The SIF expenditure reached MNT 1.1 trillion, showing an increase by 12.2% against the previous year.
Partially due to increased revenue of pension insurance fund by MNT 151.2 billion and health insurance fund--by MNT 45.4 billion. The SIF revenue increased in the first seven months of 2017 by MNT 231.6 billion compared to the same period of the previous year.

The SIF expenditure increased by MNT 118.1 billion in the first seven months of this year against 2016. The main reason goes to increase in pension insurance fund expenditure by MNT 85.7 billion and health insurance fund by MNT 19.0 billion.

As an important step in developing the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Mongolia, public engagements with diverse stakeholder groups will be organized aiming at gathering their views, recommendations and priorities to feed into the strategy of support.

The main objective of the engagements for the SCD in Mongolia is to identify key development opportunities, challenges and prioritize critical interventions to accelerate progress in ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable way. 

For the CPF, the main objective is to identify and prioritize critical areas where the World Bank Group support would have the biggest impact in promoting sustainable poverty reduction and shared prosperity.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS:

Engagements will be conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, including:

Government: Ministries in the capital and government officials in four regions
Parliament
Development Partners: UN agencies, donors, multilateral and bilateral development partners
Civil Society Organizations: Non-profit organizations and associations, labor groups, think tanks, academia and research groups in Ulaanbaatar and four regions
Private Sector: Representatives from the business sector, foreign and domestic invested businesses, small and medium enterprises, chambers of commerce, business councils.
LOCATION AND PARTICIPANTS:

The engagements will take place in Ulaanbaatar city as well as selected provinces from the Western, Khangai, Central, and Easter regions of Mongolia. 

Khovd: Participants from the Western region
Orkhon: Participants from Khangai region
Omnogovi and Darkhan-Uul: Participants from the Central region
Khentii: Participants from the Eastern region
ENGAGEMENT PROCESS:

The engagements process will include both face-to-face meetings as well as online/web-based platform to enable participation by a wide range of stakeholders. The structure of face-to-face meetings will allow plenary presentations and discussions and, if needed, small group discussions, and reporting with a neutral facilitator. For online engagement, an online survey , will be available to people interested to participate who may not be invited.

On top of this, citizens will be able to share their vision for Mongolia’s future by filling in the postcards and sharing them on backdrops set up in Dunjungarav, a public service center, and in National University of Mongolia.

It now takes at least one month to finish customs clearance at Ganqimaodu border crossing, a much longer period compared with previous two weeks, market sources told sxcoal.com.

Impacted by this, the number of coal trucks from Mongolia to China declined sharply to 600 each day in mid-August from 1,400 in early July, and daily coal imports also plummeted to 40,000 tonnes or so from 100,000 tonnes.

Besides, trucks loaded with Mongolian coal needed to wait 2-3 days before allowed to unload at border crossings, according to a Chinese trader.

The trader said Mongolian material that declared clearance at Ceke border crossing in mid-July has not been allowed into China, resulting in a supply shortfall in the market.

How long the situation will last remains unclear. There are market talks that Ganqimaodu border crossing plans to control coal imports at around 15 million tonnes in 2017, but the current figures have exceeded 12 million tonnes, calling for tough control on imports of Mongolian coal.

This event is one the of Mongolia's keystone events, and attracts close to 1,000 delegates representing Government, key industry players, financial institutions, global investors and media to discuss socio-political and economic developments. Guests with very diversified background from nearly 30 countries attended 2016 Invest Mongolia events in Ulaanbaatar and Tokyo. In 2017, key focuses of the conference will be the following:

· The impact of the IMF program and whether the Government will take investor friendly measures to increase FDI

· The overview of Mongolian Economy including updates on legal, accounting and other regulatory changes

· The progress and its impacts of OT underground and other major projects to the economy

· The strong demand to coal and the beneficiaries of the industry

· The most updated situation of Green financing and their players

· The Mongolian Banking Industry and the Bank Strategies at the time when AQR is in place

· The development of the non-mining sectors including the real estate

· Whether foreign money is coming back to Mongolia? If so, which sectors are promising and why?

· The outlook of the Bond Market and the possible measures to increase the credit rating

· Whether the Amendments of the Constitution are necessary for the accountability, the consistency of the policies and to combat the corruption? 

MBD registrants will enjoy a 15% discount on badges, which gives you access to the networking lunches and dinners and reserved priority seating. The general registration to the conference is free. Please go http://www.frontier-conference.com/…/…/58-registeronlineform to register and be sure to enter the promo code 102 to the Discount Coupon section if you are purchasing a badge to apply your discount.
If you would like to receive more information regarding the event, please contact the organizers http://www.frontier-conference.com/index.php/en/zoo.

Twenty-nine-year-old Ed Fernon conquered the gruelling Mongolian Derby, crossing the finish line with South African Barry Armitage in equal first after a nail-biting race to the finish.

The 2017 race saw 12 men and 24 women from nine countries riding 1,000 kilometres across Mongolia on semi-wild horses.

Mostly riding full tilt, they charge through the rugged terrain of the Mongolian Steppes, fording rivers, deserts and wide open plains on a course that is designed to recreate Genghis Khan's ancient postal system.

It puts to the test the competitor's survival skills, horsemanship and sheer endurance.

Competitors change horses every 40 kilometres and camp out under the stars or stay with local herders.

Horses will often injure the participants if badly handled, and riders are also given penalties if they overwork the tough Mongolian ponies.

Although city born, he spent time on a family farm near Wagga Wagga in NSW where he first threw his leg over a horse.

His love of riding inspired him to take up the modern pentathlon, mastering the five disciplines of swimming, fencing, running, shooting and show jumping.

He started the sport as a 20-year-old and four years later represented Australia in the 2012 London Olympics.

Needing a new challenge post-Olympics, Fernon did a charity ride across the snowy mountains.

The ride retraced the 1,100 kilometre journey of Archer, the legendary horse that walked from NSW to Melbourne before winning the inaugural Melbourne Cup in 1861.

"Following the Legend of Archer" raised over $50,000 for The Black Dog Institute, offering support for people suffering from depression and bipolar disorder.

Fernon crossed the finish line of the Mongolian Derby exhausted and exhilarated.

"Regardless of winning, what I came here for was to challenge myself, give it my all, and I've done that. I'll sleep well tonight," he said.

Just to complete the hardest horse race in the world is an achievement few can boast.

Mongolia hosts the meeting for the first time and leaders and representatives from the International Labor Organization and Trade Unions of over 30 countries, including Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia are participating in the two-day meeting.

The meeting will discuss and approve 2018 budget of the Asia- Pacific Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-AP), working plan, guidelines and its report. " - Hosting the event in Mongolia has a significance to share experiences and achievements of Mongolia in the field of labor relations and social partnership with the leaders of trade union organizations of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region," said Chairman of the International Relations Division of the Confederation of Trade Unions E. Amarsanaa. Mongolia, Taiwan and Indonesia had competed for hosting the meeting.

“I have mentioned before an idea that may be an empty dream, but if NATO were to shift its headquarters to Moscow it might allay whatever misapprehensions Russians may feel,” the Dalai Lama said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

The Dalai Lama’s comments come as NATO is bolstering deployments to the Baltic States and Poland ahead of Russian military exercises in Belarus in September.

Aware that his controversial suggestion might not be well received in Washington, the Dalai Lama said: “I'm afraid now that after such a suggestion, I won’t be allowed to go to America!”

The Buddhist spiritual leader is a contentious figure in Russia. He last visited in 2004, and authorities in Moscow have repeatedly denied him permission to return ever since. China has publicly thanked the Kremlin on each occasion it bars the Dalai Lama.

In an outspoken interview in 2014, the Dalai Lama criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for being self-centered. "His attitude is: I, I, I. This is the root of the problem,” he told a German newspaper.

This time, he told Kommersant he saw positive changes. “I look at Russia and I see protests against corruption and so on. In Stalinist times that was impossible,” he said. “Perhaps not as quickly as we would want, but change is happening.”

“I believe in a big future for Russia,” he added. “Russia could become a real bridge between East and West.”

The Dalai Lama was in New Delhi for the first ever conference of Russian and Buddhist scholars.