Japan has large amounts of natural gas locked in ice deep under its seabed. Government officials have been trying to tap it as a domestic energy source.

Researchers at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy succeeded in extracting natural gas from methane hydrate earlier last month. It was taken from deposits below the seabed off the pacific coast of central Japan.

But the officials temporarily halted the test mining on May 15th after huge amounts of sand clogged the pipes bringing up the gas.

They took steps to keep sand from entering the pipes, and resumed the work. If the trial extraction is successful it could lead to the development of mining technology.

This new web-based registration system represents a significant milestone under the Secured Transactions Reform Project. It enables creditors to search for existing interests on movable assets that they intend to use as collateral for a particular loan and to file security interest on their approved collaterals and establish priorities. It is an important foundation for the development of a movable-asset finance market in Mongolia. Typically, in developed markets, about 60 to 70 percent of business lending involves movable assets in various forms. 

Over the past several years, the IFC team worked with the Ministry of Justice, the Bank of Mongolia, the Mongolia Bankers’ Association, and other stakeholders to prepare the law and get it approved, develop the registry, and promote movable-asset finance to lenders. Of the more than 10,000 registrations to date, 38 percent is equipment, 25 percent livestock, 5.4 percent account receivables, and 1.7 percent vehicles. Women account for 23 percent of registrations. 

“The Pledge-Notice Registry has strengthened the confidence of lenders. This supports the further improving of access to capital for MSMEs, including agricultural businesses, in Mongolia,” said Unenbat Jigjid, CEO of the Mongolian Bankers’ Association. “The use of movable assets as the basis for lending is a new deepening of our financial markets, which will benefit the economy and help generate more employment and income for the population.” 

“We are very encouraged to see the strong and early results from the new registry,” said Tuyen D. Nguyen, IFC Resident Representative in Mongolia. “Mobilizing moveable collateral to boost access to finance, especially for MSMEs, can play a significant role in Mongolia’s sustainable economic recovery.” 

Previously, IFC has helped develop modern secured financing systems in about 40 emerging markets including China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Ghana. In China alone, around $3 trillion debt financing backed by movable assets is disbursed every per year, benefitting a large number of MSMEs and others.

"I am confident that the resources and money that will be lent to the Mongolian government will be used effectively to overcome the temporary economic problems," Munkh-Orgil said on the sidelines of the International Conference on The Future of Asia in Tokyo.

The resource-rich country has benefited from a commodities boom over the last 15 years or so. But a subsequent commodity price slump, investment outflows and slowing demand in key export markets have hit Mongolia's economy hard.

Last month, the IMF approved a three-year, 434-million-U.S. dollar loan for Mongolia as part of a wider 5.5 billion-dollar aid package which is also supported by Japan, South Korea, China, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

The agreement was reached after the IMF admitted that Mongolia had met some of its demands, including raising taxes and cutting spending.

Some observers, however, questioned the ability of the Mongolian government to carry through the painful structural reforms needed to put the economy back on track.

But Munkh-Orgil said the reforms were inevitable. "With or without the IMF, we know that we must undertake these reforms. We have expanded fiscally -- a lot. We have stretched ourselves on [the] budget. We have reached unsustainable levels of government debt," he said.

The government is trying to respond through fiscal consolidation, and by bringing the budget under control, the minister said.

Mongolia aims to reduce the budget deficit, currently equivalent to 17 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), to 10.2 percent by the end of this year. It aims to have a budget deficit equal to around 2 percent of the GDP by 2022.

"For the next several decades, the mining sector will continue to be the central linchpin of the Mongolian economy," Munkh-Orgil said, "But at the same time, mining is a very capricious animal. (The) fortunes and misfortunes of the mining sector can go up and down unexpectedly."

Mongolia is ready to diversify its economy, which currently relies on minerals for 90 percent of its export revenue, he said.

"We need to bring in more products, (put) more industries in play," the foreign minister said, "We need to engage the public and businesses in other areas that employ more people and bring more export revenues, like agriculture and tourism."

According to the changed rules, the ban on political advertising has been amended to allow "campaign materials." Before being put on VKontakte, the materials must be presented to the country's Central Election Commission.

A list of mandatory documents includes "The Russian Federation Central Election Commission's decision on registering a candidate" according to the website's terms of service.

This has raised fears among some political analysts that the new rules will sideline opposition candidates such as Alexey Navalny, who are not registered with the Central Election Commission. 

Navalny, who is running for the presidency in 2018, would not be allowed to run campaign advertisements under the new rules.

Other smaller opposition parties who are not registered with the Commission could also be barred from running campaign advertisements on VK under the new rules.

The digital payment reached a value of $2,967.48 at around 1.20pm UTC Tuesday, according to the Coindesk Bitcoin Price Index. The pricing is a record high for the cryptocurrency which has been hit with periods of volatility.

Bitcoin experienced an unprecedented surge in worth recently after trading for the first time above $1,500 back in May.

The spike has been linked to the legalisation of digital currencies in Asia in recent weeks. However, some financial observers suggest the hike is down to increasing confidence in the alternative currency.

“The biggest driver [of bitcoin] right now is you’re starting to see institutional investors take a keen interest in the entire sector,” financial commentator, Brian Kelly, said last month. “I don’t think this is hot money. This is real money that’s going to sit around and build the new internet.”

Bitcoin rival, ethereum, an open source platform providing ‘ether’ cryptocurrency, also received a boost this month.

The currency, which went live in 2015, reached an all-time high in value of $250.41 on Sunday.