The administration will strictly ban activities such as raising coal prices beyond their contracts, refusing to fulfil medium-to-long term contracts or restricting coal sales outside the production areas, it said in a statement on its website.

Local governments in Inner Mongolia region and Shanxi province, the top two coal mining regions in China, have asked their coal companies not to sell the fuel outside the areas to reduce transportation and to prevent the spread of the virus.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu, Judy Hua and Se Young Lee Editing by Shri Navaratnam).

Chen Kuei-jen (陳貴人), manager of the Taipower Football Team, said the team was originally scheduled to board a flight to the Mongolian capital Sunday morning.

They were stopped at the airline counter, however, and told that the Mongolian government has barred Taiwanese citizens from entering the country to prevent the spread of the epidemic, which is centered in China but seen as a global public health emergency.

Fan Ching-ren (方靖仁), the secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA), told CNA that the Mongolian side said the decision was part of Mongolia's epidemic response policy barring visitors from the "Chinese area," which includes China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

The CTFA and Taiwan's Foreign Ministry are currently in talks with the Mongolian side to try to convince it to revoke its travel restriction on Taiwan, Fan said.

"Taiwan is not part of China, and this is a matter of national dignity," he said.

Chen, meanwhile, said the team has rescheduled its flight to Ulaanbaatar for Monday morning and is currently staying at a hotel in Taoyuan waiting for the Mongolian side's response on the matter.

The team was heading to Mongolia to participate in a AFC Cup match against a Mongolian club on Feb. 5.

The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation.

Mongolia's government announced Friday that it would ban Chinese nationals and foreigners coming from China by plane, train or road to prevent the spread of the 2019-nCoV that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, according to an AFP report.

The ban will be enforced from Feb. 1 until March 2, according to a government statement, which also said Mongolians will be prohibited from traveling to China during the same period, the AFP report said.

(By Long Po-an and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

Chief Executive of Mongolian Investment Banking (MIGB) Group LLC, Bilguun Ankhbayar talked about the current economic situation of Mongolia amid deadly flulike virus, which had been first confirmed in Wuhan, China. It is threatening the country’s economy as well as international businesses all around the world.

-How will the coronavirus affect the commodity market?

-The commodity market index is changing drastically changing due to the price rate of consumer goods. The consumer price index is fluctuating due to emerging social and economic problems.

-Will the current situation emerged in China slow down the construction work and the steel industry. How will it affect Mongolia?

-According to a survey presented before the virus, the world economic growth was expected to cool this year. During the Lunar New Year of China, the transport sector declined about 25-45 percent. This will have a negative effect on Mongolia’s export.

-The gold price has been increasing in the last year. Is there any risk in trade?

-There is a high risk, since Mongolia imports as much as 90 percent of its consumer goods from China. Foreign reserves have increased relatively compared to 2016 but the country may face the financial crisis in 2020 due to the Government of Mongolia and the central bank’s foreign debt repayment. Also, currencies of China, Thailand, and Korea are devaluing. Uncertainty in the market has been growing as well.

-The partnership between the private and public sectors is crucial in encouraging economic growth. How is the private sector cooperation in the coal industry?

-Mongolia’s GDP equals USD 11-12 dollars, which was mainly contributed by the imports of coal, and copper to China in the last decade. Foreign direct investment and foreign aids contribute too. Even though we’re making much effort in export, the economy is not growing significantly. Also, the currency rate is lowering year by year. In order to fix this, we need to attract more foreign investments. It is also fundamental to focus on the global explorational trend in mining. The gold industry will be in spot in 2020 and 2021. Mongolia should find a way of luring cobalt, lithium, and zinc-based investment. Electric power is likely to be in trend than the oil-based power sources as the electricity is evolving globally. Therefore, uranium price is expected to increase further in 2020. Mongolia’s economy has the potential to grow as a result of the right policy.

The decision was made following an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which carrying out an Extended Fund Facility arrangement with Mongolia.

The general guidelines on monetary policy for 2020 outline that a national program on mortgage loan will be approved by the Bank of Mongolia, Government, and Financial Regulatory Commission with a view to ensure stable implementation of the mortgage loan program and central bank officials said the sides will keep working to reduce the cost of the mortgage loan and improve its accessibility.

In December 2019, 1365 new borrowers received mortgage loans worth MNT 112 billion. Of them, 56.3 percent was sourced from the mortgage loan program and 43.7 percent was taken from the commercial banks’ own funding. The weighted average interest rate of the newly issued mortgage loans reduced by 1.1 percentage.

In the given period, money supply growth reached 7 percent and money supply to market increased to MNT 20.8 trillion, made up of MNT 17.9 trillion as internal net assets of the central bank and commercial banks and MNT 3 trillion as foreign net assets.

Outstanding loans at commercial banks totaled MNT 17.9 trillion, which increased by 5 percent in 2019 since the previous year. The remaining balance of loans issued was MNT 9.3 billion.

Around 22 percent of outstanding loan balance is composed of pension and salary-backed loans, 16 percent of commercial loan and 12 percent of real estate loans.

As of late 2019, balance of payments was recorded to show surplus of USD 453 million and foreign exchange reserves jumped to USD 4.35 billion.

Answering to question regarding the outcomes of the International Monetary Fund’s three-year arrangement for Mongolia under the Extended Fund Facility, B.Bayardavaa, Director General of Monetary Policy Department of the Bank of Mongolia said that several positive outcomes were generated by the program, such as public debts dropped and the economic growth has recovered.

Separately, an eight-year old girl and her parents, who returned from Erlian in northern China, have been quarantined at the NCCD after the child, who had a high temperature and the parents began coughing.

Bearing the heroic name of ‘Zuchi Khaan’, the Mongolian Government chartered MIAT Boeing 737-800, landed at 6.00 p.m. on Saturday in Ulaanbaatar after successfully evacuating the 31 students from Wuhan. The operation was organised by the Mongolian Embassy in China in cooperation with the NCCD, MIAT and other institutions under the supervision of the Foreign Ministry of Mongolia with support from the Government of China. Led by pilot G.Baatartsogt, the fifteen-strong MIAT crew, should be commended for successfully bringing the Mongolian students back home and having to subject themselves to the two-week quarantine.

There were originally 33 Mongolians including a child in Wuhan; however, two students have voluntarily remained behind at their own request. The evacuation cost of USD 53.000 was financed by the Government Reserve Fund.

As of Sunday, 2 February, over 14,000 people have been infected with coronavirus and over 300 have died including a man in the Philippines – the first outside China.

He noted that Mongolia’s economic growth has remained high for last three years. For example, economic growth was six percent in three quarters of 2017-2019 – with the exception of several fluctuations. This can be explained by the volume of investment and an increase in household consumption expenditure.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Mongolia has increased greatly since 2017. Investment growth has remained a steady 20-30 percent. The Bank expected that investment growth would reach 20 percent in 2019, but will fall to 10 percent in 2020.

Mr. B.Bayardavaa also noted that budgeted salaries will rise in 2020; this will have a positive effect on economic growth. Salaries for civil servants are expected to increase 14 percent in 2020.

Snowfall is expected in the northern region on January 31, in the mountainous areas of Khangai and Khuvsgul on February 1, and in some parts of central and eastern aimags on February 2 and 3. Wind speed will reach 13-15 m/sec in some parts of the country.

In the depression of Lake Uvs and Darkhad, in the head of Zavkhan river, in the basins of Ider and Tes, near Khurenbelchir, the temperature will range from -39 to -44 degrees Celsius during the night, and -25 to -30 during the day.

In mountainous areas of Khangai, Khuvsgul, and Khentei, in the basins of Eg-Uur, Orkhon-Selenge, Kharaa, Yuruu, Tuul, Terelj, Kherlen, Onon, Ulz, and Khalkh rivers, the temperature will be -33 to -38 during the night, and -20 to -25 during the day.

In the southern Gobi region, the temperature will be -18 to -23 during the night, and -5 to -10 during the day.

In other areas, the night-time temperature will be -25 to -30 degrees Celsius, and daytime temperature will be -15 to -20 degrees Celsius.