Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar is one of the most air-polluted cities of the world; half of the population live in the city’s ger districts, with no running water, central heating or sewage systems. Ger residents use stoves and have traditionally burned raw coal and other flammable materials to cook and keep warm during the region’s six-month-long winter, a practice believed to be responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of the air pollution in the capital city.

The Mongolian government has been striving to improve air quality in Ulaanbaatar by taking various measures, including the banning of burning low-grade coal for domestic use.

The project ‘Developing internationally-recognized vocational education and training for welders’ will be co-implemented by the Mongolian Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Hasu megawatt LLC, Schachtbau Nordhausen GmbH, and German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH under the develoPPP.de program set up by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to support public-private partnerships.

In his remarks at the launching ceremony of the project, State Secretary of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection G.Unurbayar thanked Germany for its contribution to the development of Mongolia’s vocational education and training industry and underlined the project will open up opportunities to improve the quality and accreditation and certification systems of welding education and training and meet the high demand for skilled welders in the labor market.

Under the project, welders will be able to receive ISO 9606 certificates, welding training facilities of the German-Mongolian Vocational Training Center of Hasu Megawatt and technological school of the Erdenet enterprise will be refurbished, and an international standard assessment system will be jointly developed by Mongolian Material Science and Welding Society, Assessment, information, and methodology center for Vocational Education and Training, and the German Welding Society.

"Bears have been spotted in residential areas with forest in the country, especially forest areas in the capital city. Most recently, a bear was spotted in Gachuurt village last Thursday," the environment department of Ulan Bator said in a statement.

Social media posts from Mongolian citizens detailing bear sightings have been a regular sight this year. Meanwhile, a 55-year-old man and his eight-year-old son were killed in a bear attack in the northern Mongolian province of Selenge in early October.

Officials say bears appear in residential areas largely due to a lack of food in their natural surroundings.

At the meeting, the sides noted how the bilateral trade and economic partnership is expected to accelerate alongside bringing tourism to a new level with the launch of the direct flight en route Ulaanbaatar-Istanbul from January 1, 2020.

Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Ekşi highlighted that aside from prioritizing passenger comfort, it will become possible to transport 10 tons of cargo on each flight. Furthermore, as the airline promotes the destination country in-flight, he expressed that the company is ready to contribute to the tourism sector of Mongolia. Expressing his gratitude to the Minister for solving the matter of conducting the direct flight that had remained unsolved for 7 years, he underlined his confidence in the development of partnership in the tourism sector reaching a high level.

Minister of Environment and Tourism N.Tserenbat noted that the number of tourists coming to Mongolia has increased each year in correlation with the development of relations and cooperation between the two countries, increase of flight frequency and mutual visa-free travel and expressed his confidence in the direct flight becoming a bridge that connects Mongolia to Europe.

Noting that it is fully possible to transform Kharkhorin Airport into an international airport with the support of the Governments of the two countries, private entities, and airline companies, the Minister then requested assistance in designing one of the airline’s planes to depict Mongolian heritage and tradition, and place a promotional advertisement about Mongolia in the company’s inflight magazine.

The number of tourists that arrived in Mongolia from Turkey was 2,699 in 2018, while it reached 1,609 as of the first 10 months of 2019, which is 23.5 percent higher than the previous year. As for the Mongolian tourists traveling to Turkey, there has been 5,890 in 2018, and 5,403 as of the first 10 months of 2019.

Japan's Nikkei 225 (N225) rose 0.5%. The market also got a boost after Japan revised its gross domestic product growth to an annualized 1.8% for the third quarter, compared with the initial estimate of 0.2%.
South Korea's Kospi (KOSPI) also gained 0.3%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng (HSI) opened slightly higher, but then bounced between small gains and losses. The benchmark was last up 0.3%.
China's Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) also seesawed and briefly slipped 0.2%. It then reversed losses and traded flat.
Jingyi Pan, a market strategist for IG Group, said traders are closely watching to see whether US and Chinese negotiators can strike a trade deal before December 15, when a new round of American tariffs are set to take effect on around $160 billion worth of Chinese goods,
The latest Chinese trade data also suggests it's more urgent for Beijing to ink a deal with Washington in order to ease economic pressure, she added.
China's exports dropped by a worse-than-expected 1.1% in November from a year prior, marking a fourth straight month of decline, according to government data released on Sunday. That was mainly because shipments to the United States plunged 23%, as the long-running trade war continues to hurt Chinese exporters.
Imports rose 0.3% from a year earlier — the first increase since April.
CNN's Junko Ogura in Tokyo contributed to the report.

In the course of the meeting, the sides discussed the issue of intensifying bilateral relations and cooperation and agreed to organize a consultative meeting and business forum in the first half of 2020.

Stressing that there are huge possibilities to intensify cooperation and increase investment, the Minister Miroslav Lajčák expressed his willingness to establish Embassy of Slovak Republic in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in near future.

Mongolia and UAE established a diplomatic relations in 1996. In 2016, the Embassy of UAE bought 1449 square meters of apartment of "Jargalant" villa in the territory of Khan-Uul district, Ulaanbaatar to start its operation. The Embassy requested Ministry of Construction and Urban Development to officially take this land under the state special need and the resolution has been approved with the support of 68.2 percent of participating members.

During the meeting, MP J.Bat-Erdene presented a report of the working group responsible for preparing the draft resolution for the final consideration. “The first discussion of the draft resolution was held at the plenary meeting of the parliament on November 21. It was discussed as a final version at the meeting of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Economy on December 4. In doing so, proposals and suggestions raised during the first discussion were reflected in the final version,” said MP J.Bat-Erdene.

Regarding the resolution, MP B.Battumur said that the banking system has changed in recent two years, with 6-8 percent growth of economy and decrease in unemployment, and highlighted that the central bank’s deficit, which was previously amounted at MNT3 trillion, dropped to MNT1.5 trillion. Foreign exchange reserves have currently reached USD 4 billion, but it still requires to be increased by USD 1 billion according to the calculation of international methodology.

Mr.Battumur stressed that exchange rate of Mongolian Tugrug against US dollar is not stable due to recent grey-list matters. Thus, the money supply should be analyzed, he suggested. “Besides, attentions should be paid on external debt issue. The bad loan has currently reached MNT1.9 trillion, thus 2020 State Monetary Policy faces many challenges,“ he cautioned.

Citing that overdue loans cover 10 percent of the total loans, Mr. Battumur inquired from the working group what management is being applied to recover the loans.

The working group responded that the quantity of bad loans in total loans is reducing, making up 11 percent in 2018 while it was 15 percent in 2016. The reason for insufficient decrease of the bad loans connects with frequent occurrence of disputes on loan repayments at courts, taking long time associated with legal proceedings.