AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes has said worldwide travel is likely to rebound strongly despite progress being slowed by the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

“I do believe that we’re at the beginning of the end,” he told CNBC on Monday, adding that recovery has already begun in earnest and demand has been “very, very robust.”

Fernandes said, “The good thing is, this time last year, we had no planes flying. Now, we’ve got a large chunk of our fleet flying domestic Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.”

The AirAsia CEO believes international travel will return to pre-Covid levels around six months after borders begin to reopen. He also said he hopes borders will start to open again in March.

According to Fernandes, China continues to be a “big question” in terms of reopening, as the nation is still pursuing a zero-Covid policy.

Last year, some Asian countries reopened to quarantine-free travel after months of border closures. However, with the spread of Omicron, several countries, including Thailand and India, have reinstated restrictions for some arrivals.

On January 10, executive officials of customs organizations convened at the Customs General Administration. During the meeting, it was highlighted that:

• Of MNT 3.560 trillion that was planned to be contributed to the state budget in 2021, customs duties amounted to MNT 3.509 trillion which makes up 98.6 percent of the year’s goal.

• 933 cases of customs offences were inspected and resolved, imposing MNT 1.6 billion in fines and MNT 2.7 billion in taxes.

• By introducing the digital system, 33 types of services offered for entities and 14 types of services offered for citizens were fully digitized alongside making 9 types of permissions possible to be obtained online.

For the new year, the Customs General Administration aims to have operations transition into a digital form by creating the appropriate conditions.

In the year of 2021, operations were halted at the Zamiin-Uud and Shiveekhuren border checkpoints for 72 days and 42 days respectively due to the pandemic situation.

Furthermore, works for construction and renewal at border checkpoints such as those located in Zamiin-Uud, Altanbulag, Sukhbaatar, Borshoo, and Khushig Valley are planned to be completed this year. Regarding the matter, Deputy Head of the Customs General Administration B.Batkhishig said, “Alongside continuing to carry out works to renew border checkpoints this year, the appropriate conditions will be created in order to introduce new methods for transportation that require less human interaction. This includes container transportation, cable cars, and railways. Automated container transportation platforms are planned to be introduced at the Mongolia-China border.”

The construction of the very first terminal for container transportation was launched at Gashuunsukhait border checkpoint in July, and test runs were done in October. With the establishment of this particular type of terminal at the Shiveekhuren border checkpoint, it will become possible to annually transport 7.6 tons of coal. If the construction of such terminals and railways are able to be efficiently carried out, operations will not be affected by the circumstances posed by the pandemic, said the officials.

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) said on Monday is expects to produce between 290,000 to 340,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate in 2022 at its Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Canadian miner, which began production at the asset last year, said output for the year ended December 31 yielded 105,884 tonnes of copper concentrate, which exceeded the upper end of the increased guidance range of 92,500 to 100,000 tonnes. The year-end total was boosted by record monthly production of 18,853 tonnes achieved in December, the company said.

Guidance range for cash costs per pound of payable copper in 2022 has been set at between $1.20 and $1.40 per pound, below the $1.37 per pound Ivanhoe achieved in the final quarter of 2021.

Ivanhoe said it is now focused on completing the mine’s Phase 2’s concentrator plant expansion, which is expected to start production in the second quarter of 2022, about three months ahead of schedule.

The company said the project will double the mine’s nameplate milling throughput to 7.6 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). Phases 1 and 2 combined are forecast to produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of copper per year.

The Phase 3 expansion is also advancing, Ivanhoe said, with work ongoing on new box cut to open up the Kamoa mine. An updated pre-feasibility study (PFS), including the Phase 3 expansion, is expected in the third quarter of the year.

“Our outstanding team of geologists is confident that the Kamoa and Kakula mines are just the initial discoveries of a major new mining district, which extends the storied African Copperbelt in a southwesterly direction all the way to the Zambian border,” Ivanhoe co-chairperson Robert Friedland said in the statement.

“We will be conducting an extensive drilling campaign on our majority-owned Western Foreland exploration licences this year to unlock the potential of this highly-prospective ground,” Friedland noted.

Second-largest copper mine

Ivanhoe inked a deal in June with China’s Zijin Mining’s DRC subsidiary and trader Citic Metal to sell each 50% of the copper production from the mine.

Mining billionaire Friedland has said the project will become the world’s second-largest copper mine and the one with the highest grades among major operations.

He also believes the DRC has the potential to become the world’s top copper producer, overtaking Chile.

The company has also vowed to produce the industry’s “greenest” copper, as it works to become the first net-zero operational carbon emitter among the world’s top-tier copper producers. Friedland has not yet set a target date for achieving that goal.

Ivanhoe also is advancing development of the Platreef palladium-rhodium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold discovery in South Africa, scheduled to begin production in 2024. A feasibility study for the project should be completed in early 2022, the miner said.

In the DRC, the company is upgrading the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-lead-germanium mine, for a resumption of production.

Ivanhoe shares have doubled in value over the past year and were trading more almost 4% higher on Monday in Toronto at C$11.09 a piece. The company has a market capitalization of C$13.17 billion ($10.4 billion).

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, social norms in Mongolia have long dictated that women shoulder the heavier burden of childcare and domestic work. COVID-19 has not only laid bare this reality, but has exacerbated it.

As the pandemic struck, the Government of Mongolia responded quickly by shutting schools as early as January 2020, leaving many parents in a difficult predicament. The additional work of home schooling saw the care burden increase significantly, for both men and women. However, deeply entrenched patriarchal norms and structures meant that this had a disproportionate impact on women. Recent qualitative research by The Asia Foundation revealed that working mothers had to make major changes to adapt, such as closing their businesses, reducing operations, and quitting their jobs.

Many working mothers, however, did not have the option of leaving work to care for their children, either full- or part-time. Women in the public sector found it especially difficult to adjust their working hours, given many were directly involved in providing the government’s COVID-19 response. They described stress and exhaustion in trying to juggle their work and childcare duties.

35-year-old Dulmaa said she had to work long shifts and, when she finally had time to go home to be with her family, she was often called back to her workplace to attend mandatory “emergency meetings”. Failure to show up would have resulted in salary reductions. She described being increasingly stressed because she had little or no time to spend with her daughter.

The impact of the pandemic on some women working in the private sector was similar. While many private sector workers enjoy greater autonomy, this does not always mean freedom to modify work schedules. Bayarmaa, a 33-year-old beauty salon owner, had just started her business when COVID-19 struck, and was unable to reduce her work hours as she needed to repay a bank loan. The closure of kindergartens meant she had no choice but to ask her elderly mother to help with childcare. Her mother was also looking after her sister’s children at the same time.

These kinds of challenges have been recognised, and the government at various levels has attempted to address the additional burdens through a variety of policy measures. For instance, they encouraged private employers to institute flexible working hours, and they provided an extra hour of paid leave to parents in the public sector. Yet, given the entrenched nature of the unequal distribution of domestic labour, working mothers, and often their mothers too, have continued to struggle.

Social norms and values that relegate the bulk of labour in the care economy – childcare, care of the elderly, healthcare and education – to women, are also internalised by women themselves. Working women described feelings of guilt over not being able to look after their children themselves, and for “burdening” their immediate family members. Women often see themselves as inadequately fulfilling their “primary role” as mothers.

The pandemic has magnified the gendered distribution of the care economy in Mongolia, and its consequences for working women. In the second year of the pandemic, the need for change has become more urgent.

In the short term, planning and action are needed to provide emergency childcare support. Yet without broader structural change, entering the workforce and building a career will remain an uphill battle for Mongolian women.

Short-term measures need to be the precursor to longer-term initiatives that see greater investment in the care economy, greater recognition of the contribution of unpaid labour to the productive economy, and dedicated efforts to change social norms and values around masculinity, fatherhood, and men’s involvement in parenting. Through programs such as paid paternity leave, not only can men be incentivised to take a much more active role in the care of small children, but emerging evidence suggests that more positive norms of fatherhood are also inspired in the longer term.

As the pandemic has shown, Mongolia, along with most of the world, still has a long way to go in terms of redistributing the burden of childcare and domestic work more equitably between men and women. The pandemic has demonstrated – here and elsewhere – that in a crisis, stubborn inequalities of this kind can dramatically increase a country’s social and economic vulnerability.

BY: Khaliun Boldbaatar

This post is part of a collaborative series with The Asia Foundation. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of research participants.

Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia registered 1,208 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number since Nov. 5, 2021, bringing the national tally to 397,664, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.

Among the latest confirmed cases, 36 were imported from abroad, the ministry said, adding the country's COVID-19 death toll remains at 2,001.

The Asian country confirmed its first imported and local cases of the Omicron variant last week.

The emergence of Omicron indicates the beginning of a fourth wave of the pandemic in the country, the country's health authorities said, urging the public to follow all relevant health guidelines.

So far, 66.6 percent of the total population has received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while more than 941,119 people aged over 18 have received a third dose.

Starting from Friday, the country has offered a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on a voluntary basis.

Russia and Mongolia have adopted a declaration that sets clear targets in terms of boosting cooperation between the two countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced following talks with his Mongolian counterpart U.Khurelsukh late last month. The Treaty on Friendly Relations and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2019.

When speaking about economic cooperation, Putin emphasized that Russia was one of Mongolia’s major trade partners. According to him, despite the difficulties created by the coronavirus pandemic, trade between the two countries grew by 24 percent in the first nine months of the year. Putin also pointed to the effective work of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, research and technical cooperation. The Russian president noted that at a meeting in November, the commission had outlined new specific plans for cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, mining, energy, agriculture, and digital technologies.

During 2021, the main exports of Russia to Mongolia were refined petroleum, raw iron bars, railway freight cars, electricity, and insulated wire. The main imports by Russia from Mongolia were feldspar, knit socks and hosiery, knit sweaters, other Engines, and railway freight cars. Bilateral trade is currently running at about USD 1.8 billion.

State Emergency Commission of Mongolia called its meeting yesterday, January 10 to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the country and gave instructions to relevant officials on the improvement of home treatment of COVID-19. Secretary of the SEC T. Bayarkhuu introduced the SEC’s decision to the press.

The SEC recommends that vaccinated people and people who are experiencing mild illness be treated at home as the hospital workload is likely to increase during the peak of Omicron. The SEC will pay special attention to hospitalization of unvaccinated children, the elderly and pregnant women. He said, “The Minister of Health has previously reported on the local transmission of Omicron variant of SARS Cov-2, and the Government has not issued any decision to impose restrictions and quarantine. As of today, 66.6 percent of the total population have been fully immunized while 28.8 percent of the population have received the third dose. Since the issuance of a decision to ensure adult population to get fourth dose voluntarily, more than 2000 people have received their fourth jab so far. The fourth wave, driven by Omicron, starts in the country and is predicted to peak from the 20th of this month to the 10th of next month. It is estimated that 18-20 thousand daily cases may occur during the height of pandemic.”

Moreover, the SEC urges elders, pregnant women, and those who have not been vaccinated not to participate in public activities during the Omicron wave. Businesses and organizations are also recommended to take organizational measures internally, such as to shift to remote work or work in shifts.

On January 10, Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs Kh.Nyambaatar informed that freight will be transported from the Mongolia-China border to Zamiin-Uud by 200 professional drivers at police agencies, border patrol, and emergency departments.

During a press conference, he said, “Containers to be delivered to Mongolia are currently being kept by the Customs of Erlian city, PRC. A Chinese company named, ‘Sino Trans’, is in charge of transporting the freight to the Mongolia-China border. There are currently 7,000 drivers that can be mobilized to bring the freight into the country. However, as it is impossible to have all of the drivers strictly follow infection prevention guidelines, it was decided to have 200 professional drivers currently employed at state special organizations to transport the freight from the border to Zamiin-Uud border checkpoint, and have the 7,000 drivers transport the freight from Zamiin-Uud to Ulaanbaatar. Test runs for transportation will commence tomorrow."

Russia will ban businesses with significant offshore ownership from receiving government support as part of Moscow’s ongoing campaign to push Russian firms to bring their corporate headquarters back home.

Firms where offshore entities have a stake of at least 25% in the business will not be able to get help through programs such as emergency coronavirus relief or low-interest government-backed loans from Jan. 1, 2023, the Finance Ministry said.

Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Switzerland are among the countries Russia considers “offshore” for the purposes of enforcing the legislation, the Vedomosti news site reported Monday, citing the Finance Ministry. Some 57 countries and jurisdictions were included on the list in total, including U.S. states Delaware and Wyoming, home to many international companies due to their favorable corporate tax rates.

Cyprus, in particular, is a popular destination for Russian companies to register their corporate headquarters, due to its status as a low-tax jurisdiction, an EU member and its use of a legal system based on English law.

The new rules will deprive some of Russia’s largest companies of government support from next year, unless they undertake potentially complex and expensive restructuring, consultants warned. Metals giants NLMK and Nornickel would lose access to government funds, as would digital bank Tinkoff and the country’s largest alcohol retailer Mercury Retail Group.

Moscow has taken steps in recent years to clamp down on Russian companies registered abroad in low-tax jurisdictions. Analysts see the move as motivated both by a desire to bring funds back into the country — in line with international attempts to frustrate the use of low-tax jurisdictions by the world’s largest companies — and subjugate Russian firms to Russian laws and courts, thus increasing the Kremlin’s ability to control them.

The Finance Ministry said 1.9 trillion rubles ($25 billion) of corporate earnings made in Russia were booked in Cyprus in 2019, and the value of dividends sent to owners registered on the Mediterranean island tripled to more than 300 billion rubles ($4 billion) in the first nine months of 2021.

Russia has revised double taxation treaties with a number of low-tax jurisdictions to increase the tax paid to Russia on dividends sent abroad. Moscow also revoked a double tax treaty with the Netherlands — another hub for Russian companies such as the country’s largest technology firm Yandex and supermarket group X5 Retail Group — in 2021 after the country refused to agree to Moscow’s new terms of higher tax rates.

The Netherlands was not included on the Finance Ministry’s new list of offshore jurisdictions.

The president of crisis-hit Sri Lanka has asked China to restructure its debt repayments as part of efforts to help the South Asian country navigate its worsening financial situation.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the request during a meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday.

In the last decade China has lent Sri Lanka over $5bn (£3.7bn) for projects including roads, an airport and ports.

But critics say the money was used for unnecessary schemes with low returns.

"The president pointed out that it would be a great relief to the country if attention could be paid on restructuring the debt repayments as a solution to the economic crisis that has arisen in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic," Mr Rajapaksa's office said.

The statement also said China was asked to provide "concessional" terms for its exports to Sri Lanka, which amounted to around $3.5bn last year, without providing further details.

Mr Rajapaksa also offered to allow Chinese tourists to return to Sri Lanka provided they adhere to strict coronavirus regulations.

Before the pandemic, China was one of Sri Lanka's main sources of tourists. And it imports more goods from China than from any other country.

In recent months, Sri Lanka has been experiencing a severe debt and foreign exchange crisis, which has been made worse by the loss of tourist income during the pandemic.

China is Sri Lanka's fourth biggest lender, behind international financial markets, the Asian Development Bank and Japan.

The country has received billions of dollars of soft loans from China but the island nation has been engulfed in a foreign exchange crisis which some analysts have said has pushed it to the verge of default.

Sri Lanka has to repay about $4.5bn in debt this year starting with a $500m international sovereign bond, which matures on 18 January.

The country's central bank has repeatedly assured investors that all of its debt repayments will be met and said funds for this month's bond repayment has already been allocated.

Sri Lanka is a key part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a long-term plan to fund and build infrastructure linking China to the rest of the world.

However, some countries, including the US, have labelled the project a "debt trap" for smaller and poorer nations.

Beijing has always rejected those accusations, and in response has accused some in the West of promoting this narrative to tarnish its image.

Last month a Sri Lankan government minister said the country planned to settle a debt for past oil imports from Iran by paying it off in tea.

It plans to send $5m worth of tea to Iran each month to clear a $251m debt.

In September, Sri Lanka declared an economic emergency, after a steep fall in the value of its currency, the rupee, caused a spike in food prices.

Authorities said they would take control of the supply of basic food items, including rice and sugar, and set prices in an attempt to control rising inflation.