On November 1, the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held virtually and chaired by Premier of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang.

Prime Minister of Mongolia L. Oyun-Erdene participated in the meeting and delivered remarks. Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene congratulated the Chinese Premier for holding the meeting successfully despite the challenging circumstances of the pandemic and the economic challenges brought on by international tensions. Then he expressed condolences over the tragic accident in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which resulted in the death of more than 130 people.

It was stated that Mongolia has been working to actively participate in the SCO's cooperation ever since it became the organization's first observer country in 2004.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene said that he is pleased that the meeting coincided with the day when the 745-km highway connecting Asia and Europe, an important component of the "Mongolia-Russia-China Economic Corridor", was put into operation.

According to him, Mongolia has been able to make use of its geographic advantage to create a transit corridor linking Asia and Europe and to support regional integration and trade. It was also announced by the Prime Minister that the preliminary feasibility study of the Altanbulag-Zamyn-Uud highway construction project connecting the three countries is ready and put forth his request to meet and discuss this matter with the authorities of China and Russia in the near future.

In the first ten years of its long-term development plan, Vision-2050, the Mongolian government is implementing a New Revival Policy under six sets of objectives. The objectives of the region's countries and the development strategies of China and Russia, which are neighbors, were taken into consideration when developing the policy. This policy is a thorough plan for partnerships that benefit the parties, built on the active involvement of foreign investors and businesses as well as regional nations, he added.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene emphasized that the government of Mongolia is devoting the construction of border checkpoint infrastructure and transportation logistics its full attention. He also invited the heads of government of the member states who participated in the meeting to work together on mutually beneficial economic projects within the framework of Mongolia’s New Revival Policy.

Saudi Arabia is seeking investment from Australian miners to support its $170-billion plan to build a mining industry and diversify its oil-dependent economy this decade.

The kingdom says it’s sitting on top of $1.3 trillion worth of untapped mineral deposits including copper, zinc, phosphates and gold. Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef is in Australia this week to drum up investment interest.

Australian miners should “come, explore, do mining — the same as they are doing here”, he said in an interview on Tuesday in Sydney.

Saudi Arabia is pursuing a Vision 2030 project to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and embrace industries from mining to renewable energy and manufacturing. Of the $170 billion sought for mining, it envisages about 60% will come from private companies and the rest from state-owned entities.

Al-Khorayef said he had met with a number of smaller Austrlalian miners already, and hoped to meet bigger players such BHP Group Ltd and Rio Tinto Plc at a major mining conference in Sydney this week.

Saudi investors are “interested in this sector”, he said, but the country lacks domestic mining expertise and “you need to have partners who understand the sector quite well, and know how to utilize the resources.”

Junior miners

Saudi Arabia’s small mining industry is dominated by state miner Saudi Arabian Mining Co., commonly known as Maaden. The country should emulate Australia’s model of junior, private-sector miners that develop riskier and early-stage mines, the minister said.

“We feel it’s quite a good model for us to copy in Saudi, because we have a lot of young entrepreneurs who I’m sure many of them would be interested in the sector,” he said.

Battery metals such as lithium and nickel are already a focus for Maaden and Saudi Arabia, but the scale of resources is still unclear. Maaden said last year it would spend a “huge amount of money” in the coming two decades to explore for battery metals.

(By James Fernyhough)

Mongolia has increased its railway transport fares by 20-50% from November 1 after Ulaanbaatar Railway's proposals were accepted by the State Board of Trade and Industry, Mongolia's Medee reported.

Transportation tariffs on coal exports have increased by 20%, copper and zinc concentrates exports 20%, iron ore exports 15% and fluorspar exports 15% starting from November 1.

Besides, local and national passenger transportation fares have also increased by 50%, according to Medee.

Mongolia is also about to raise energy prices of enterprises as the sector is in a difficult situation, although the specific schedule has yet to be finalized.

The working capital needed by coal mines reaches 109 billion MNT, according to energy minister Choijilsuren Battogtokh.

The household electricity and heating price will not increase, but for enterprises, power prices within 500 TWh will increase 14% and prices of power exceeded 500 TWh will increase by 38%, according to Gogo Mongolia.

(Writing by Emma Yang Editing by Tammy Yang)

Mongolia's forex reserves rose to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars at the end of October, up 3.7 percent from a month earlier, the Bank of Mongolia said Wednesday.

However, the figure marks a 36 percent decrease from the beginning of this year, the central bank said in a statement.

The Asian country must make sovereign bond payments in the coming two years, Byadran Lkhagvasuren, governor of the central bank, has said, stressing the necessity to increase the forex reserves.

In 2023 alone, Mongolia will have to repay sovereign debts worth 1.3 billion dollars, said Lkhagvasuren.

The country's forex reserves stood at 4.9 billion dollars at the end of April 2021, hitting an all-time high, according to the central bank.

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) announced Wednesday it has entered into agreements with certain funds and entities related to Pentwater Capital Management and SailingStone Capital Partners in relation to the special meeting of shareholders to vote on the acquisition of 49% of the outstanding shares of Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TRQ).

Rio has proposed a $3.3 billion deal for Turquoise Hill shares it does not already own, seeking a 66% stake in Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits.

Originally set for November 1, the meeting has been postponed until November 8. Rio said the security holders have agreed to withhold their votes at the meeting and exercise their dissent rights in respect of the arrangement.

Rio has agreed to increase the dissent condition under the agreement from 12.5% to 17.5% of Turquoise Hill shares issued and outstanding.

The parties have also agreed that the dissent proceedings with shareholders and certain other claims shall be conducted by arbitration, and the shareholders shall be paid C$34.40 of the consideration following the completion of the arrangement, with the remaining consideration payable following the final determination of the arbitration.

Rio Tinto reconfirmed that the proposal of C$43 per Turquoise Hill share is best and final.

DUBLIN - Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. in Dublin, Ireland, announced that Mongolia-based Spotter has now deployed over 12,000 animal-tracking collars based on SmartOne C and SPOT Trace.

These satellite IoT devices are being used in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to track and safeguard horses, including high-value competitive racehorses. The technology is seeing rapid growth, up from 1,000 Spotter devices deployed in January 2020, now up to 240,000 horses now protected. Horses are part of daily life in Central Asia and horseracing is a major sport in Mongolia. However, with the sparsely populated nation’s 4.5 million horses roaming fence-free, keeping tabs on the animals is a major challenge for owners.

Spotter's far-reaching technology solutions that can monitor the location of millions of horses. These animals are semi-wild, and free to range across vast expanses to graze.

Spotter has developed a new hybrid IoT device that can be connected to SmartOne C. It can be fitted on specific at-risk horses and, as a result, the owner can know if the individual animal has roamed away from the herd. The system can track the breakaway horse up to a 1km radius, giving the herdsperson the opportunity to locate and retrieve the animal before it has travelled too far.

Spotter has deployed 9,000 SmartOne C-fitted collars and 3,000 built on SPOT Trace. Requirements differ among customers. The horses typically roam in herds of around 30, with one lead stallion keeping the animals together and providing protection. As a result, the group can be effectively monitored with just one collar.

Spotter has created a new hybrid collar which leverages Globalstar satellite communications along with radio transmissions to create a low-cost solution that makes it possible for owners to track individual horses as well as a herd.

The introduction of analytics to help discover optimum grazing areas is in Spotter’s technology and applications roadmap. Furthermore, Spotter believes that the requirements for its technology solution will expand far beyond horse-tracking. Spotter’s collars are already being used to track and monitor livestock, including cattle, sheep and goats, but are additionally helping conservationists to protect wildlife.

Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar and all its 21 Provinces have joined the world’s leading global collaboration to strengthen urban resilience. Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) welcomed its newest members at an official ceremony at Mongolia’s Parliament House. The event re-emphasized the ongoing need for scaled up disaster resilience action in an era of escalating climate risk.

Mongolia’s Head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Major General Ariunbuyan.G, said it was important to strengthen the capacity of local governments and maintain a strong coordinated national-local approach to address such a challenging riskscape. ‘The frequency of disasters in Mongolia is increasing, especially due to climate change, putting urban areas at greater risk,’

Major General Ariunbuyan.G said. ‘Joining MCR2030 will contribute to ensuring Mongolia's sustainable development, reduce risks, protect lives, and provide opportunities to live in a healthy and safe environment,’ Advisor of the Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Oyunchimeg.P, highlighted Mongolia’s pride in being recognized for its efforts beyond its borders.

‘As risks and vulnerability of cities continue to increase globally, there is still a lot of work that we can do together. I am confident that the Mongolian cities participating in MCR2030 will closely coordinate disaster risk reduction efforts to create safe, resilient, and sustainable cities,’ she said.

Mr. Baatarhuu, Head of the Administration Department of Ulaanbaatar Capital City said it was important for Ulaanbaatar to provide a lead for other provinces. ‘The city of Ulaanbaatar commits to work hard to strengthen resilience, and to learn from international partners participating in the MCR2030,’ he said. The UN Resident Coordinator for Mongolia, Mr. Tapan Mishra, echoed how MCR2030 provides a big opportunity for Mongolian provinces to further strengthen their resilience and expand partnerships. ‘I am glad to see that Mongolia is now part of MCR2030. Disaster risk reduction is an important part of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Mongolia. The UN will continue to support local governments in Mongolia in their resilience efforts,’ Mr Mishra said.

NEMA, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), is organizing an MCR2030 technical workshop to support the provincial governments to increase their disaster resilience action. The Head of UNDRR’s Global Education and Training Institute and Office for Northeast Asia,

Mr Sanjaya Bhatia, praised Mongolia’s continued commitment to and leadership on disaster resilience. ‘Mongolia was a champion of the original MCR Campaign where it offered a model of coordinated national-local approach to risk reduction. This inspired many other countries and deserves recognition,’ Mr Bhatia said. ‘Joining MCR2030 is an important step for the local governments of Mongolia. I have no doubt that MCR2030 will benefit Mongolian provinces and at the same time the experience of these local governments will also benefit the MCR2030 global network.’

UNDRR has been a long-standing partner in Mongolia. In recent years, it has provided significant support to Ulaanbaatar and the provinces to use UNDRR’s Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities to identify strengths and gaps to inform their subsequent plans. As a result, the capital and all provinces achieved Sendai Framework global target (e) by 2020 with the development (and subsequent implementation) of local disaster risk reduction strategies. Mongolia has a strong track record in leading the disaster resilience agenda both nationally and internationally. Over the past two decades, the national government, through NEMA, has consistently prioritized disaster risk reduction as integral to its domestic development agenda. In 2018, the country hosted the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.

MCR2030 is a United Nations-led global network that has mobilized 1,442 local governments, representing almost 449 million people, committed to strengthening their disaster and climate resilience. The partnership has also convened national governments, municipality associations, service providers, as well as 12 core partners that are a ‘who’s who’ of international organizations active on urban resilience.