In his opening remarks, Mr.Kelvin Andrew Kaukinen, Executive Director of Wagner Asia Group, emphasized, “A launch of world class, fully automated and latest technology Machine Shop, which is ranked at second after Kazakhstan in the region, is opening a new chapter in Mongolia’s metal working industry. Now we will rebuild and repair individual parts, components of machinery or equipment like newly produced according to the standards. It will save time and spending of our clients as it will substitute import, alongside providing opportunities to increase their productivity and profits.”

S.Tserennyam, Director of Analytics and Innovation, Wagner Asia Equipment LLC, pointed out that it has been the company’s largest investment of the year. The machine shop will serve not only to its main customers –mining companies, but also to power plant operators. As the machine shop deals with all types of metal working, it has possibility to partner with heavy industries, he said.

He kept saying that the machine shop also creates an opportunity to ‘import’ its service to companies of neighboring countries. Some companies and businesses of Bayannur of Inner Mongolia, China have already expressed their readiness for partnering.

Representatives from ADB’s private sector teams on infrastructure, agribusiness, health and education, and early stage ventures presented on relevant case studies, eligibility criteria, typical financing modalities and terms, and application processes for ADB’s financing. ADB Ventures helps early-stage companies scale technology in Asia and the Pacific for sustainable development impact. ADB discussed potential future collaboration with selected companies during in-depth one-on-one sessions.

“The growth of Mongolia’s private sector is very much aligned with ADB’s new long-term corporate strategy, Strategy 2030, where ADB aims to increase its private sector operations to reach one-third of its operations by 2024,” said Advisor at ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department Ms. Hisaka Kimura. “By actively engaging with Mongolian companies across infrastructure, agribusiness, health care and education, as well as early-stage ventures, ADB can explore opportunities to support the diversification of Mongolia’s economy.”

Through its private sector operations, ADB catalyzes and funds investments in private and state-sponsored companies across the energy, transport, water, telecom, financial, agribusiness, health care, and education sectors throughout developing Asia. The emphasis is on commercially viable transactions that generate financial returns while promoting environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic growth. In 2018, ADB committed $3.1 billion of its own funds for 32 private sector transactions and mobilized a further $7.4 billion through cofinancing partners.

In addition to ADB’s $2.5 billion sovereign financing for Mongolia to date, ADB has committed $371 million for private sector investments in the energy and financial sectors, including financing to local financial institutions and partner banks through ADB’s Trade Finance Program. ADB’s support for the Sermsang Khushig Khundii Solar Project signed in March 2019 was ADB’s first private sector solar financing in Mongolia and mobilized cofinancing from Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) into the country’s renewable energy sector.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

According to analysts, the investor’s structure changes and long-term investors will be the key to further the stock price increase. They estimate that the share of the company is expected to reach MNT 376.8 by the end of December. Currently, the company’s stock price has risen 17.4 percent, to MNT 309.99 from the beginning of 2019.

In the first half of 2019, sales revenue increased by 74 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, triggering the earnings per share to reach MNT 2.19.

The construction of the domestic construction sector is directly linked to the increase in demand for the company and it’s planning to export its products to foreign markets.

The government bond has been delayed after it had been traded in the domestic market for 28 weeks. The Ministry of Finance explained that the bonds should be discontinued to reduce the government’s debt in the domestic market and avoid the government’s acquisition of the assets of the banks.

The next two bonds out of 17 bonds worth MNT 59.2 billion will expire in 2023 and 2024. In specific, Chinggis bonds worth USD 1 billion will expire in 2022, Samurai bonds worth USD 300 million in 2024, and other bonds that were issued to pay the debt of Chinggis bonds will mature in 2022-2024. In the past few years, Mongolia spent USD 200,000 a day only to pay for bond yields.

Also, the Ministry of Finance plans to issue bonds at the Mongolian Stock Exchange basing on blockchain technology. In last year, preparations for trading government bonds with blockchain technology has started. In this regard, the government adopted a regulation on bond trading based on block technology.

The request for withdrawal of securities from the registry is scheduled on September 20 and the last transaction will be due on September 30.

The company has received a warning from the NYSE, due to the requirement issues. Following the situation, the board of the company voluntarily canceled its listing at the stock exchange. Entrеe Resources is seeking to trade at another U.S-listed Stock Exchange, which is more suitable. However, trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange is still normal. Since 2019, the share prices of the company down nearly double, reaching 30 cents.

Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources are the major shareholders of Entree Resources.

Mongolia launched official medicine registration database of traditional medicine drug in 2013 and there are presently standards for more than 120 traditional medicine raw materials, technical cases and technological instructions for some 160 Mongolian traditional medications as well as 60 medical treatments introduced at practice. In addition, eight local factories of traditional medicine make around 50 new substances, 60 new medications, 260 types of traditional pills, substances and mineral spring water in accordance with approved standards and technologies and provide not only for domestic supply, but also trade them for export to Russia and China.

To date, a clinic with a capacity to receive 48 beds, 185 outpatient clinics, 20 foreign-owned hospitals, 34 recreation centers, 233 state and private health organizations are operating in the field of traditional Mongolian medicine in Mongolia, providing health assistance and services to up to 1.5 million people in a duplicated number. Furthermore, nine universities and higher education institutions are offering undergraduate, graduate and post graduate programs in traditional medicine and around 230-260 people graduate with degrees annually. Around 3 thousand doctors and specialists from Mongolia are employed in traditional medicine field not only in Mongolia, but also the USA, Austria, Hungary, Czech, Poland, Russian and Kazakhstan.

As the forum coincided with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Mongolia and China, this forum on traditional Mongolian medicine is considered to be important for the future development of the long-standing mutual trust and cooperation in various fields between Mongolia and China, especially in the Mongolian traditional medicine.

Mongolia, with a population of about three million – approximately one eighth that of the city of Shanghai alone, doesn’t often get the same attention as larger Asian economies such as Japan or China, but its economy is also doing well. GDP in the landlocked nation is likely to grow by more than 6% this year, Forbes Mongolia Editor-in-Chief Tsetsegsuren B. said during a visit to Forbes China in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Ties to China are helping. China and Mongolia are neighboring economies and “should collaborate on a broader scale,” she said. Even if China’s GDP growth is slowing, the country is still doing well in comparison with many others, Tsetsegsuren said. China’s current GDP growth rate of 6-7% “is quite good,” she said.

China is Mongolia’s biggest export market, accounting for 60% of its total trade. Business between the two countries – which in 2019 are celebrating their 70th year of diplomatic ties -- is focused on minerals, Tsetsegsuren said. Mongolia is a producer of copper, gold and coal.

Yet there is more room for growth. “Agriculture, services and tourism’s contribution can be increased rapidly,” she said. “Mongolia’s natural beauty is stunning.” Among other attractions, Mongolia offers visitors the chance to take in yurts, camels and rugged peaks. Forbes named Mongolia as one of the 10 coolest places to go in 2019.

Forbes Mongolia is one of 39 locally licensed editions of Forbes around the world.

--Russell Flannery

Mongolia received a total of 540,000 arrivals in 2017; of them, 4150 have been charged with breaking the Law on Immigration. The number of arrivals increased by 10.3 percent and violations rose by 37.3 percent in 2018.

As for August, 2019, over 3000 people were charged with breaking regulations; most of them were overstayed, did not register, and worked illegally or failed to carry their passport.

If foreign citizens fail to register to Mongolian Immigration within seven days, then they will be fined MNT 100,000 and the inviting party for MNT 250,000 for an individual and MNT 2,500,000 for a company.

“We expect spot gold prices to trade stronger for longer, possibly breaching $2,000 an ounce and posting new cyclical highs at some point in the next year or two,” analysts including Aakash Doshi said in a note received Sept. 10. That would exceed the record of $1,921.17 set in 2011.

Low or lower-for-longer nominal and real interest rates; global recession risks — exacerbated by U.S.-China trade tensions; and heightened geopolitical rifts are “combining to buttress a bullish gold market environment,” the bank said. Also, “in affinity to our U.S. rates research colleagues, we believe the Fed will ultimately end up cutting rates all the way to zero,” the analysts wrote.

Gold hit a six-year high this month as central banks ease policy to address the slowdown in growth amid the trade war. This week, investors expect the European Central Bank to unleash more stimulus, while next week the Fed is seen cutting rates again. That’s helped to drive flows into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds as investors track the trajectory of the U.S. economy.

Market signals
“For now, the U.S. consumer and potential growth story is holding up,” Citi said in the note. However, “we remain more concerned about market signals — three-month to 10-year yield curve inversion — and leading indicators that are weakening at the fastest pace since the Great Recession,” it said.

Spot gold traded at $1,491.34 an ounce on Tuesday, up 16% this year after rising for the past four months. Citi said that it had upgraded its baseline forecasts for gold on the Comex by $125 to $1,575 an ounce for the fourth quarter, and by about 14% to $1,675 for 2020.

In July, U.S. monetary policy makers reduced borrowing costs for the first time in more than a decade, and they are widely expected to do so again at their Sept. 17-18 meeting. BNP Paribas SA, which is also bullish on the outlook for bullion, said it expects four quarter-point reductions over the coming year.

Citi’s outlook did come with caveats, including a hawkish turn from the Fed or a breakthrough in trade talks, although that’s not its base case. “A surprise trade deal coupled with a sharp upturn in global manufacturing data would probably suggest a peak for gold at the $1,550 an ounce level for this cycle.”

(By Ranjeetha Pakiam)