Earlier today (2 October), the Cabinet decided to expand a land around where the oil refinery is being constructed. According to one source, the land, set aside by the government for special construction and infrastructure requirements has been expanded from 150 hectares to 405 hectares.

Currently, construction is underway of a 27 km-long railway and 18.8 km road connecting Sainshand, the administrative centre of Dornogobi Province to the oil refinery; the power lines and other infrastructure requirements are completed. To rationalize power generation needs there will be a pipeline from the refinery to its own power plant.

The refinery, in southern Dornogovi Province will be capable of processing 1.5 million tonnes of domestic crude oil per year. This is equivalent to about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). The cost of the refinery is estimated at USD 1.35 billion.

Mongolia’s new refinery, planned for completion in late 2022, will meet all of the nation’s demand for gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

With the arrival of the 787-9, Mongolian Airlines (MIAT) plans to launch long haul services to the US. While details of this are still sketchy, the airline has indicated it is in the process of obtaining the necessary permissions to launch service when the Dreamliner arrives.

In terms of configuration for the 787-9, reports indicate that the jetliner will feature 313 seats. These will comprise 16 in business class, 21 in premium economy, and 276 in economy. While the carrier’s current business class on board its 767s offers a slightly odd 2-1-2 configuration with not-quite lie-flat seats, this low number of business class on the 787-9 offers an opportunity to step up their game.

In total, Mongolian Airlines currently operates two Boeing 767-300 aircraft, both of which they own outright. It also leases four Boeing 737-800s from ALC Blarney Aircraft, Avolon, Macquarie AirFinance, and Wings Capital Partners, according to CH-Aviation. The airline also has four 737 MAX 8s on order, one of which was delivered earlier this year but is currently grounded. (Simple Flying)

The approved resolution states that child money benefits will be transferred to eligible children’s registered bank accounts in commercial banks within 20th of every month once the funding has been made, on the basis of the list of names of eligible children submitted by corresponding social insurance public organizations and requests for child benefit payment.

In addition, other types of government allowance, benefits, incentives and payments and salaries, such as tax refund, tax refund lottery prize money, will be transferred through the State Fund accounts.

As part of the reshuffle, Sushil Bathija, co-head of Southeast Asia, will also be part of the bank’s M&A team for Asia ex-Japan, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. The contents of the memo were confirmed by a spokeswoman for the bank. Pierre Chu and Weigang Li will remain as co-heads of China M&A.

Kim, who was most recently head of M&A for Asia ex-Japan and has held various other roles, is retiring from Goldman Sachs after 19 years at the firm. He is joining Carlyle as a managing director of its Asia buyout team and will start in March, according to a separate press release. He will lead Carlyle’s investment activities in Korea.

Maliah, who joined Goldman Sachs in 2000, is global vice chairman of the firm’s investment banking division and co-head of the technology, media and telecom group in Asia Pacific ex-Japan. Min is co-head of TMT in Asia Pacific ex-Japan and has recently been named co-chief operating officer of global TMT. He joined the firm in 2005. Bathija, who joined in 2007, will maintain coverage of regional consumer retail clients.

At the meeting, the Mongolian side expressed its willingness to strengthen political ties and expand trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation with Indonesia, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia, as per the country’s policy to develop bilateral ties and cooperation with Asia and the Pacific countries and emphasized that Indonesia’s support is crucial in achieving Mongolia's goal to join the regional integration.

Commending the current active bilateral political, defense, and people to people relations between the two countries, the sides exchanged views on expansion of trade and economic cooperation and promotion of business partnerships.

Apart from the existing tariff rows which pose “the biggest downside risk to the forecast,” the report says that macroeconomic shocks and financial volatility are also potential triggers for a steeper downturn.

“Beyond their direct effects, trade conflicts heighten uncertainty, which is leading some businesses to delay the productivity-enhancing investments that are essential to raising living standards,” said the WTO’s director general Roberto Azevodo. “Job creation may also be hampered as firms employ fewer workers to produce goods and services for export,” he added.

Washington and Beijing have been embroiled in the trade conflict for more than one year. The sides are currently trying to hammer out a deal, however, the last time they were close to a truce it was called off last minute and resulted in even higher tit-for-tat tariffs.

Meanwhile, the WTO is also concerned about trade friction between South Korea and Japan, which it says shows no signs of a turnaround. Relations between the two Asian powers turned sour in July, when Tokyo tightened export restrictions on hi-tech materials, used in displays and chips, to South Korea. Japan later excluded South Korea from a preferential list of trusted trade partners, prompting Seoul’s anger and a tit-for-tat response as it removed Japan from a list of nations receiving preferential treatment in trade.

Throughout the country this year, a total of 512 thousand hectares of areas cultivated for crops including 340 thousand hectares for wheat, 14.8 thousand hectares for potatoes, 8.0 thousand hectares for vegetables, 82.4 thousand hectares for oil plants and 42.0 thousand hectares for fodder plants. According to the preliminary harvest balance, it is expected to harvest 441.9 thousand tons of crops of which 420.0 thousand tons of wheat, 176.8 thousand tons of potatoes, 91.2 thousand tons of vegetables, 38.0 thousand tons of oil plants and 80.4 thousand tons of fodder plants.

According to statistics, the number of vehicles in Mongolia reached 970.8 thousand in 2018; over 70 percent of them are over 10 years old.

The Transport Police Department reported that each year over 500 people die and more than 1200 people are injured in road accidents in Mongolia.

The building was constructed over two years at a cost of over 10 billion JPY with a grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency /JICA/. With 104 beds, the hospital will provide Japanese standard medical and health care using Japanese equipment to 500 patients daily.

The building consists of 15,000 square meters for ambulatory, diagnostics, an accidents and emergency section, an intensive care unit, a surgery theatre, a laboratory, pharmacy, kitchen, an administrative room, training unit, medical examination rooms, and an autopsy facility. As of today, the day-patients section, the radiology centre and the microscopic analysis room has begun operation.