An officer from United Nations also escorted the group to ensure their safe exit from Mongolia and their safety during the journey.

The group applied for asylum with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in order to avoid feared deportation to Turkey in June, and they obtained asylum-seeker certificates that showed they were under UN protection until Dec. 31, 2019.

They had worried about their future in Mongolia following an alleged Turkish intelligence operation to take a school director back to Turkey in July 2018 that was blocked by the Mongolian government at the last minute after it drew outrage from the public.

The group, consisting mainly of educators and their families, had been denied consular services; their passports had been cancelled; and their legal residence in Mongolia ended on June 30. They were not able to renew their residence permits as their passports were no longer valid.

After arriving in Canada the group issued a joint statement thanking the Mongolian people for the support and assistance they provided during that difficult time.

“Mongolia is our second homeland, and we will never forget you,” the statement reads.

The Turkish government has asked for the extradition of at least 419 people since a controversial coup attempt in 2016, the state-run Anadolu news agency had earlier reported.

The list of countries with the highest increase in the number of tourists in Mongolia continues with Belarus /23.4 percent increase/, Japan /19.7 percent/, Germany /17 percent/, China /8.8 percent/ and South Korea /6 percent/. Huang Kuo-jung, Representative of the Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar noted that annual tourism events attended by Mongolian tour companies as well as cultural events held in Taiwan helped to raise the number of tourists.

Earlier today, the General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces received General O.L.Salyukov and discussed cooperation between two sides.

During the meeting, the Russian general expressed his satisfaction with successfully developing cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries and concurred to broaden the partnership further.

World media agencies have been alarmed that a vast cloud of nuclear radiation has been spreading over the countries of Central Asian. Mongolia borders with Russia, so, naturally people have been wondering what will happen if the cloud arrives here. Our News Agency has clarified the situation with the Mon-Atom Nuclear Energy Company and Metropolitan Professional Inspection Department.

According to Ts.Damdinsuren, executive of Mon-Atom LLC, if the wind flow is from the north-west, then cloud of radiation will be able to drift into Mongolia.

But, Sh.Sandag-Ochir, director of controlling nuclear and radiation at Metropolitan Professional Inspection Department said that there has not been any sign of increased radiation levels near Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia has 35 radiation monitoring stations in nationwide.

The MSE has registered 4 new securities companies in the reporting period, and trading in the primary market totaled MNT 42.5 billion, three times higher than the same period of last year. In order to ensure compliance with the obligations of registered companies, MSE excluded 22 companies from registration due to non-performance of their obligations under the law.

Even though the primary market trade for Government securities was not active, MNT 994.4 million of income was generated and cost reached MNT 716.9 million, totaling the net income at MNT 277.4. In its financial statements, the deficit of MNT 204.6 million has been confirmed as a pre-tax loss. Compared to the same period of the previous year, total revenue increased by 25.3 percent, trading fee income sore by 34.6 percent and fee service fee grew by 24.6 percent respectively. A total of MNT 274.9 million were spent on the state budget which is 25.1 percent higher than the previous year.

In early afternoon trading in New York, copper for delivery in July was at $2.5475 a pound ($5,615 a tonne), not far off levels last seen in 2017.

Oxford Economics Commodity Price Forecasts August 2019
Trade worries have dogged copper price bulls for the better part of a year, but more recently weak data from China, the US and Germany, the world’s top three consumers of industrial metals, has intensified the sell off.

The US manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to below 50 today, the lowest reading since 2009 and the first sign that slowing growth in the sector may be turning into outright contraction of activity.

China, which imports more than half the world’s copper, posted the weakest industrial output growth in 16 years in July (although at 4.8% expansion year-on-year, still the envy of developed economies), while the month before German industrial production registered its biggest annual decline in nine years.

A new report by Oxford Economics argues that the copper market’s “decent fundamentals are getting overlooked amid the gloomy backdrop for financial markets”:

The latest Copper Study Group data flagged up a 1% fall in global copper mine production in the first four months of 2019. Also, copper is constrained by a weak global pipeline of mine projects, and production in Chile was down 1% y/y in both May and June, partly due to strike action.

Spot treatment charges (which fall during periods of tightness) are currently down 37% y/y.

We expect the copper market to be in deficit this year and as a result prices look oversold relative to fundamentals.

In another sign of underlying weakness in demand, global copper inventories have been rising steadily after hitting four-year lows in January. Stocks in London Metal Exchange supervised warehouses around the world jumped by 11% over just the past month.

Oxford Economics Commodity Price Forecasts August 2019
Copper stocks have been rising even as stockpiles of other industrial metals, notably zinc and aluminum shrink, and Oxford Economics says “most metal traders attribute the anomalous behaviour of copper as being driven by inventory relocation rather than genuine market weakness.”

The Oxford Economics house view is for the copper price to average around $5,870 a tonne in the fourth quarter this year and climb back above $6,000 early in 2020.

Corresponding ministers, Environment and Tourism Minister N.Tserenbat, Finance Minister Ch.Khurelbaatar and National Development Agency Director B.Bayarsaikhan were assigned to allocate the required financing in the annual economic and social development directions, state budget and state investment programs as well as in the international organizations’ loan and assistances or fund with the help of public-private partnerships.

Taking the tourism capacity and flow into account, Mongolia is able to receive 72 thousand tourists a day and 1.6 million tourists during summer season. Unfortunately, the number of tourists to travel in Mongolia in a year has been around 400 thousand in the last decade. According to the World Economic Forum, Mongolia is ranked at 102th place out of 136 countries in terms of its tourism competitiveness.

The state policy on tourism targets to solving pressing issues concerning the tourism industry, improving competitiveness of Mongolian tourism products, creating jobs through bettering tourism services and products, enhancing the livelihood of local citizens and developing highly beneficial tourism for the economy and society of the country.

Areas to be newly added to the State Special Protected Area cover 13 soums of six aimags. As the areas are taken under special protection, the total size of protected area will be expanded with 1,298,047 hectares (or 0.83 percent). As a result, the total special protected area will make up 32,759,268 hectares or 20.94 percent of total territory of Mongolia.

For instance, Onon Balj National Park will be expanded with some parts of Dadal and Binder soums of Khentii aimag. Develiin Aral nature reserve will be expanded with Lake Achit which is on the border of Uvs and Bayan-Ulgii aimags and classified as national park. Moreover, Khom Steppe in Durvuljin soum of Zavkhan aimag and Gutain Davaa-Khumuul riverhead in Batshireet and Binder soum of Khentii aimag are being taken under special protection in classification of ‘national complex area'.