1 PRIME MINISTER OYUN-ERDENE VISITS EGIIN GOL HYDROPOWER PLANT PROJECT SITE WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/30      2 ‘I FELT CAUGHT BETWEEN CULTURES’: MONGOLIAN MUSICIAN ENJI ON HER BEGUILING, BORDER-CROSSING MUSIC WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM PUBLISHED:2025/04/30      3 POWER OF SIBERIA 2: ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY OR GEOPOLITICAL RISK FOR MONGOLIA? WWW.THEDIPLOMAT.COM PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      4 UNITED AIRLINES TO LAUNCH FLIGHTS TO MONGOLIA IN MAY WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      5 SIGNATURE OF OIL SALES AGREEMENT FOR BLOCK XX PRODUCTION WWW.RESEARCH-TREE.COM  PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      6 MONGOLIA ISSUES E-VISAS TO 11,575 FOREIGNERS IN Q1 WWW.XINHUANET.COM PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      7 KOREA AN IDEAL PARTNER TO HELP MONGOLIA GROW, SEOUL'S ENVOY SAYS WWW.KOREAJOONGANGDAILY.JOINS.COM  PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      8 MONGOLIA TO HOST THE 30TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF ASIA SECURITIES FORUM WWW.MONTSAME.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      9 BAGAKHANGAI-KHUSHIG VALLEY RAILWAY PROJECT LAUNCHES WWW.UBPOST.MN PUBLISHED:2025/04/29      10 THE MONGOLIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND FDI: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITY WWW.MELVILLEDALAI.COM  PUBLISHED:2025/04/28      849 ТЭРБУМЫН ӨРТӨГТЭЙ "ГАШУУНСУХАЙТ-ГАНЦМОД" БООМТЫН ТЭЗҮ-Д ТУРШЛАГАГҮЙ, МОНГОЛ 2 КОМПАНИ ҮНИЙН САНАЛ ИРҮҮЛЭВ WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/30     ХУУЛЬ БУСААР АШИГЛАЖ БАЙСАН "БОГД УУЛ" СУВИЛЛЫГ НИЙСЛЭЛ ӨМЧЛӨЛДӨӨ БУЦААВ WWW.NEWS.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/30     МЕТРО БАРИХ ТӨСЛИЙГ ГҮЙЦЭТГЭХЭЭР САНАЛАА ӨГСӨН МОНГОЛЫН ГУРВАН КОМПАНИ WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/30     "UPC RENEWABLES" КОМПАНИТАЙ ХАМТРАН 2400 МВТ-ЫН ХҮЧИН ЧАДАЛТАЙ САЛХИН ЦАХИЛГААН СТАНЦ БАРИХААР БОЛОВ WWW.EAGLE.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/30     ОРОСЫН МОНГОЛ УЛС ДАХЬ ТОМООХОН ТӨСЛҮҮД ДЭЭР “ГАР БАРИХ” СОНИРХОЛ БА АМБИЦ WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/30     МОНГОЛ, АНУ-ЫН ХООРОНД ТАВДУГААР САРЫН 1-НЭЭС НИСЛЭГ ҮЙЛДЭНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/29     ЕРӨНХИЙ САЙД Л.ОЮУН-ЭРДЭНЭ ЭГИЙН ГОЛЫН УЦС-ЫН ТӨСЛИЙН ТАЛБАЙД АЖИЛЛАЖ БАЙНА WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/29     Ц.ТОД-ЭРДЭНЭ: БИЧИГТ БООМТЫН ЕРӨНХИЙ ТӨЛӨВЛӨГӨӨ БАТЛАГДВАЛ БУСАД БҮТЭЭН БАЙГУУЛАЛТЫН АЖЛУУД ЭХЛЭХ БОЛОМЖ БҮРДЭНЭ WWW.MONTSAME.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/29     MCS-ИЙН ХОЁР ДАХЬ “УХАА ХУДАГ”: БНХАУ, АВСТРАЛИТАЙ ХАМТРАН ЭЗЭМШДЭГ БАРУУН НАРАНГИЙН ХАЙГУУЛЫГ УЛСЫН ТӨСВӨӨР ХИЙЖЭЭ WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/29     АМ.ДОЛЛАРЫН ХАНШ ТОГТВОРЖИЖ 3595 ТӨГРӨГ БАЙНА WWW.EGUUR.MN НИЙТЭЛСЭН:2025/04/29    

Events

Name organizer Where
MBCC “Doing Business with Mongolia seminar and Christmas Receptiom” Dec 10. 2024 London UK MBCCI London UK Goodman LLC

NEWS

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China's richest man warns Trump of risk to jobs www.cnn.com

China's richest man has a stark warning for Donald Trump: thousands of American jobs will be at risk if he's prevented from buying U.S. companies.
Wang Jianlin, the billionaire chairman of real estate and entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group, has made a series of high-profile Hollywood acquisitions in recent years and says he wants to invest more in the U.S.
But his growing clout has unnerved some U.S. lawmakers and prompted calls for tougher government scrutiny of such deals.
At an event in Beijing over the weekend, Wang shrugged off the concerns in Congress and said he's taking his case straight to the president-elect.
"I met the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, he said he will be meeting Mr. Trump soon and asked if I have any message I want to send," he said. "I told him that I've invested $10 billion along with 20,000 employees in the United States. 20,000 people might lose their jobs if anything goes wrong."

Wang's growing collection of U.S. entertainment businesses includes AMC Theaters (which is swallowing up Carmike Cinemas (CKEC)), movie studio Legendary Entertainment and a recent deal to buy Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Golden Globes and other awards.
He told CNNMoney in September that he still wants to buy one of Hollywood's "Big Six" studios, which includes the likes of 20th Century Fox (owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox (FOX)) and Warner Bros (owned by CNN parent Time Warner (TWX)).
Wang said at the weekend that the objections from Congress were just one view among many.
"I think we need to wait until after Mr. Trump takes office to see what his attitude is toward Chinese entertainment companies," he said, adding that Trump "needs to understand" that Hollywood movies are relying on the Chinese market for growth.

Trump's position on Chinese investment in the U.S. isn't clear. His campaign rhetoric focused mainly on the trade in manufactured goods between the world's two largest economies, accusing China of taking American jobs by not playing by the rules.
The president-elect has threatened to label Beijing a currency manipulator and slap tariffs of as much as 45% on Chinese products coming into the U.S., raising the risk of a trade war.
But experts say there are more pressing concerns like China's restrictions on foreign investment -- including in media and entertainment -- and policies that tend to favor domestic firms.

Even before his inauguration next month, Trump has already strained the relationship between Washington and Beijing by questioning the U.S. government's long-standing approach to the sensitive topic of Taiwan.

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Iran seals $17bn contract with Boeing in first deal in 40yrs www.rt.com

Tehran has agreed to buy 80 passenger planes from US aircraft maker Boeing and plans to close another for dozens of jets from Airbus. The $16.6 billion deal between Iran and the US is the biggest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The agreement includes 50 narrow-body 737 MAX aircraft, and 30 long-haul 777s (15 777-300ER planes plus 15 777-9 jets), according to Boeing. The planes will be delivered to Iran over ten years with the first in 2018.

The deal was confirmed on Sunday following a memorandum of understanding signed in June. It is expected to help Iran modernize and expand its aging commercial aircraft fleet after decades of international sanctions. Boeing’s last airplane deliveries to Iran were 747 jumbos in 1977.

An unnamed Iranian official told Reuters the deal was subject in part to further agreements on financing, adding that the money from the deal would not pass through the US financial system.

The new contract will support almost 100,000 jobs in the US aerospace industry, Boeing said.

The pact keeps Boeing in the race with Europe’s Airbus, which in January agreed to sell 118 aircraft to Iran in a deal valued at about $25 billion at list price.

According to a Reuters’ source, Iran’s national carrier IranAir is at the "very final stage" of completing a deal with Airbus. It is expected to involve a first batch of 50-60 jets, and will be finalized in the next couple of days, the official said.

Iran is a critical market for Boeing in its rivalry with Airbus, a defense analyst at Lexington Institute, Loren Thompson told Bloomberg.

"Boeing can’t compete with Airbus if it can’t sell to places like Iran and China," Thompson said. "Selling to Iran is a business imperative for Boeing."

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China bans North Korean coal- but only till January www.rt.com

Fresh UN sanctions against North Korea aimed at punishment for a nuclear test in September will be honoured by China, the reclusive regime's most important trading and diplomatic partner.

In a statement on its website on Saturday, China's Commerce Ministry said it will temporarily ban imports of coal from North Korea as part of a UN Security Council resolution that has the goal of deterring Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear weapons program.

“To implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 2321, according to the People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Trade Law, imports of coal produced in North Korea temporarily will be stopped,” said the statement, which effectively curtails 557 million pounds of coal or $700 million compared to 2015 sales.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The sanctions imposed in late November aim to cut North Korea's annual export revenue by 25%. A key part of the UN resolution is limiting the sale of North Korean coal to China, the only known country that currently buys it – to around 7.5 million tonnes a year (or $400 million, whichever is lower). That represents a drop of about 60%. Coal is North Korea's top export earner and one of its only sources of hard currency. The resolution by the 15-member Security Council also bans the export of North Korean copper, nickel, silver, zinc, as well as statues which are mainly exported to African countries, according to Reuters.

Up to the end of October, China imported 18.6 million tonnes of coal from the totalitarian state, a nearly 13% rise from 2015.

The three-week ban will remain in effect until the end of the year. Coal shipped before Dec. 11 will be allowed to enter China.

There is speculation that suppressing the amount of coal imported by China will keep a fire lit under the price of coking coal, which has tripled in value since July and quadrupled over the past year – though recently come off the boil.

MINING.com reported that Chinese coal imports more than doubled from a year ago, to 27 million tonnes worth $1.7 billion during the month November. According to Asia Times, the total volume of coal imports for the first 11 months is up 9.2% compared to last year.

Trade figures released on Thursday reported by Asia Times also show China imported just under 92 million tonnes of iron ore in November, up 13.8% month on month and the third highest volumes on record.

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Venezuela to swap highest denomination banknotes for coins www.bbc.com

 
The Venezuelan government has announced it will replace the country's highest-denomination banknotes with coins within 72 hours.
It hopes swapping the 100-bolivar notes will help to stop smuggling and tackle shortages of food and other items.
President Nicolas Maduro says gangs operating in border areas will not have time to repatriate the notes.
His critics dismissed the move as the latest desperate attempt by Mr Maduro to tackle the economic crisis.
"When ineptitude governs! Who would possibly think of doing something like this in December amid all our problems?" opposition leader Henrique Capriles wrote on Twitter (in Spanish).
Others argued it would be impossible to swap all the 100-bolivar notes in circulation in the time allotted.
The 100-bolivar note has lost most of its value over the past few years and is now worth about 2 US cents (£0.015).
Venezuela, which is facing a serious economic and political crisis, has one of the world's highest inflation rates.
"I have given the orders to close all land, maritime and air possibilities so those bills taken out can't be returned and they're stuck with their fraud abroad," said Mr Maduro on television.
Earlier this month, the central bank said that six new bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 bolivars would come into circulation on 15 December.
The government last published figures for inflation in December 2015, putting it at 180%, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that next year's prices will rise by more than 2,000%.
In India, a similar move to scrap high-value bank notes last month has caused major disruption.
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Foreign Minister discusses energy security with OSCE Secretary General www.mongolia.gogo.mn

 
On the sidelines of his participation in the 23rd Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia Ts.Munkh-Orgil met with his counterparts from Hungary, Switzerland, Belaurs, Poland, Austria, Germany, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia, in Hamburg, Germany.
 
Minister Ts.Munkh-Orgil invited Mr Peter Szijjarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, to the ceremony for launching the “Biocombinat” state-run industry modernization project with assistance of the Government of the Republic of Hungary, to take place in January.
 
The Mongolian FM conveyed Mongolia's proposal on adding the quota of Hungarian government scholarships for Mongolian students and training agricultural professionals for the additional quota. The Hungarian FM confirmed that it is possible and the sides agreed on signing a Memorandum of Understanding on the cooperation by the end of 2016.
Mr Munkh-Orgil also said Mongolia is interested in involving Hungarian companies in technological modernization and constructions at the sewage treatment facility of Ulaanbaatar, and agreed on studying the feasibilities for resolving financing with loan from Hungarian Ex-Im Bank.
 
During the meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation D.Burkhalter, the sides agreed on formalizing an intergovernmental visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders. Studying possibilities for freeing ordinary passport bearers from visa was also concerted. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia extended gratitude for the fact that the issue of continuation of the development aid to Mongolia through the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development has been discussed by the Swiss parliament.
 
As for the meeting with the Polish FM Witold Waszczykowski, the latter said the Polish government is taking efforts for re-opening its embassy in Mongolia. The sides agreed to restore the regular mechanism for economic cooperation and to attach more importance to the implementation of projects with export loans from Poland, as well as on promoting the Department of Mongolian studies in the Warsaw University.
 
Minister Ts.Munkh-Orgil congratulated Mr S.Kurz, the Austrian FM, on Austria's victory in the election for chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2017. They discussed about the priorities Austria is assuming as the chair of OSCE and ways of effective utiliziation of Austrian Government’s soft loan to Mongolia.
FM Ts.Munkh-Orgil asked his counterpart to resolve the social insurance issues of the Mongolian nationals, who are returning home after studying and working in Austria and Poland.
 
The foreign ministers of Mongolia and Belarus concerted exchanging high-level visits in 2017 in order to broaden the bilateral economic ties. The Belarusian FM pledged support the Eurasian Economic Union’s Committee meeting for an issue of forming a research team on establishing Free Trade Agreement between Mongolia and the EEU.
 
Mr Munkh-Orgil exchanged opinions with Mr F.Steinmeier, the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, on widening bilateral economic cooperation and wished success to Mr Steinmeier as he is running for president of Germany, in the election to take place early 2017.
 
With the OSCE Secretary General, Mr Lamberto Zannier, the FM Ts.Munkh-Orgil discussed about strengthening the law enforcement of Mongolia and energy security and put forward a request to employing Mongolian representatives for the OSCE.
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Democratic Party begins registering candidates for party’s chairmanship www.en.montsame.mn

 
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The run-off for the office of the Democratic Party chairman has officially begun, stated DP Secretary General L.Erkhembayar and head of the DP chairman election committee J.Oyunbaatar at a press briefing today.
 
“The Democratic Party convened its 6th Congress on December 6 and 7, in attendance of 1,210 members representing the total of over 180 thousand DP members. The Congress made important decisions, such as for becoming more transparent, inclusive and responsible party and an online power. One of the historic decisions taken at this congress was to nominee the party’s chairman through holding a rally among all members”, said Mr L.Erkhembayar.
 
The DP chairmanship election committee is to be set up with 339 branches throughout the country consisting of 5 members each. The campaign will last from December 21 to January 28. On the following day, the election will run on the national level.
 
The Democratic Party members, who has updated and confirmed their memberships can cast their votes.
 
 
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Automaker Honda invests in ride-hailing service Grab www.reuters.com

 
Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab said on Monday it had secured an investment from Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co as part of a deal to collaborate on its motorbike-hailing service, in the latest auto industry tie-up of its type.
 
Grab said Honda had agreed to invest an undisclosed amount in the firm, and the two companies would form a partnership to develop the ride-sharing technology and related driver education programs.
 
Automakers such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors also have tie-ups with ride-sharing firms to hedge against a shift in the vehicle market away from private ownership.
 
Grab, the biggest rival to ride-sharing service Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] in Southeast Asia, raised $750 million in a funding round in September. A source familiar with the matter said the round valued Grab at more than $3 billion.
 
Earlier this month, Grab, whose services include taxi and motorbike-hailing, car-pooling, delivery and mobile payments, announced that Japanese financial services company Tokyo Century Corp had made a strategic investment in the firm for an undisclosed amount.
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Economic Watch: U.S.- China trade shows ongoing improvement www.xinhuanet.com.cn

 
BEIJING, (Xinhua) -- Trade between the world's two largest economies has shown signs of improvement as the U.S. trade deficit with China, a long-term U.S. concern, narrowed significantly in October.
 
In October, U.S. exports to China reached a three-year high of 13 billion U.S. dollars, contributing to the month's 4.2 percent decrease in the trade deficit with China, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
 
The U.S. overall trade gap for the month grew 17.8 percent, the biggest increase since March 2015, to 42.6 billion dollars from the surprisingly low September deficit, data from the department showed.
 
China's measures to promote steady economic growth have contributed to the growing consumer appetite for U.S. imported goods, said Bai Ming, researcher with an institution affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce.
 
Chinese figures show that the nation's trade surplus with the U.S. has been growing since 2000, reaching 42.1 billion dollars in 2002 and surpassing 200 billion dollars in the January-November period of this year.
 
The growth has slowed in recent years, with just a 0.9 percent year-on-year increase in the first eleven months of this year, largely due to improvement of the trade balance between the two countries, experts have said.
 
With the transfer of processing trade, the main source of trade surplus between China and the United States, to other regions such as Southeast Asia, the trade gap between the two countries has narrowed in recent years, said Zhang Yansheng, head researcher with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
 
Customs data show that China has been the world's second largest importer for seven consecutive years, with its imports standing at 1.68 trillion dollars in 2015.
 
The nation's total imports are expected to reach 8 trillion U.S. dollars in the next five years.
 
In the first eleven months, China's overall trade surplus narrowed to 3.11 trillion yuan (about 457 billion U.S. dollars), down 5.8 percent from the previous year, latest customs data show.
 
China is pursuing an overall trade balance rather than addressing its trade imbalance with any particular country, experts have said.
 
During U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's campaign trail, he promised to bring back lost manufacturing jobs by renegotiating free trade deals and levying hefty tariffs on trade partners.
 
Though the remarks were aimed at appealing to voters, they show the growing tendency of protectionism in the United States, which will hurt itself as well as its trade partners, Bai said.
 
Trade between China and the United States reached 558.4 billion dollars in 2015, hundreds of times greater than in 1979 when China-U.S. diplomatic relations were established. The United States has become China's second largest trade partner while China is the U.S.' largest trade partner.
 
China-U.S. trade rose at an average annual growth rate of over 7 percent in recent years in defiance of the global downturn after the 2008 financial crisis.
 
U.S. goods and services, including 22 percent of its cotton, 26 percent of Boeing airplanes and 56 percent of its soybean, were sold to China, creating nearly a million jobs for the exporter.
 
For a long time, U.S. exports to China were mostly primary goods and agricultural products, but not products where the United States had a comparative advantage such as high-tech products, Zhang said.
 
To narrow the U.S. trade deficit with China, the United States should relax its restrictions on the export of high-tech goods to China, and combine its technology and experience with China's competitive equipment and industries, Bai said.
 
The two sides can also jointly develop the third-party markets and continue to promote trade in services, which will help balance bilateral trade, Bai added.
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S&P says South impeachment does not affect credit fundamentals www.reuters.com

 
S&P Global Ratings said on Monday that Friday's vote by South Korea's parliament to impeach President Park Geun-hye does not have a material impact on the country's credit rating.
 
"Although the political uncertainty could remain a distraction to policymakers for some time, we believe the effective Korean bureaucracy will keep the government running smoothly," the ratings agency said.
 
Park's duties have been temporarily assumed by the country's prime minister until a court rules on whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment vote.
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Ceremony marking Olympic stadium construction www3.nhk.or.jp

 
A ceremony to mark the start of full-fledged construction of Tokyo's new Olympic stadium has been held.
 
Leaders of the government and sports authorities gathered at the construction site on Sunday. Tokyo will host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.
 
Building work actually began on December 1st, more than a year later than planned. The government scrapped an initial design criticized as too costly.
 
The chairman of the Japan Sport Council, Kazumi Ohigashi, said at the ceremony that he hopes the new stadium will connect Japan and the world beyond the 2020 games.
 
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan has to make the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics the number one event in the world. He said he believes that many athletes will challenge their limits in this new stadium and enliven people and society.
 
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she hopes the stadium will be remembered with the year 2020 and be loved by everyone for a long time to come.
 
Construction is scheduled to be completed in November 2019.
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