Local and regional e-tailers have been wondering the same thing. Taking the U.S. giant's eventual arrival as a given, they have been racing to fortify their own positions, none more so than Alibaba Group Holding. The Chinese internet behemoth has been stepping up its offensive since 2016, when it became clear that Amazon was on its way.

Tiptoeing in

Amazon finally landed in Southeast Asia on July 27. For many market players and analysts, this signals the start of a long and fierce battle between the Eastern and Western champions of e-commerce. But the arrival is likely to have repercussions far beyond Amazon and Alibaba, changing the fundamental dynamics of competition for players in every market in the region.

Amazon has begun its foray by dipping its toe in the small but dense urban market of Singapore, bringing its Prime Now service, which is tailor-made for urban residential areas.

According to the company, the service offers two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items, including groceries, daily-use goods such as shampoo and diapers, and home electronics. Prime Now is offered only through a dedicated app, however. The company stopped short of opening a full-service website for Singapore, a move that has drawn some complaints on social media.

Limited though this first sally may be, Amazon has faithfully replicated its signature asset-heavy "click-and-mortar" business model in Singapore, setting up its own massive warehouse, or "fulfillment center," as the company calls such facilities.

"We use advanced techniques and algorithms to fulfill orders as quickly and efficiently as possible with processes such as random stow, batching and machine learning," said Ivan Lim, Amazon's Singapore logistics site leader, at a launch event held inside the new center.

S. Iswaran, Singapore's trade minister, was also in attendance. He said he expects Amazon's technologies to produce "significant gains in labor productivity and infrastructure utilization, as well as near real-time delivery of goods in the city." The Singapore government is also happy with the arrival of a new large-scale employer. According to Lim, the site already employs hundreds of workers.

Regarding plans to expand the geographic scope of service in Southeast Asia, Henry Low, director of Prime Now for the Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview with Bloomberg: "I am super-excited about prospects in Southeast Asia, with its burgeoning [middle-class] population. This is a great place for us to be in." Many took this as a declaration that Amazon is eager to enter other Southeast Asian markets and will use Singapore as its base camp for regional expansion. The company declined to elaborate on Low's remarks.

The chip allows employees to open doors and log onto computers by simply waving their hand.
Workers can also buy products from in-house stores.

About half of the company's 80 employees agreed to voluntarily implant the microchip with the prick of a needle.

Officials at the firm say this is the first such endeavor in the US.

Some employees were reluctant about implanting a foreign object in their hand and wanted to know more about the long-term health effects.

Experts in the information security field are also worried the technology could be used to track and monitor people in the future.

Through July, Ukraine imported 8.14 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas. 6.3 bcm from Slovakia, 1.58 bcm from Hungary with the rest from Poland.

Ukraine stopped buying directly from the Russian energy firm Gazprom in November 2015 and now buys the gas at its Western border.

In July, Oilprice.com reported that buying reverse gas from Europe is more expensive than buying it from Russia. This costs Kiev an additional $35-40 million a month, the media reported.

The Russia-Ukraine gas transit contract expires in 2019 and Moscow has repeatedly said Ukraine will lose its status as a key transit hub.

The Nord Stream pipeline is already delivering Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. A second pipeline will double the annual capacity of 55 bcm of gas per year.

However, Gazprom has faced obstacles from the United States, Poland, and the Baltic countries.

Even without Nord Stream-2, Ukraine is likely to be left with a fraction of the gas transit it is used to. In 2017, Gazprom plans to export 90 bcm through Ukraine, and the volume is expected to drop to 15 bcm after the contract expires. Russia is the only country likely to use Ukraine's transportation system.

Mr.V.Enkhbold, Head of Foreign trade and economic cooperation department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr.Ravi Shanker Goel Charge’d Affairs of India to Mongolia, I.Ser-Od Founder and CEO of MBD, B.Ganzorig CEO of the Federation of Mongolian Freight Forwarding, U.Gerelmaa Advisory Board member of the Federation, the top managers of the Mongolian freight forwarders including “Tuushin”, “Mon Logistics”, “SBL”, “Landex” companies and related officers of the Ministries are took a part of this event.

The participants discussed the key obstacles and challenges of the trade barrier, opportunities to reduce the transportation cost, generate B2B relations of two countries and agreed to follow up the concrete actions for the mission.

Mr.Ravi Shanker said “Mongolia and India have a historic long term friendly relations however our trade and business cooperation is not really satisfactory enough. We wish that Mongolian businesses take a part of one of the leading economy in the world which is attracting 50-60 bln USD amounted annual FDI that has 500 mln middle class buyers which definitely can be assumed the potential market for Mongolian exporters” 
Mr.Enkhbold said “We do pay a serious attention to Mongolia-India partnership however the geographical condition and distance between us makes a barrier to improve the trade. We need develop the cooperation by businesses in mutual countries like say for example the transportation logistics companies need to have a load on both ways etc. We as a Ministry of Foreign affairs working with the neighbor countries in order to facilitate the transit load for reducing the cost of actual products and expecting to have a concrete result in the near future”

As of June 2017, China's non-financial direct investment (FDI) in Mongolia totaled $4.1 billion. Contributing to 30 percent of the country's FDI, China is the second biggest foreign investor in Mongolia, official data also showed.

To take China-Mongolia commercial cooperation to a new high, China will work with Mongolia to synergize the Belt and Road initiative and the Development Road strategy, tapping into respective comparative advantages for strengthened cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, mining, resources and people's livelihoods, Qian said. 

The second China-Mongolia Expo is scheduled to be held in Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, from September 26 to 30 to function as a new platform for China and Mongolia relations, MOFCOM announced on Tuesday. 

The theme of the expo is "Building China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, Embracing Global Cooperation and Win-win Results", Ai Lihua, Vice Chairperson of Inner Mongolia, told a press briefing. Both countries believe this is an optimistic platform that will enhance trade, investment, tourism and cultural exchanges and cooperation in Northeast Asia. 

China has been Mongolia's largest trading partner for a dozen or so years. In 2016, their bilateral trade stood at $4.61 billion, accounting for 60 percent of Mongolia's total foreign trade, according to official data. The two countries' economic and technical cooperation keeps deepening. To continue advancing the development of the ties, China has made efforts in assisting Mongolia in infrastructure, people's livelihoods and consumer goods as well as training over 3,600 people across the sectors. 

"Our bilateral cooperation mechanisms see continuous innovation. The two sides have actively leveraged the Mongolia-China Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation," Qian also said. "The two countries are also exploring the Erlianhot-Zamyn-Uud Cross-border Economic Cooperation Zone. The feasibility of a China-Mongolia free trade agreement will also be determined shortly," Qian continued.

The biennial event, scheduled for September 26 to 30 in Hohhot, capital of China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, will help promote China-Mongolia economic ties to a high level and improve cooperation among northeast Asian nations at large, Qian Keming, vice-minister of the MOC, said at a press briefing.

China has been the largest trading partner with Mongolia for more than a decade with bilateral trade up 44.2 percent year on year to reach $3.1 billion in the first half of 2017, he said.

Chinese investment in Mongolia has also seen robust growth with non-financial outbound direct investment reaching $4.1 billion by June this year.

Both countries will further strengthen bilateral cooperation in infrastructure, animal husbandry and mineral resources, Qian said.

Over 2,000 delegates from China, Mongolia and Russia will attend the expo to carry out pragmatic cooperation to strengthen economic ties, Ai Lihua, vice-chairman of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said at the briefing.

At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Mathai made the following statement:

“The economy is rebounding, with GDP growth likely to reach 2 percent this year on the back of strong coal production and exports, high private investment, and a return of confidence following the approval of the $5.5 billion IMF-led package.

Performance under the program has been good, with all quantitative targets on track. Fiscal results have been better than expected, supported by strong revenues and tight expenditure control. About half of the revenue overperformance will be saved, thus helping to reduce borrowing and control debt, while the remainder will be used to fund productive spending in line with the government action plan. Net international reserves have improved, reflecting strong export performance and capital inflows into the government securities market.

The authorities have moved ahead with their ambitious structural reform agenda, which will help to sustain growth over the medium term. The strengthening of the banking system is underway: the Asset Quality Review will soon be launched, important legal reforms are being drafted, and improvements to the regulatory and supervisory framework are being implemented. On the fiscal side, steady progress is being made in strengthening tax administration, tax policy, and budgetary controls, including through the establishment of a Fiscal Council. To strengthen the social safety net and target expenditures toward the most vulnerable, the government is fine-tuning the Child Money Program, with a commitment to target the program to less affluent families from 2018 and use the savings to increase food stamps for the poor.

The authorities and the team have reached staff-level agreement on the completion of the first review under the EFF arrangement, which is subject to review by the management and Executive Board of the IMF. The Board is expected to consider the first review in late September, and this could lead to a disbursement of SDR 27.9560 million, or about $37.82 million.

The team thanks the authorities for their cooperation, constructive dialogue, and hospitality during its stay in Mongolia.”

The Bluetooth transmitter is attached to a printer circuit board, which Facebook says can only be installed by an original equipment manufacturer, according to FCC filings.

In other words, it's a component that will be integrated into some sort of device, which Facebook is keeping under wraps for now (much of the info in the filings is still confidential).

The filings, which were filed in June, come as evidence mounts suggesting Facebook is working on new consumer hardware. On Tuesday, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Facebook's Building 8 group was developing a video chat device and a smart speaker, similar to Amazon's Echo. Business Insider previously reported that Facebook recently patented a modular device that could function like a smart speaker with a touchscreen. 

There are a few clues in the filing that point to some kind of drone or telecommunications-related product. The filing is under FCL Inc, which is the name of the subsidiary that Facebook uses for drone-related technologies, such as its Aquila drone. And the contact name on some of the documents is Andrew Guhr, a Facebook lawyer whose LinkedIn bio describes him as Associate General Counsel, Telecommunications at Facebook.

Guhr's job description raises some intriguing possibilities for the mystery product:

"Advising on telecom laws and regulations around the globe on projects ranging from submarine cables, terrestrial networks, wireless networks, experimental technologies, and next-generation OTT services."

He was addressing a regular meeting of National Committee for Environmental Pollution Reduction, the former National Committee for Air Pollution Reduction, which took place on August 1, Tuesday. “There’s no way we can fight against air pollution with what produces smoke”, he said.

Prime Minister and Head of the committee J.Erdenebat also stressed the necessity of taking efficient measures to prepare for winter in order to secure a safe living environment for everyone.

The meeting covered ‘Green loan’ fund, wintering preparations and progress of electrical overload prevention measures. The meeting was attended by members of the committee and representatives of other public organizations.

As of the first half of 2017, 114,512 residents of ger areas benefitted from electricity discount, with 6,363 households being newly connected to electricity. According to B.Nasantogtokh, Head of Department of Policy Management at the Ministry of Energy, winter preparations are 43 percent complete. He also reported that an information center for eco-friendly technology is ready to operate in four branches of the capital city one-window service offices.

The Prime Minister then issued several instructions. He assigned the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs to take measures on facilitating the legal environment for ‘Green Loan’ fund; the Ministry to Energy to intensify winter preparation activities at the heat supply network, and continue the night-time electricity discount; and the authorities of the capital city and provinces to speed up the winter preparation actions in their respective administrative units in order to fulfill their goals within the autumn.