Jason Allford: IMF and WB are ready if Parliament makes its decision certain www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Today, May 04,Head of Cabinet Secretariat, Minister J.Munkhbat met with the World Bank representatives, headed by Jason Allford, the Executive Director of the World Bank Group representing Mongolia and some other countries. Minister J.Munkhbat noted that protecting investors’ rights in legal frame is one of the priorities of the Government and a council in charge of protecting investors’ rights was established by an order of Prime Minister. He expressed his thanks to the World Bank for granting financial support within the IMF program to Mongolia.

Forest fire in Inner Mongolia spreads to 10,000 hectares www.xinhuanet.ccom

HOHHOT, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 5,000 firefighters are battling a fire in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The fire has spread to 10,000 hectares, said Shen Dongsheng, an officer with the forest detachment at the Greater Hinggan Mountains.
Four temporary helicopter landing spots have been set up for artificial precipitation, and armored vehicles are also mobilized.
The fire broke out at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Bilahe Beidahe forest in Inner Mongolia.
Initial investigations found the fire was caused by illegal dumping of burning residue by a local furnace worker, who has been detained for further investigation.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results: Mongolia plans to curb air pollution with more coal www.bankwatch.org

A new law on air pollution recently adopted by the Mongolian government is in part the result of massive demonstrations that swept the streets of Ulaanbaatar during the winter months, when pollution in the capital is at its worst. Mobilised under the umbrella movement ‘Moms and dads against smog’, the protestors signed petitions calling on the government to come with an urgent plan for tacking the overwhelming situation in the city, where emissions from the coal burned in the surrounding ger districts and three combined heat and power plants reached some of the highest levels in the world this past winter.

The new policy will soon be followed by a yearly action plan for reducing emissions, but the protestors and civil society groups working for cleaner air in the country should remain cautious. That’s because the government’s plan involves even more reliance on coal – hauled in from the massive Tavan Tolgoi mine in the south and then cleaned in as yet constructed processing plants before being burned in the ger districts that are now responsible for 60 per cent of total emissions in the capital. So the plan does not appear to tackle the underlining problem in Mongolia, which is its dependency on coal.

A new Bankwatch report presented this week in Ulaanbaatar argues that the energy plans of the Mongolian government – which have the backing of international financial institutions – are disconnected from the urgent need to improve the efficiency of an ageing energy system and at the same time address the massive potential of solar and wind energy in the country. The report also shows how the 12 gigawatts of electricity that would be produced by the power plants planned by the government by the year 2030 exceed even its own projections for electricity demand in the country.

The report surveys a number of Mongolia’s coal power projects in the pipeline, including the 600 MW Tavan Tolgoi power plant in the South Gobi region, which would benefit mostly just three mines close to the Tavan Tolgoi deposit, including the EBRD and IFC-financed Oyu Tolgoi mine. In the capital, plans for a new combined heat and power plant supported by the Asian Development Bank and with potential involvement by the EBRD, would only add to emissions while not tackling the problem of burning coal in the ger districts, as these are not connected to the public utilities.

To better understand what is at stake with the governments’ plans for the continued use of coal, more than 40 members of civil society groups from the country gathered on 1 May at the Water Conservation Centre in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the risks of coal-based energy and the involvement of financial institutions in pushing for coal-based energy projects in the country.

Mongolia is at a crossroad, and the movement started by civil society this past winter is a sign for international financiers like the EBRD and the ADB to rethink their energy strategies for Mongolia and prioritise energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for the the ger districts, rural areas and the people of Mongolia.

AIIB hopes to win international credit rating by end of third quarter www.asia.nikkei.com

YOKOHAMA -- The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank hopes to obtain an international credit rating by the end of the third quarter of this year, a move which will take it a step closer to being able to issue bonds.

"We recently finished talking to the international credit rating agencies," Soren Elbech, the director general and treasurer of AIIB, who joined the bank in December last year, told Nikkei Asian Review on Wednesday. "We have a clear expectation to be rated before the end of the third quarter this year." He added that the bank expects to obtain "the highest rating that we can achieve," given its financial and business profile.

The AIIB, a Chinese-led initiative, has so far approved approximately $2.5 billion in loans, funding the disbursements with the paid-in capital from the member countries. Elbech said that the AIIB was in no rush to issue bonds to finance the loans, as it had received around $9 billion in paid-in capital up to now, which gives the bank "more than enough and ample capital" to service the loans for the next four to five years.

But Elbech, former treasurer of the Inter-American Development Bank, said the AIIB would look to issue bonds to "build up the bank's credibility in the market, pricing, [and] awareness with the investors." The Dane did not give a specific schedule on issuing the bonds, saying it depended on market conditions, but the size of the issue will be "a minimum of a billion [U.S. dollars]".

Issue 'has to be credible'

"My experience tells me that [for] a name like ours, the newest multilateral financial institution, to be positioned within its peer group, the size of the issue has to be credible. We want to firmly establish the bank's name," he said. "ADB just did a $4 billion three-year deal -- its largest ever. In order to be recognized within our peer group, we don't need to do these kinds of sizes, not yet at least."

Despite China's heavy involvement, Elbech said he expected the bank to issue its initial bonds in dollars, not renminbi. "U.S. dollar is our functional currency so that points to the initial issue to be in dollars," he said. "However, I'm sure we are going to be issuing in renminbi also at some stage and when it makes sense for the bank." He believed AIIB bonds would be attractive for international investors as they offered an opportunity to invest in a multilateral development bank other than the likes of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

AIIB added 13 new member countries in March, expanding its roster to 70 nations. However, the U.S. and Japan have thus far not applied for membership, out of concern that the international lender will be a tool to fund Chinese ambitions. China has contributed about 30% of the AIIB's $100 billion in capital and has around 25% of the voting rights, holding effective veto power over key projects.

Elbech dismissed these claims. The AIIB "is there to finance projects in all our member countries -- as long as it benefits Asia." He said he expected that lending to projects in China would be modest and, predominantly, to non-sovereign borrowers.

Japan promotes bullet train system in Malaysia www.nhk.or.jp

Japanese government officials have pitched the positive economic effects of adopting the country's Shinkansen high-speed train system at a briefing session in the Malaysian capital.

21 killed in Iranian coal mine explosion www.nhk.or.jp

A gas explosion at a coal mine in northeastern Iran has left 21 miners dead. More than 30 are trapped.

Facebook nears two billion monthly users www.bbc.com

Facebook's profits have jumped in the first three months of the year, as the social network closes in on two billion users, according to its latest results.
The number of people using Facebook each month increased to 1.94 billion, of which nearly 1.3 billion use it daily, the company said.
The US tech giant reported profits of just over $3bn (£2.4bn) in the first quarter, a 76% rise year-on-year.
However, it warned that growth in ad revenues would slow down.
The company has also come under sustained pressure in recent weeks over its handling of hate speech, child abuse and self-harm on the social network.
On Wednesday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced it was hiring 3,000 extra people to moderate content on the site.

Preliminary results reveal Kh.Battulga as DP’s presidential candidate www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Following their registration of 6 presumptive nominees for the upcoming Presidential Election on May 2, Democratic Party held an all-member poll nationwide on May 3, Wednesday, the preliminary result of which was disclosed last night that Battulga Khaltmaa was elected as the party’s presidential candidate.

Speaker of the Parliament M.Enkhbold to represent MPP in presidential election www.gogo.mn

VII meeting of Mongolian People`s Party (MPP) to select a presidential candidate is being held today at the Independence Palace, gathering its 259 members. 
The majority or 85.7 percent of the members voted for Speaker of the Parliament M.Enkhbold. 
Thus, M.Enkhbold announced as the MPP’s presidential candidate. He won over Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Ts.Nyamdorj. 
Members of MPP concluded that presidential candidate selection conducted open, fair and democratic. 
Currently, the members of MPP to discuss the platform for presidential election.

Mongolia's Steppe Road and China's Belt and Road initiatives to be harmonized www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ During its meeting held on May 2, yesterday, the Cabinet discussed and backed a draft memorandum of understanding between the Governments of Mongolia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on coordinating the initiatives ‘Steppe Road’ and ‘The Belt and Road’.