Spanning the 2016-2020 period, the Memorandum of Understanding covers all UNESCO’s areas of competence, specifying cooperation to:

- promote SDG4-Education2030 through technical assistance, policy advice, capacity building, standard setting and the promotion of best practices
- strengthen science, technology and innovation systems
- support inclusive social development and intercultural dialogue
- promote culture-based sustainable development, including in the framework of the implementation of the UNESCO Culture Conventions ratified by Mongolia
- enhance mechanisms for access to knowledge and information, strengthening media development and promoting freedom of expression

Recalling her visit to Mongolia in 2011, when she signed the previous agreement, the Director-General welcomed the focus on the SDG Agenda and referred to the country’s rich cultural diversity and its leadership role in the Community of Democracies. The Ambassador expressed his country’s longstanding and strong relations with UNESCO, welcoming the new agreement that will further reinforce cooperation.

The main things this electricity is used for are improved food refrigeration, charging cell phones and watching television to see the weather forecast, which is essential in the life of a herder. They no longer have to make a long trek to a nearby village to charge their telephone.

The cell phone has been revolutionary for the life of nomadic people, giving them greater connectivity and organization. Internet usage also increased by 1000% between 2000 (1.1%) and 2010 (11.3%).

According to Bor, a herder in the Arkhangai province, “most countryside children stay in dorms, because their parents are nomads and it is the only way they can get an education. We can now call our children who are in the dorms and speak to them. I also have children working in Ulaanbaatar [Mongolia’s capital] and I can speak to them as well. The solar panels are a very useful thing in our lives.”

The global merchandise trade grew by a little more than one percent in 2016, the weakest performance since the global financial crisis, and compared to 2 percent in 2015 and 2.7 percent in 2014, according to the paper.

Services trade continued to be to relatively resilient and recovered slightly following a decline in 2015, said the paper.

It also found that the sluggish trade growth was seen in both advanced and emerging market economies, while in previous years the weak trade performance had been concentrated in either high-income or developing countries.

The weak trade growth in 2016 continued to reflect enduring structural factors, such as the maturing of global value chains and the slower pace of trade liberalization. Cyclical factors, such as slow global growth and commodity prices declines, were also leading to the sluggish trade growth.

It also found that the increase in policy uncertainty may have also contributed to trade slowing in 2016. The research found that the increase in uncertainty may have reduced trade growth by about 0.6 percentage points in 2016.

"Policy uncertainty in Europe and the United States had a negative impact on trade by reducing overall global growth," said the paper's authors, World Bank economists Cristina Constantinescu, Aaditya Mattoo, and Michele Ruta.

"In a more uncertain environment, firms may choose to postpone investment and export decisions and consumers may cut back spending. The threat of unraveling trade agreements may also hurt trade growth by adding to policy uncertainty," they said.

The paper also emphasized the importance of trade agreements, saying that recent trade growth would have been even lower in the absence of trade agreements.

According to the newspaper, the ministries are considering banning the payment of salaries in cash, limiting large cash purchases or introducing a cash tax.

Officials want to limit cash purchases of real estate, cars, and luxury items, but the cut-off price is being discussed. The economists are also looking at examples of India and Azerbaijan that limit not only cash transactions, but also cash withdrawals.

In January, the Russian media reported the government is considering setting a single cash purchase limit at 500,000 rubles (about $8,750 at the current exchange rate). Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov backed the initiative without specifying the limit.

At the moment, Russians still prefer cash transactions. In the first nine months of 2016 holders of bank cards withdrew 19 trillion rubles ($330 billion), but only spent 8.7 trillion ($150 billion) to pay for goods and services using plastic.

The share of cash in circulation is about nine percent of Russia’s Gross Domestic Product, according to the Central Bank.

Businesses are complaining about high costs and service fees of points of sale (POS) terminals in Russia, which may cost up to 10 percent of net profit a month.

Another option under discussion is a differentiated VAT (value-added tax) rate, which can be reduced for non-cash purchases. However this option partly violates the ban on restrictions on free movement of goods and funds in Russia and is unlikely to be adopted, tax adviser Sergey Kalinin told Vedomosti.

Over 2,000 Lada cars were sold last year in Germany which is the second largest export market for AvtoVAZ's Lada brand.

The carmaker plans to increase exports by 50 percent this year. Lada exported 18,500 vehicles last year.

Earlier this month, AvtoVAZ started exporting vehicles to China and the United Arab Emirates. The company wants to have a slice of the Middle East market.

It already has a stable market share in CIS countries and also exports cars to Germany, Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Hungary. AvtoVAZ intends to expand to the Czech Republic, Mongolia, and South-East Asia.

A new assembly line at the manufacturer’s plant in Kazakhstan will make 120,000 vehicles a year. Besides the Lada 4x4, the plant assembles the Lada Granta and Lada Kalina models with plans to build the new Lada Vesta and Lada Xray models.

The largest car manufacturer in Russia and Eastern Europe, AvtoVaz produces nearly one million vehicles a year. In 2012 AvtoVaz created an alliance with Renault-Nissan and started assembling the Renault Logan, Datsun and Nissan Almera models in Russia.

“Our preference long term is to grow in oil and copper, then possibly potash,” the firm’s chief executive officer Andrew Mackenzie said when releasing first half of the year results Tuesday.

BHP seems to be in no rush to advance its massive $2.6 billion Jansen potash project in Canada’s Saskatchewan province. For years the company has been sinking shafts and installing some infrastructure on site, but has not fully committed itself to the project, nor received board approval for the mine.

BHP’s massive $2.6 billion Jansen potash project in Canada’s Saskatchewan province is now 64% complete.
On Tuesday, the company showed once again how slowly the project is advancing by saying it is now 64% complete (it was already 60% along six months ago).

“Excavation and lining of the shafts are steadily progressing," according to BHP’s results for the first half of the 2017 financial year. It added that the engineering contract for feasibility studies for stage 1 of the project had been awarded.

When the work is completed – at the current pace towards the end of 2019 – Jansen would still be nowhere near a producing mine. That is expected to happen sometime “in the decade beyond 2020,” BHP has said.

But once and if and if that finally happens, Jansen would be a game-changer in the potash industry, as it is expected to generate 8 million tonnes of crop nutrient a year, which would amount to nearly 15% of the world's total.

Prices for fertilizers began their decline five years ago as weak crop prices and currency declines pinched demand forcing producers to lay off employees and close operations.

Prices have also suffered from increased competition following the breakup in 2013 of a Russian-Belarusian marketing cartel that previously helped limit supply.

And while they have slightly recovered this month, a potential move by the Indian government to cut potash subsidies by 17% in the next financial year would hit demand from one of the world's largest importers of the fertilizer, inevitably dragging prices down.