Nationwide harvesting reported www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. During the spring sowing 2019, 512.0 thousand hectares were cultivated for crop, including 364.8 thousand hectares for grain of which 340.0 thousand hectares were 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.

Singapore overtakes US as world's most competitive economy www.cnn.com

Hong Kong (CNN Business)Singapore has knocked the United States out of the top spot in the World Economic Forum's annual competitiveness report.

Facebook's digital currency dealt another blow www.bbc.com

Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency must not go ahead until the company proves it is safe and secure, according to a report by the world biggest economies.

In a blow to the social media giant, the report by the G7 group of nations warns cryptocurrencies like Libra pose a risk to the global financial system.

The draft report outlines nine major risks posed by such digital currencies.

It warns that even if Libra's backers address concerns, the project may not get approval from regulators.

The warning comes just days after payments giants Mastercard and Visa pulled out of the Libra project, citing regulatory uncertainty.

The G7 taskforce that produced the report includes senior officials from central banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates rules for the G20 economies.

It says backers of digital currencies like Libra must be legally sound, protect consumers and ensure coins are not used to launder money or fund terrorism.

While the report, which will be presented to finance ministers at the IMF annual meetings this week, does not single out Libra, it says "global stablecoins" with the potential to "scale rapidly" pose a range of potential problems.

Stablecoins like Libra are different to other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, because they are pegged to established currencies such as the dollar and euro.

Stifle competition
While this is designed to limit big swings in their value, the report says global cryptocurrencies like Libra can pose problems, including for policymakers setting interest rates.

The report also warns that Libra could stifle competition among other providers and even threaten financial stability if users suddenly suffer a "loss of confidence" in the digital currency.

The draft report says: "The G7 believe that no stablecoin project should begin operation until the legal, regulatory and oversight challenges and risks are adequately addressed".

It also cast doubt over the viability of the project even if Libra's backers satisfy concerns raised by governments and central banks.

"Addressing such risks is not necessarily a guarantee of regulatory approval for a stablecoin arrangement," the report says.

Facebook is facing intensifying international scrutiny of its cryptocurrency project.

A separate FSB report, published on Sunday, warned that the introduction of "global stablecoins" poses a host of regulatory challenges.

Launch delay
In a letter to G20 finance ministers, Randal Quarles, FSB chairman, warns that these challenges "should be assessed and addressed as a matter of priority".

The FSB is working with officials around the world to identify potential regulatory gaps, and will publish a report next summer.

Facebook has already warned that regulatory scrutiny may delay or even impede the launch of Libra.

Libra is not the only digital currency that faces scrutiny.

JP Morgan's JPM Coin, which is backed by US dollars, is a stablecoin that is also likely to be examined.

'Pressure builds'
The Libra Association, including Facebook, will hold its first board meeting in Geneva on Monday.

As well as Mastercard and Visa, Stripe, eBay and Paypal have also withdrawn from the scheme, which is also backed by ride hailing companies Uber and Lyft.

The G7 report acknowledges that cryptocurrencies potentially provide a faster and cheaper way to move money and make payments and says the current system is often "slow, expensive and opaque".

There are currently 1.7 billion unbanked and underserved consumers who could benefit from wider access to financial services, it adds.

Facebook and the Libra Association declined to comment. A G7 spokesman could not be reached for comment.

However, Facebook's executive in charge of the Libra project said earlier this month that losing the backing of major firms was "liberating". David Marcus added: "You know you're on to something when so much pressure builds up."

Mongolian parliament backs new embassies in Abu Dhabi and Minsk www.news.mn

At its plenary session on Friday, (October 11) the Parliament discussed and approved proposals for the establishment two new embassies in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates and Minsk, the capital of Belarus as well as opening a General Consulate in Manzhouli, a city in the eastern part of China’s Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The proposals were presented by D.Tsogtbaatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs to parliament.

Mongolia ranks 102nd in Global Competitiveness Report www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. The Global Competitiveness Report series released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) introduced this year’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), in which Mongolia scored 52.6 point and stood at 102nd out of 141 countries. It means that the country showed a 0.1-point decline or dropped by 3.

Big shareholder backs Rio Tinto to fix Mongolia www.afr.com

One of Rio Tinto's biggest Australian shareholders backed chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques to find a way through the company's troubles in Mongolia, saying it was "always going to be a tricky place to invest" and the Australian Foundation Investment Company has confidence issues delaying its copper mine there will be resolved.

From Mongolia to Iraq, the stories of Liverpool's global love affair www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

There are few football clubs with the global appeal of Liverpool. From Africa to Asia, South America to South Australia, there are vocal supporters, as passionate and faithful as those who live on Anfield Road.

The scale of LFC’s global fanbase has been made more apparent by the many pre-season tours of the last few years. This is now a truly modern club – perhaps the biggest in the world – connected to all corners of the Earth by the internet, by social media and fan forums.

On a Saturday afternoon, it is not just at Anfield where fans gather to watch their team, to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone and feel a part of something. It is in Ulaanbaatar, in Nova Scotia, in Kigali and in Buenos Aires too.

LFC Stories spoke to several fans from around the world on supporting the club from afar, and the inimitable appeal of Liverpool for people of all backgrounds.

Amarsaikhan Orso – Mongolia

I live in Ulaanbaatar – the capital city of Mongolia. I watched the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain on a black and white TV as an 11-year old boy, which is probably my earliest recollection of being drawn to football as a sport. Back then Mongolia was under a socialist regime; we had a single national and one other Russian channel. It was a lucky chance that the Russian team was participating that year, so I was able to watch multiple games broadcasted.

My father who worked for a political party read a lot of Russian newspapers, including Soviet Sport (now Sport Express) and Football & Hockey. I found out about Liverpool, which was dominating the fields of England and Europe, from the publications and was instantly a fan of players such as Ian Rush. After watching the FIFA World Cup in 1982, I decided to root for the team of England. Maybe I was drawn to their style since as a kid I liked to play as a winger and do header goals.

At the start of 2000, I started working as a brand manager to import the Carlsberg beer from Copenhagen, Denmark to Mongolia. Now everyone knows that Carlsberg was the main sponsor of our team at the time. I’d like to believe that at this point, I connected with Liverpool on a deeper level and it became a very special part of my life.

After the 2005 Istanbul final, Liverpool fans in Mongolia experienced a spike in numbers. During that time, social media platforms weren’t as prominent as they are now, so we used to gather on sports forums to discuss our opinions, predictions, and commitment to our club. This was a start of great friendships and companionships within the fan club. In 2009, a couple of fans decided to organise a meet up and proposed the idea of creating the fan club, which officially opened on 7 November 2010. I was chosen as the Head of the Fan club and I am still carrying the role to this day with pride.

Within the fan club, we have organised various games and events such as The Reds` League and Reds` Cup. It’s become a habit of ours to gather and watch the games together for the Champions League games. Over 1500 Kopites came together to watch on TV this year`s Champions League Final in Madrid. We have been included in multiple promotional videos of Liverpool FC and we are extremely happy about being a part of this global fan base.

MBD will represent "Reed Exhibitions International" in Mongolia www.mongolianbusinessdatabase.com

Reed Exhibitions International is a business unit of the RELX Group which is the global conglomerate listed on the London and Amsterdam Stock Exchanges.

Bye-bye Boeing: Russia’s biggest airline cancels 787 Dreamliner order www.rt.com

Conservation policies threaten indigenous reindeer herders in Mongolia www.theconversation.com

Deep in the sub-Arctic boreal forest of far northern Mongolia lives an indigenous tribe who are among the world’s smallest ethnic minorities and last reindeer herding nomads. The Tsaatan, as they’re known, have been buffeted over the last century by political and economic shocks, growing resource and environmental pressures, and significant impacts of climate change. But today they’re also facing another danger which they feel may be just as big a threat as any of these to their survival: the conservation policies of the Mongolian government.

This June, the two of us – environmental historians who work on climate change and conservation – spent five days traveling by air, four-wheel-drive, and finally horseback to reach the Tsaatan camps near Siberia, where the nomads live in teepee-like ortzes, migrating with their reindeer across the boreal forest. Our goal was to witness the summer migration to high elevation pastures, while learning how the Tsaatan’s herding livelihoods are changing.

Climate change is posing perhaps the most widely known threats to Mongolia’s nomadic cultures. In the past seven decades, average temperatures in the country have risen 2.24 degrees C – more than twice the global average. This warming has intensified both summer droughts and extreme winter conditions, contributing to waves of nomadic herders abandoning their herds and moving to the capital city of Ulaanbataar. In recent decades the city has been overwhelmed by more than 600,000 migrants, leading to a sharp increase in the burning of dirty coal and contributing to a spiral of intensifying climate displacement.

Meanwhile, a mining boom has stimulated Mongolia’s economy and offered good jobs to some of the former nomads, but has also worsened carbon pollution, urban migration and pressure on ecosystems.

With all of these stresses, what we found from the Tsaatan surprised us. While they are concerned about climate change and mining, they told us they believe misguided conservation policies have become a more serious threat to their nomadic culture.

Special Protected Areas
The Tsaatan live far from roads, sharing the boreal forest with endangered Siberian ibex, argali sheep, red deer and musk deer. Miners began exploiting the region for gold, jade and uranium in the 1990s, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This contributed to an increase in wildlife poaching and degradation of the high alpine meadows, mountains and streams that the Tsaatan rely on and see as sacred.

In response to a request from the Tsaatan, in 2011 the Mongolian government set up a Special Protected Area and canceled all 44 mining licenses in the region. But the government also went further: concerned by poaching and habitat loss, it eliminated hunting and fishing as well, and excluded reindeer from most of the area.

Reindeer are a domesticated subspecies of caribou (Rangifer tarandus), and the Tsaatan are the southernmost reindeer-herding people in the world. Today, about 250 Tsaatan herd about 2,000 reindeer. But rather than eating their reindeer, as other reindeer herders do, the Tsaatan milk them, ride them and use them as pack animals.

For millennia, Tsaatan nomads moved with their family herds up to 10 times a year, frequently crossing what became the border between Mongolia and Russia. During our visit to the region, Gombo, a Tsaatan elder, told us that when Stalin gained power in what was then the Soviet Union, many Tsaatan on the Soviet side of the border fled to Mongolia, fearing they would be forcibly settled and assimilated. But this also cut them off from much of their traditional land.

As Gombo told us, until 1960 the Tsaatan in Mongolia were people without a state, unrecognized by the government as legal residents. When they eventually were granted citizenship, some began to settle, while others continued to migrate with their reindeer, earning a salary from reindeer collectives. Some of the nomads supplemented their income by working for the Mongolian government, hunting sable whose pelts would be exported to the Soviet Union.

The demise of the Soviet Union in 1990 and the transition from communism in Mongolia to a market-based economy led to even greater disruption across the country. In the boreal forest, the struggle to survive led to an increase in poaching, and as the economy began to recover in the 2000s, the government struggled to craft conservation policies that could protect both natural and human communities.

As an example, government surveys suggest that the move to forbid hunting in the Special Protected Area has helped ibex. But according to the Tsaatan we spoke with, it has also devastated their culture. As a herder named Ganbat told us, “Fathers can’t take their sons hunting anymore, so children don’t learn about hunting, or about the habits of animals anymore. We don’t know how to teach our sons if we can’t take them hunting.”

Ironically, that means place-based knowledge that is essential to conservation is also vanishing.

Humans’ role in conservation
Zaya, another herder, told us that human health is suffering as well, as key nutrients from wild meat such as moose and deer are lost. To fill the gap, some Tsaatan began eating their reindeer, a practice that was anathema to most.

Restrictions on access to pastures have had even greater impacts. Instead of frequent seasonal migrations, the nomads now are allowed only four, leading to overgrazing and poorer reindeer health. Bambag, a reindeer herder who also acted as our guide, told us “the administration now orders us to move to certain places. We don’t get to decide what’s best for our reindeer. So that’s difficult for us.”

Community members also bitterly complained about the ways that local rangers enforced the Special Protected Area regulations – tracking their movements with trail cameras, fining them, forcing them to travel for days to the village to seek permission to move their herds, and imprisoning anyone caught hunting. There is nowhere that they can escape from the eyes of the State, Zaya told us.

The Tsaatan made clear that they understand the need for some protected area regulations. But as a woman named Erdenechimeg told us, they want to be partners in designing conservation policies.

One of the hard lessons of conservation history across the world is that national parks and protected areas were often created at the expense of indigenous peoples. Yosemite National Park, for example, was created by forcing out indigenous tribes, casting them as enemies of wildlife. Today we see the same process happening in Mongolia – funded in part by the Yosemite Parks Association, which has raised money to pay rangers’ salaries.

We’ve come to believe that sustaining nomadic reindeer herders in Mongolia while also protecting endangered wildlife requires the government re-think conservation policies that exclude human communities and livelihoods from protected areas. Reindeer across the north have been central to human cultures for millennia. Today, they also help all of us slow climate change, because their grazing reduces heat-absorbing dark ground cover in the winters.

The Mongolian government is working hard to protect endangered wildlife, but the Tsaatan nomads insist their reindeer culture is equally endangered – and important. If consulted as equals, they and their reindeer can help sustain the boreal forest and the global climate.