Officials from Renault and the Iranian government made a joint announcement. The French company is to form a joint venture with a local carmaker and set up manufacturing facilities outside the capital, Tehran.

The goal is to roll out 300,000 vehicles annually by 2024. Renault will spend about 780 million dollars.

Iran has a population of about 80 million, and is a major auto market in the region. Iranian officials have been trying to boost the domestic auto industry to help revitalize the economy since the US and other countries lifted economic sanctions.

Another French manufacturer, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, announced a plan last year to produce vehicles in Iran. Some Japanese parts makers have also expressed interest in investing in the country.

The company and its new business partners in China -- investment firms Citic and Carlyle Group -- are hoping the new outlets will help drive double-digit sales growth for the business every year for the next five years. They're targeting smaller Chinese cities in particular.

The new plans come after McDonald's sold off most of the China business to Citic and Carlyle, saying they would bring a better understanding of the local market. Under the deal announced earlier this year, McDonald's still holds a 20% stake in the business.
The move was part of Easterbrook's ongoing efforts to overhaul the global burger chain. The company's latest financial results pleased investors, with a rise in U.S. sales providing more evidence that Americans are returning to the golden arches.
McDonald's isn't the only big U.S. company whose brand is moving deeper into China.
Starbucks (SBUX) announced plans last year to open more than one new store a day in China for the next five years. It aims to have 5,000 stores across China by 2021.

Its economic structure has diversified from a single focus on mineral resource exploitation to embrace new energy, big data and cloud computing, new material, energy saving and environmental protection, high-end equipment manufacturing, traditional Mongolian medicine and biotechnology.

Mining

A rare earth magnet is displayed in the showroom at Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co in Baotou, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

Last year, the region cut 3.3 million tons of coal overcapacity and 2.91 million tons of steel, cctv.com reported. Its coal industrial value-added output accounting for 21.9 percent of its large-scale industrial value-added output in 2016, a 9 percent decrease from six-year ago.

Baotou, a city in the region, has more than 80 percent of China's rare earth reserves. In 2015, rather than selling the rare raw materials at a low price, the city cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to build a research center to explore rare earth uses in many areas.

Now, the center works with Baotou Iron and Steel Group (Baogang Group) to produce steel with added rare earth element with an annual output value estimated at 10 billion yuan.

On this day, the Bank of Mongolia granted “Certificate of Authenticity” to individuals and entities, who are contributing to increase “State Fund for Treasures” and foreign-exchange reserves of Mongolia by selling gold to BoM.

Within the frames of three-month campaign, training on selling gold to the Central Bank, in accordance with the law, will be held among the public by cooperating with government and non-government organizations, as well as activating advertisement and introducing related laws and regulations.

Furthermore, the Bank of Mongolia is aiming to promote actions on increasing foreign-exchange reserves, provide related information and gold price to public and private entities to prevent gold smuggling.

“Mongol Gold” campaign will be implemented in cooperation with central and regional branches of BoM, commercial banks and other entities.

The meeting was attended by Member of Parliament, Member of the Board of the Mongolia-Korea Economic Forum N.Enkhbold, Deputy Chairman of the Board G.Batkhuu, Head of Korea-Mongolia Cooperation Forum, Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Kim Tae Nyong, Mongolian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea B.Ganbold and Korean Ambassador to Mongolia U Sung.

Sides discussed bilateral economic cooperation, protection of the rights of Mongolians living in the Republic of Korea and the forum’s assistance to projects implemented in Mongolia by the Republic of Korea.

Prime Minister J.Erdenebat appreciated the forum’s bridging role in advancing bilateral relationship in all sectors, and wished success to the forum’s joint meeting which opened in Ulaanbaatar on August 5.

Kh.Aminaa

Last week Salmon was in action at Goodwood in the 5½f Magnolia Cup, but the 53-year-old will be facing a completely different set of circumstances in a race expected to take around ten days for the final finishers to complete.

Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, David Redvers and Kevin Darley were part of a four-strong Qatar Racing team which tackled the race last year but, highlighting its attritional nature, only Redvers and Peter Molony managed to finish.

Speaking from the Mongolian Steppe on Monday, Salmon, who has been involved in racing as an owner with Gary Moore, said: "We had our first rehearsal and met some very small and enthusiastic Mongolian horses. Mine had two speeds: stopped and tied up, or galloping – so we did galloping!
"There's a bit of a contrast from a 17-hand horse to a 12½-hand Mongolian pony. There's a wide range of abilities and it's all rather marvellous."

Salmon is hoping not to finish last, and added: "There's a huge amount of luck involved as you don't know the horses and they don't know you. You also have to navigate and there aren't many landmarks, just a lot of grass."

Food poisoning is another potential hazard, and Salmon, a vegetarian, said: "One of the challenges for me is going to be keeping nourished. There's an animal called the marmot out here which the Mongolians like to eat, but some of them have the plague. So far I've eaten a lot of chocolate, and that's how I intend to continue."

She concluded: "I'll go as fast as I can for as long as I can stay upright."

The race begins on Wednesday and the course is modelled on the postal route and system developed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. Riders change horses every 40km and stay with the local herders or camp under the stars.

Salmon is one of 38 competitors, ten of whom are from Britain, including Salmon's husband Neil. The field also includes a South African seed potato farmer and a Swedish private investigator. At least conversations round the campfire should be interesting!

The price surge has also boosted bitcoin’s collective market capitalization to over $53 billion.

Last week, bitcoin divided into two currencies. The solution dubbed SegWit2x has been debated for a long while in the bitcoin community, as developers wanted to retain the original blockchain that protects the cryptocurrency from hackers, while miners preferred to double the size of data blocks to make the network faster.

“The miner-orchestrated hard fork has had limited traction and will not impact the price or future development of bitcoin. The activation of SegWit is a significant milestone in bitcoin’s technological evolution,” said Aurelien Menant, chief executive officer of Gatecoin a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin has continued to grow, while Bitcoin Cash has plunged 67 percent from a record high fixed last week, buoying investor interest to its senior brother.

Bitcoin Cash is trading at around $270 per token with the market capitalization of the newcomer floating near $4.4 billion, according to Coin Market Cap.

“The scaling debate is not over yet. The promised 2mb block size increase due in November in accordance with the SegWit2x agreement may still be rejected by certain stakeholders,” the analyst stressed.