The ‘Strengthening of Local Self-Governing Bodies in Mongolia’ project is being-co-implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Mongolian Parliament.

N.Enkhbold, Head of Parliamentary Standing committee on State Structure opened the meeting which addressed a report on project operations in the first half of 2017, and revision to the project operations in 2017.

In the first half of 2017, a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Academy of Governance within the scope of an objective to institutionalize national training programmes for local elected representatives. Members of local Citizens’ Representative Khurals will be attending capacity-building training programmes. Moreover, the Cabinet Secretariat will be in charge of running the www.khural.mn website of Citizens’ Representative Khurals.

Then, Ts.Tsolmon, Secretary-General of Parliamentary Office briefed the meeting attendees about revisions to the project operations which became, according to him, necessary after some changes made to project finance. The revision proposal was given a nod by the board members.

UNDP Resident Coordinator Beate Trankmann, SDC Director Gabriella Spirli and corresponding Mongolian officials were present at the meeting.

The giant economies of Europe and China are no longer putting downward pressure on copper as the global economic recovery remains in full swing. From earnings reports it suggests mining and materials stocks are entering a momentum phase.

One of several reasons I draw that conclusion was the way Freeport-McMorRan (NYSE:FCX) soared after its earnings report, where the company jumped 15 percent for the day. That was after failing to meet earnings expectations. But solid revenue and optimistic guidance gave the market what it wanted to hear, and the share price of Freeport upward momentum.

Turquoise Hill has its earnings report coming up in a few days, and I think it's going to continue to be rewarded from the recovery in copper prices.

Copper prices

Not too long ago copper was getting a temporary boost from what the market was calling the "Trump trade," a reference to his stated plans to build out and improve infrastructure in the U.S. That has changed to an improving outlook for China's economy, which of course plays directly into the benefit of Turquoise Hills and its Oyu Tolgoi flagship mine, which has China as its primary customer.

Shares of the online retailer fell 0.7 percent to $1,046 at 4 p.m. in New York, after climbing as high as $1,083.31 four hours earlier, which gave Bezos a net worth of $92.3 billion. Gates had a net worth of $90.8 billion as of the Wednesday close.

Bezos remains ranked second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, behind the Microsoft Corp. co-founder. Gates, 61, has held the top spot since May 2013.

Amazon’s second-quarter earnings per share of 40 cents missed the lowest analyst estimate. The median estimate was for $1.42.

Bezos, 53, owns about 17 percent of Seattle-based Amazon, which had surged 40 percent this year through Wednesday, helping to add $24.5 billion to his net worth. He started 2017 as the world’s fourth-wealthiest person and has since surpassed Warren Buffett and Inditex SA founder Amancio Ortega, 81, who ranks third with $82.7 billion.

“Implementation of the blockchain platform ethereum opens the door for optimization of business processes for both the carrier and its partners. Speed of computation has revved up from 14 days to 23 seconds. Thus, the airlines don't delay payment to an agent which receives the money shortly after the ticket is processed,” Alfa-Bank said.

In turn, agents can do away with termination payment security (TPS), which is typically used to eliminate the risk of non-payment.

Automation of the procedures speed things up and reduced the paperwork for the airline and agent. The new system makes sure there is a balance in an account before drawing a payment.

Blockchain also eliminates the human factor and boosts system reliability and transparency of trade operations.

“We have made the world's first flight ticket purchase through an open api (application programming interface) blockchain to a bank. I’m sure that the system will soon be used by most companies globally,” said Deputy CEO of IT Solutions at S7 Group Pavel Voronin.

The geo-database is being established in frames of the Australia-Mongolia Program on Cooperation in Mineral Sector. “Unveiling geo-data will help lower the cost of mineral explorations. To provide information in globally compatible format, ‘Mongeokat” system is being developed”, said B.Baatartsog, Director of the Authority.

J.Batbayasgalan, Deputy Mayor of UIaanbaatar in charge of Green Development and Air Pollution met with Choudhury Rudra Charan Mohanty, Environment Programme Coordinator/ Expert and Ganesh Raj Joshi, Researcher of the UN Centre for Regional Development regarding the hosting of the forum. Sides discussed the forum theme, timing and side sessions.

More than 50 countries are likely to send delegates to the 11th ‘Environmentally Sustainable Transport’ forum which will take place in 2018. Forum preparations are expected to be finalized within the next six months. “We will include some issues challenging Mongolia’s transport and other sectors”, said Mr. Mohanty.

Deputy Mayor J.Batbayasgalan expressed delight at Mongolia’s hosting of the regional forum, emphasizing on the importance of the forum for Ulaanbaatar, a city with air pollution as a major issue in winter and soil pollution in the summer. “We are ready to cooperate and assist on organizational issues”, he said.

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