needs,” says Michael Samardzija, PhD, JD, associate vice president for research at Loma Linda University Health. He says the center has previously funded AIDS research programs, advances in infectious disease modeling and research into the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine scare.

Singh’s co-investigators on the study are Jayakaran S. Job, MD, DrPH, a professor at the LLU schools of Public Health and Medicine, Jim E. Banta, PhD, MPH, associate professor at the School of Public Health, Michael Jerrett, PhD, professor and chair of environmental health at UCLA, and Sudipto Banerjee, PhD, professor and chair of biostatistics at UCLA.

Technology partners include Esri, the organization that pioneered the ArcGIS software, and Fulcrum, Inc., developers of the mobile health application. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency country offices in Laos and Mongolia are also partners on the award.

Singh says he is optimistic his research will help the governments of the three Asian countries clamp down on illegal sales and advertising of tobacco products. He says taxation works better than health education in convincing consumers to stop smoking.

“Trying to convince the poorest people of the world that smoking is bad for them has limited effect on getting them to quit smoking,” he says. “They’re just trying to get through the day.”

BoM issues 1-week bills www.mongolbank.mn

The Bank of Mongolia traded 622.6 billion MNT worth 1-week maturity central bank bill (“CBB”), with weighted average yield of 12.0 percent per annum. 

Sysmex Signs Agreement with Mongolia’s Ministry of Health to Provide External Quality Assessment Support in the Field of Blood Morphology Testing www.sysmex.co.jp

In line with Mongolia’s economic growth in recent years, the country has been putting healthcare infrastructure in place. Mongolia’s Ministry of Health is playing a central role in initiatives to enhance the level of healthcare. 

Working group to work out document to lower loan interest www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A working group to develop a strategic document aiming to lower the loan interest has been established on September 19 by an order of N.Bayartsaikhan, Governor of the Bank of Mongolia.

Mongolia_Japan research team reports on research www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Scholars of a Mongolian and Japanese joint research team gave a report on September 18 on results of research works on petroglyphs and rock inscriptions.