On August 1, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Mongolia inaugurated a new hybrid energy system in Altai soum, in the western Gobi-Altai aimag. The project provides power in the remote soum, which is 400 kilometers away from the Altai-Uliastai energy system, with the Altai Mountains lying in between.

“This new hybrid energy system will supply over 1,500 local residents, 350 households, and 25 organizations in one of Mongolia’s most isolated soums with high-quality renewable energy using inexhaustible solar energy,” said Deputy Minister of Energy M. Bayarmagnai. “This project is an example of how the government is working to provide the most essential services by bringing innovative technologies to the benefit of the people.”

The Altai soum hybrid project is one of the renewable energy projects supported under ADB’s Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project, which will support 41 megawatts of distributed renewable energy systems. These subprojects will use a range of renewable energy technologies to supply clean electricity and heat in geographically scattered load centers in the less-developed region of Western Mongolia. The project was approved in September 2018 with ADB loan financing and grant cofinancing from the Strategic Climate Fund and Japan Fund for the Joint Crediting Mechanism.

The project features the latest innovative technologies of off-grid solar power plants such as BMS (battery management system) and EMS (energy management system), a first-of-its kind application in the country, and advances Mongolia’s efforts to expand renewable energy capacity.

“The new hybrid system is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to shift to use of more modern and cleaner technologies in the country,” said ADB Principal Energy Specialist Shannon Cowlin. “Not only will the system provide secure power supply to the people, it will do so without contributing to localized air pollution, which can affect even isolated regions of Mongolia during winter months.”

The Ministry of Energy of Mongolia signed the engineering, procurement, and construction contract with the winning bidder, a joint venture of Shuangdeng Group from the People’s Republic of China and ESPM International from Mongolia, for the hybrid system in the third quarter of 2021 and construction spanned October 2021­­–July 2022. The contract award of $1.1 million covered expansion and upgrade of the previous hybrid system serving the community.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source: ADB Mongolia

The world is one misstep from devastating nuclear war and in peril not seen since the Cold War, the UN Secretary General has warned.

"We have been extraordinarily lucky so far," Antonio Guterres said.

Amid rising global tensions, "humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation", he added.

His remarks came at the opening of a conference for countries signed up to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The 1968 deal was introduced after the Cuban missile crisis, an event often portrayed as the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The treaty was designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to more countries, and to pursue the ultimate goal of complete nuclear disarmament.

Almost every nation on Earth is signed up to the NPT, including the five biggest nuclear powers. But among the handful of states never to sign are four known or suspected to have nuclear weapons: India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan.

Secretary General Guterres said the "luck" the world had enjoyed so far in avoiding a nuclear catastrophe may not last - and urged the world to renew a push towards eliminating all such weapons.

"Luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict," he said.

And he warned that those international tensions were "reaching new highs" - pointing specifically to the invasion of Ukraine, tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Middle East as examples.

Russia was widely accused of escalating tensions when days after his invasion of Ukraine in February, President Vladimir Putin put Russia's substantial nuclear forces on high alert.

He also threatened anyone standing in Russia's way with consequences "you have never seen in your history". Russia's nuclear strategy includes the use of nuclear weapons if the state's existence is under threat.

On Monday, Mr Putin wrote to the same non-proliferation conference Mr Guterres opened, declaring that "there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed".

But Russia still found itself criticised at the NPT conference.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called Russia's sabre-rattling - and pointed out that Ukraine had handed over its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in 1994, after receiving assurances of its future security from Russia and others.

"What message does this send to any country around the world that may think that it needs to have nuclear weapons - to protect, to defend, to deter aggression against its sovereignty and independence?" he asked. "The worst possible message".

Today, some 13,000 nuclear weapons are thought to remain in service in the arsenals of the nine nuclear-armed states - far lower than the estimated 60,000 stockpiled during the peak of the mid-1980s.

Russia has increased natural gas deliveries to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline this year, Russian energy major Gazprom said on its official Telegram channel on Monday.

Deliveries were up 60.9% compared to the same period last year.

“In particular, in July deliveries were regularly in excess of the daily contract quantities, with the historical record of the daily export volume being surpassed three times,” Gazprom said.

Meanwhile, Gazprom’s export to non-CIS countries amounted to 75.3 billion cubic meters, which is 34.7% (40 billion cubic meters) less than during the same period in 2021. The company stressed, however, that it was supplying gas “in accordance with customer requests.”

According to preliminary data, global demand in Gazprom’s supplies in the first seven months of 2022 fell by about 35 billion cubic meters compared to the same period in 2021. Most of the decline, totaling 31 billion cubic meters, came from EU buyers, Gazprom noted. This is due to several factors including the conflict in Ukraine, EU sanctions and Russia’s counter-sanctions, and the bloc’s new policy towards reducing its reliance on Russian energy.

The Power of Siberia pipeline supplies natural gas from Russia’s Yakutia to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. It is a joint project of Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which supplies China with Russian energy under a 30-year-contract signed in 2014.

A joint military engineering exercise, ‘Road-2022’, between the Mongolian Armed Forces and the Japan Self-Defense Forces started today.

The 20-day exercise will be based on the military unit No. 014 to build road dams and drainage facilities. In practice, some engineering techniques and equipment supplied by the U.S. Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Defense of Mongolia with a grant will be put into operation and used.

Brigadier General Ts.Tsogtjargal pointed out that the joint exercise has an important place in the military cooperation of the two countries, and noted that it makes a valuable contribution to strengthening the military engineering capabilities of Mongolia. He also emphasized that it provides great support to the preparations for the participation of an engineering military company from the Mongolian Armed Forces in the United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Kobayashi Hiroyuki said, “The exercise used to be conducted under the supervision of the Japanese trainers in the previous years. However, this year, the Mongolian participants will conduct it independently. This proves that Mongolian soldiers have unparalleled skills in learning and adapting”, while wishing for success to the participants.

The opening ceremony of the joint military exercise was attended by Commander of the Land Forces of the Mongolian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ch.Tsogtjargal, Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Defense B.Bat-Erdene, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Kobayashi Hiroyuki and other relevant officials and participants in the exercise.

The ‘Road’ joint military exercise is held as part of the program – ‘Increasing the capacity of the engineering sector of the Mongolian Armed Forces’, within the framework of the agreement established between the Ministries of Defense of Mongolia and Japan. With aims to upskill military engineers in road construction methods, prepare teaching staff, and exchange experience, the exercise has been organized annually since 2014.

China’s banks face mortgage losses of $350 billion in a worst-case scenario as confidence plunges in the nation’s property market and authorities struggle to contain deepening turmoil.

A spiraling crisis of stalled projects has dented the confidence of hundreds of thousands of homebuyers, triggering a mortgage boycott across more than 90 cities and warnings of broader systemic risks. The big question now is not if, but how much it will batter the nation’s $56 trillion banking system.

In a worst-case scenario, S&P Global Ratings estimated that 2.4 trillion yuan ($356 billion), or 6.4% of mortgages, are at risk while Deutsche Bank AG is warning that at least 7% of home loans are in danger. So far, listed banks have reported just 2.1 billion yuan in delinquent mortgages as directly affected by the boycotts.

“Banks are caught in the middle,” said Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong Business School. “If they don’t help the developers finish the projects, they would end up losing much more. If they do, that of course would make the government happy, but they add more to their exposure to delayed real estate projects.”

Already rattled by headwinds from slowing economic growth, Covid disruptions and record high youth unemployment, Beijing is placing financial and social stability at the top of its priorities. Efforts that have been contemplated so far included a grace period on mortgage payments and a central bank-backed fund to lend financial support to developers. Either way, banks are expected to play an active role in a concerted state bailout.

The exposure of Chinese banks to the property sector tops that of any other industry. There were 39 trillion yuan of outstanding mortgages and another 13 trillion yuan of loans to developers at the end of March, according to data from the People’s Bank of China.

The real estate market is “the ultimate foundation” for financial stability in China, Teneo Holdings managing director Gabriel Wildau said in a note this month.

As authorities move to keep risks in check, lenders with high exposure could come under greater scrutiny. Mortgages accounted for about 34% of total loans at Postal Savings Bank of China Co. and China Construction Bank Corp. at the end of 2021, above a regulatory cap of 32.5% for the biggest banks.

About 7% of outstanding mortgage loans could be impacted if the defaults spread, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Lucia Kwong. That estimate may still be conservative given the limited access to information on the unfinished projects, she said.

To limit the fallout, China could tap into the excess capital and surplus loan provisions at its 10 biggest lenders, which amounts to a combined 4.8 trillion yuan, according to a report by Francis Chan and Kristy Hung, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Local banks -- city and rural commercial lenders -- could shoulder more responsibility than state peers, based on earlier bailouts and also due to their stronger ties with local governments, though their capital buffers lag far behind industry average.

Chinese banks have raised a record amount of capital in the first half from bond sales as they prepare for a potential spike in soured loans.

Bad loans at lenders, which amounted to 2.9 trillion yuan at the end of March, are poised to reach new records and further strain an economy that’s expanding at the slowest pace since the onset of the Covid outbreak.

While China’s total debt-to-GDP is forecast to climb to a fresh record this year, consumers have been reluctant to take on more leverage. That has ignited a debate over the risk of China falling into a “balance sheet recession,” with households and companies cutting back on spending and investing.

Disposable income growth is slowing, further hurting the ability of homebuyers to service their debts. China’s home price weakness had spread to 48 of 70 major cities in June, up from 20 in January.

S&P Global forecast home sales could drop as much as 33% this year amid the mortgage boycott, further squeezing the liquidity of distressed developers and leading to more defaults. Some 28 of the top 100 developers by sales have either defaulted on bonds or negotiated debt extensions with creditors over the past year, according to Teneo.

Property investments, which drive demand for goods and services that account for about 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product, plunged 9.4% in June.

Bank earnings are at stake. After recording the fastest profit expansion in nearly a decade last year, the nation’s lenders face a challenging 2022 as the government pressures them to support the economy at the cost of earnings.

A 10 percentage-point slowdown in real estate investment growth translates into a 28 basis-point increase in overall bad loans, meaning a 17% decline in their 2022 earnings, Citigroup analysts led by Judy Zhang estimated in a July 19 report.

The Hang Seng index of mainland banks has plunged 12% this month.

— With assistance by Charlie Zhu, Amanda Wang, Emma Dong, Lisa Du, and Yujing Liu

The first ship carrying grain has left a Ukrainian port under a landmark deal with Russia.

Turkish and Ukrainian officials say the ship left the southern port of Odesa early on Monday morning local time.

Russia has been blockading Ukrainian ports since February, but the two sides agreed a deal to resume shipments.

It is hoped the deal will ease the global food crisis and lower the price of grain.

Turkey said the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel, the Razoni, would dock at the port of Tripoli in Lebanon, adding that further shipments were planned over the coming weeks.

The Joint Co-ordination Centre, set up in Istanbul under the deal, said the ship was carrying some 26,000 tonnes of corn and was expected to arrive in Turkish waters for inspection on Tuesday.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the departure of the ship and hailed Turkey for its role in working to implement the agreement.

"Today Ukraine, together with partners, takes another step to prevent world hunger," Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov wrote on Facebook.

"Unlocking ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for next year."

Mr Kubrakov added that 16 other ships were waiting to depart in the ports of Odesa Region in the coming weeks.

Last month's deal - brokered by the UN and Turkey - took two months to reach and is set to last for 120 days. It can be renewed if both parties agree.

The blockade of Ukraine's grain has contributed to a global food crisis with wheat-based products like bread and pasta becoming more expensive, and cooking oils and fertiliser also increasing in price.

Russia and Ukraine jointly account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. In 2019 Ukraine accounted for 16% of the world's corn supplies and 42% of sunflower oil, according to UN data.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the shipment a "relief for the world" and urged Moscow to "respect its part of the deal".

Under the terms of the deal, Russia has agreed not to target ports while shipments are in transit and Ukraine has agreed that its naval vessels will guide cargo ships through waters that have been mined.

Turkey - supported by the United Nations - will inspect ships, to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling.

Three ports in southern Ukraine - Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny - are expected to be the focal point of the exports.

Last month's deal was thrown into chaos less than 24 hours after it was announced that Russia had launched two missiles at Odesa port.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike showed that Moscow could not be trusted to stick to the deal.

But the Kremlin said the attack was aimed at a Ukrainian naval ship docked at the port and insisted that the strike did not affect the agreement.

Odesa MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC he expected shipments to continue from the other ports on Tuesday but warned Russia might attempt to disrupt them with further military action.

"We see these awful missile attacks against Odesa in the last days - that is just their attempts to increase the risks for ship owners, for crew, not to come to Odesa," he said.

Mongolia’s frontier market and vast mineral reserves represent potentially lucrative opportunities for investors but vulnerability to external economic and financial shocks, ineffective dispute resolution, and lack of input from stakeholders during rulemaking warrant caution. Mongolia imposes few market-access barriers, and investors face few investment restrictions, enjoying mostly unfettered market access. Such franchises as fast food and convenience stores, outperforming expectations, suggest that investors can bring successful international business models to Mongolia. The cashmere-apparel and agricultural sectors also show strong promise. However, investing into such politically sensitive sectors as mining carry higher risk.

Mongolia attracts investors’ attention but has trouble converting interest into actual investments. Unless and until Mongolia embraces a stable business environment that both transparently creates and predictably implements laws and regulations, many investors will find its market too risky and opt for more competitive countries. An essential step to mitigating these risks is for Mongolia to implement the U.S.-Mongolia Agreement on Transparency in Matters Related to International Trade and Investment (known as the Transparency Agreement), which requires a public-comment period before new regulations become final. Mongolia has implemented some of this agreement but is five years behind full implementation of public-notice commitments.

2021 also saw resolution of some of the disputes hampering progress of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, expected to provide 25 percent of Mongolia’s GDP as soon as 2024. Agreements over cost- and debt-sharing of a portion of the mine’s development, and commitments to more transparency by Oyu Tolgoi’s partners over management and development decisions, signals that Mongolia can and will work out disputes within the terms of its contractual obligations.

Government and parliament continue to address threats to judicial independence by implementing 2019 constitutional amendments and 2020 statutory judicial reforms that have improved transparency and reduced political influence in the appointment and removal of judges. Investors, however, continue to cite long delays in reaching court judgments, followed by similarly long delays in enforcing decisions, as well as reports that administrative inspection bodies, such as the tax authority, will fail to act on politically sensitive decisions or cases involving politically exposed Mongolians. Businesses note substantial and unpredictable regulatory burdens at all levels; and cite an excessively slow tax dispute resolution process as an indirect expropriation risk. In June 2022, parliament streamlined procedures for, and reduced the required number of, permits and licenses. Government effort to move delivery of most services onto digital platforms may also increase the efficiency of its business registration processes.

COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are stressing Mongolia’s economy. In late 2021, Mongolia’s parliament passed its New Recovery Policy, a 10-year development plan to increase national productivity by improving transport logistics, energy production, industrialization, urban and rural infrastructure, and green development. This program depends on restoring market access for mining exports, the primary revenue source. However, as of early 2022, China’s zero-COVID policies continue to create bottlenecks along the Mongolia-China border. Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting unprecedented international sanctions on Russia, has created uncertainty about access to imports of petroleum products, electricity, and such key commodities as wheat and fertilizer.

See full statement on the link https://mn.usembassy.gov/2022-investment-climate.../

Twenty-eighth seed Mongolian women's team caused the biggest upset in the Women's Chess Olympiad, blanking seventh seed United States 3-1 in the third round of the Women's Chess Olympiad here at the four points Sheraton.

A determined effort on the top two boards helped the Mongolian eves keep the balance, and on the last two boards, they proved superior to cruise to what would be remembered as a remarkable victory. This early loss for the United States might prove crucial.

With eight rounds still to come in the 11-round team event, as many as 19 teams remained unscathed and now share the lead on 6 points apiece from three matches. With each match won by a minimal score of 2.5 points counted as two points, sometimes the relevance of the individual games between players gets under wrap.

The three Indian teams in the fray, including the top seed India A got into the winner's bracket for the third day running, but most of the closest rivals also cruised home with victories. Second seed Ukraine scored an impressive 4-0 victory over Slovakia, wherein top board player Mariya Muzychuk shrugged off her second-round loss and prevailed over Zuzana Borosova.

Third seed Georgia had to work hard for a full match point, but Nino Batsiashvili came to the team's rescue scoring an important win over Joanna Worek to secure a 2.5-1.5 victory as all other games ended in draws.

Showing the resolve they are known for, the Polish team had a field day against Vietnam and romped home with a 3-1 win, while Italian eves could only eke out one point out of four against fifth seed France winning by the same score.

With each round worth two points and most of the top seeds still in there with a clean score, the battles are only going to get tougher in the coming days.

Standings after Round 3 can be found at https://chessolympiad.fide.com/women-standings.

For a complete list of results, please visit the official website at https://chessolympiad.fide.com/women-results.

Ports in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region linking Mongolia are reopening as the COVID-19 outbreaks have eased there, which an expert said will further promote trade despite global uncertainties and geopolitical tensions. And, booming trade is expected to help alleviate Mongolia's economic difficulties.

Zhuengadabuqi Port in Dong Ujimchin Banner, bordering Mongolia, has formally resumed customs services, after it was shut down on September 15, 2021 due to the latest wave of coronavirus outbreaks along the China-Mongolia border, a staff member from Dongwu Customs, which is in charge of the port, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"In order for the port capacity to recover as soon as possible, the port opened a 'green passage' on July 25 that allows the passage of people and cargo from both sides, including vehicles and machines," said the staff member. By Saturday, a total of 108 vehicles and 350.6 tons of goods had been exported to Mongolia via the port, according to the staff member.

To prevent cross-border transmission of COVID-19, local authorities have set up specific areas for containers of coal and crude oil, while efforts have also been made to put the port under closed-loop management, the staff member said.

The reopening of ports linking China and Mongolia will boost the exchanges of major commodities including coal, crude oil and machinery, Sun Huijun, an expert on relations between China, Mongolia and Central Asian countries, told the Global Times on Sunday.

According to industry newspaper China Metallurgical News, Mongolia's coal exports surged 225.8 percent on a yearly basis to reach 2.36 million tons in June, the highest since February 2021. The country's coal exports to China jumped 224.2 percent year-on-year in the month to hit 2.1 million tons, it said.

Generally, major goods imported from Mongolia to China via Zhuengadabuqi Port are crude oil, coal and iron ore. In 2021, more than 145,000 tons of crude oil, 379,700 tons of coking coal and 1,270 tons of iron ore were imported through Zhuengadabuqi Port, according to customs data.

"With an international energy crisis amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, increasing coal and oil imports from Mongolia will help increase strategic reserve of leading industrial materials for China," Sun said, noting that "ensuring smooth trade between the two countries will effectively reduce Mongolia's heavy economic pressure caused by the pandemic."

A report released by the World Bank in April projected that Mongolia's economy could grow by 2.5 percent in 2022, saying that its economic growth is being dragged down by protracted trade disruptions and logistical bottlenecks due to border closures.

In a sign of rapidly recovering trade, Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province has launched a new freight train service to Mongolia, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Carrying about 440 tons of goods valued at $1.4 million, including motorbikes, aluminum empty cans and security doors, the train is expected to arrive in Ulan Bator on August 1, it said.

On July 20, a batch of aid commodities including steel plates, street lights and electric gates were transported through Uligi port in Inner Mongolia to Mongolia, marking the first temporary opening of the port this year, said a statement on the Hohhot customs website.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Uligi Port was ordered to open only from the 15th to 25th of each month from March to December, and was first opened in 2022 on July 20, a staff member from Alxa customs, which is in charge of Uligi Port, told the Global Times on Sunday.

A total of 26.3 tons of cargo valued for 862,000 yuan was exported through the Uligi Port to the Mongolia on the first port-opening day, said the staff member.

"Mongolia on the other side of Uligi Port has abundant mineral reserve, including the world's largest coking coal mine," said the staff member, while noting that bilateral mineral trade has not started yet via the port.

The Chinese and Mongolian economies are complementary and have great cooperation potential, with China owning a large market, advanced technologies and sufficient capital, while Mongolia is home to rich mineral resources.

The two countries have maintained close economic relations. China has been Mongolia's biggest trading partner and the top source of foreign investment for 18 consecutive years. According to data from Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the bilateral trade volume hit $9.12 billion in 2021, up 35.3 percent year-on-year.

By giving play to China's advantage in infrastructure, the two countries should strengthen cooperation in this regard to realize infrastructure connections as soon as possible, Sun said, suggesting the two sides step up cooperation in emerging sectors including logistics, cross-border tourism and finance as well.

He said the booming economic cooperation between China and Mongolia will contribute to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative in the post-COVID-19 era and inject impetus into the recovery of global industrial and supply chains.

In Mongolia, the vaccine against COVID-19 has started being administered to children aged between 5 and 11 years old from today, August 1, on a voluntary basis.

There are about 500 thousand children aged 5-11 nationwide, of whom 25.7 percent are planned to be involved in the vaccination, reported Vaccination Department of the National Center for Communicable Diseases.