On the first day, Minister Ch.Ulaan attended the press conference on the organization of the third ‘Mongolia-China Expo’ along with Chinese Assistant Minister of Trade Ren Hongbin and Vice Chairman of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Ai Lihua. At the press conference, Minister Ch.Ulaan noted “We are planning to organize international forum on the sustainable development of cashmere sector. As Mongolia and China provide about 90 percent of global cashmere, the countries should further expand cooperation in this sector and not compete, making more profit at the global market.”

Assistant Minister of Trade Ren Hongbin pledged to intensify establishment of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor through coordinating the Road and Belt Initiative with Development Road project and continue supporting Mongolia's economic development in a mutually beneficial way, bringing bilateral cooperation to a new level.

At the meeting with Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China Qu Dongyu, the parties exchanged views on bilateral cooperation in food and agriculture and agreed to hold the 7th meeting between the Ministries of Agriculture in Ulaanbaatar in June. The sides also agreed to intensify personnel training in veterinary, livestock gene pool, intensive animal farming, organic food certification and other agriculture fields, and implement joint projects and programs with the South-South Cooperation financing.

Mongolian delegates also met with Chinese delegation led by Vice Minister of General Administration of Customs Wang Lingjun, making an agreement to extend the range of agricultural products to be exported from Mongolia to China in 2019, settle the conditions for dairy and horse by products, rye and wheat flour supply, quarantines for veterinary and plant and improve the legal environment. Moreover, the parties agreed to intensify cooperation between the inspection, quarantine and customs organizations of the two countries.

At the end of the visit, Agriculture Minister held bilateral meeting with Minister of Commerce of China Zhong Shan and agreed to develop mutually beneficial cooperation in investment, trade and economy. The parties also exchanged views on the role of agriculture sector in achieving the goal of delivering bilateral trade turnover to USD 10 billion by 2020.

“The level of development of bilateral and multilateral relationship suggests that in the near future there will definitely be a breakthrough which will allow the SCO countries to realize potential transit opportunities between Asia and Europe,” Bulavin said.

He said that the FCS along with its Chinese colleagues had successfully held mutual recognition of the customs control system.

In addition, the sides agreed on a system for managing risk and sharing information about goods and transportation which will pass state borders.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is widely regarded as the ‘alliance of the East’, is the world’s largest regional organization in terms of geographical coverage and population. It covers three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the world population.

The agreement establishing the SCO was inked in 2001 by six founding states – Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In 2017, India and Pakistan became full-fledged members of the SCO. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia currently enjoy observer status, while Sri Lanka, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, and Nepal are dialogue partners.

Last year, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow backs switching to national currencies in settlements between the SCO member states which could open new prospects for the alliance.

The central banks of BRICS countries, as well as the SCO and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), are already working on developing a joint payment space.

The streak ended after 18 days and 60 hours due to plant availability and system requirements, the country's electricity system operator said.

According to NGESO, the British record for solar power use was also broken last month, as on May 14 a quarter of the energy was generated from the sun in a country where solar installed capacity is over 13GW. The BBC reports that the utility company expects these occurrences to become the new normal.

When coal is off, gas, nuclear, wind and other sources take over the power generation job.

The UK's push to move away from coal-fired power stations and bring more renewables online has been taking place since the country announced, in the context of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, its plans to phase out the last operative plants over the span of 10 years.

The application is set to start on October 1, 2025, and the strategy contemplates an emission limit of up to 450 grams of CO2 for each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, which would force many plants to close unless they are fitted with carbon capture technology.

The share of coal in the United Kingdom’s electricity mix, according to the Beyond Coal movement, sits currently at about 9% — down from 40% in 2015. The downward trend started in 2013 when Britain introduced a tax on CO2 emissions from power plants.

Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

We are pleased to re-activating our "MBD:B2B networking" regular event and announce "Doing Business with UK" seminar by the support of British Embassy in Mongolia and Trade & Development company of UK

Please come and join if you have an interest to doing business with Britain or/and British companies and register at 99997004 or contact@mongolianbusinessdatabase by your Name, company name, title, mobile number and e mail address.

Registration fee is 25.000 tugrugs and confirm your participation by the payment at MBD (or Mongolian Business Database) TDB 427001964 account in advance.

(Registration will close on June 11 Tuesday. The seats are limited due to the conference room capacity and please note the registration will be "first come first serve" basis. Working language will be in English)

AGENDA

17.00 - Ser-Od Ichinkhorloo - Founder & CEO of Mongolian Business Database (Speaking will cover to start-up business in UK opportunity by MBD)

17.15 - Iain Cox - Deputy of the Mission (British Embassy in Mongolia) "British-Mongolian trade and economics overview, general introduction and business opportunity with UK Export Finance"

17.30 - Mintu Nath - Learning Director of GAPE Institute "British Education for promoting British Education in Mongolia"

17.45 - Philip Bale -Director of UB Grid Consultancy "Potential business opportunities and cooperation in consultancy between the UK and Mongolia"

18.00 - Marc Hawkins - Director of Sonoforte "How to export Mongolian products to the UK and How to create distribution agreements for UK products/services in Mongolia"

- Brief introduction of "Trade and Development UK" the partner/sponsor of the event.

18.15-18.45 Q&A and discussion

18.45-19.45 B2B Networking served with light food and drinks

With an aim to connect renewable energy resources of Mongolia to regional power grid, the project has been developed for two years with support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and European biggest power company, Électricité de France (EDF) conducted comprehensive technical feasibility study of it, introduced project leader Philippe Lienhart.

He emphasized that Mongolia has tremendous solar and wind energy resources and there is great potential to use it. This is a very favorable condition for Mongolia and it allows Mongolia to produce and supply eco-friendly and safe energy to regional countries and final consumers at low cost. As a result, Mongolia can become renewable energy exporting country and I am confident that Governments of this regional countries would collaborate based on the project ‘Strategy for Northeast Asia Power System Interconnection’ developed by ADB.

“Based on the project report, Strategy for Northeast Asia Power System Interconnection, specific projects will be implemented. When feasibility studies of those projects get ready, we will put our proposals to finance renewable energy projects to international banks and financial institutes,” said Deputy Minister of Energy T.Gantulga.

During his attendance in the Fourth Eastern Economic Forum in September, 2018, President of Mongolia Kh.Battulga proposed an initiative to establish North East Asian Super Grid and a working group was set up. Currently, the Governments of the countries participating in the project, are discussing ‘Joint Statement’ on establishment of regional joint organization of North East Asian Super Grid.

Based on their previous experience, experts and basic system, the team behind the first Mongolian satellite ‘Mazaalai’ is working on the development of ‘Temuulel’ satellite. The satellite’s mission will be sending images of the country, collecting information on climate, soil and environment, and inspect failure rate of high voltage semiconductors caused by cosmic ray.

The project is expected to cost around USD 300-400 thousand and once the funding is solved it will be launched in early 2021. ‘Temuulel’ will be the same size as ‘Mazaalai’.

Producing the satellite at home will make great contribution to the development of national space technology, creating high tech devices at home, personnel training and spreading knowledge in the field.

Hero of Mongolia, cosmonaut J.Gurragchaa noted “Satellite launching requires considerable investment, the project needs major investment from the government and businesses. In order to keep in line with global innovations in spaces and latest technology, government documents and policy are needed. Satellites can even be the business that would provide Mongolia’s needs.”

The recommendations of the meeting will be submitted to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretariat of Mongolia.

In his opening remarks, Chairman of Ulaanbaatar Railway JVC D.Jigjidnyamaa noted that the forum is being organized within the framework of the 70th anniversary of the company’s establishment. He also expressed gratitude for the support from neighboring countries in facilitating landlocked Mongolia’s trade.

In addition to introducing ongoing railway projects and programs, Chairman D.Jigjidnyamaa informed that Ulaanbaatar Railway will operate the newly established regional logistics center in Zamyn-Uud. We are working to increase competitiveness of Ulaanbaatar Railway in the regional transport market, making it transit corridor linking Asia and Europe and increase the current capacity of 26 million tons up to 30 million by 2020, he noted.

Board member of Monlogistics Worldwide LLC B.Telenged, Head of Mongolian Metallurgical Association L.Bayraakhuu, First Vice Chairman of Ulaanbaatar Railway JVC I.B.Milostnyh and Director General of Mosgiprotrans JSC I.V.Mitsuk delivered presentations at the forum.

Minister of Road and Transport Development, MP B.Enkh-Amgalan noted that Russia-China bilateral trade turnover will soon reach USD 200 billion, while trade turnover between Mongolia and China is to reach USD 10 billion. Thus, Mongolia should be main transit of this major trade turnover. For that, it is necessary to upgrade the railway, especially main structure of the railway, its movable parts and extend the roads, he noted.

He then continued, “in addition to railways, we need to improve the road from the northern border to the southern border. In this regard, 204 km four lane road in route Darkhan-Ulaanbaatar and 20.9 km road in route Nalaikh-Ulaanbaatar are under construction. It is planned to connect the four lane roads to the northern and southern borders in the future. Moreover, we plan to increase the airway transit by cooperating with foreign airlines.”

Minister B.Enkh-Amgalan also noted that Mongolia established cooperation agreements on auto transit with a number of countries and informed about the upcoming agreement with Lithuania at the Economic Forum in St.Petersburg. He also emphasized that the country needs to work actively in the area of auto transit.

Photo exhibition dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Ulaanbaatar Railway opened at the forum.

Particularly, the price of oil decreased by USD 9 per barrel last week, which was a multiple-month sharp drop. However, the decline in crude oil prices will not have immediately trigger Mongolia’s fuel price to decrease. The oil price changes takes longer time to have an effect on Mongolia's economy.

The oil price changes take longer time to have an effect on Mongolia’s economy
The joint council on fuel price held a meeting on Tuesday and submitted a suggestion containing four or five articles. “Global price of oil usually rise in April and May. In addition, commodity prices rose in recent months, due to the Iranian ban and Libya and Venezuela crisis. However, prices are likely to decline this month. This will affect fuel prices in Mongolia from the upcoming month. In particular, the A92 petrol price will slump from June 15th. If the companies that increased the price of fuel without basis refuses to accept our conditions, their licenses will be suspended,” said the Deputy Director of Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM).

Mongolia purchases gasoline and diesel fuel at the price of the Stock Exchange of Singapore (SES). Average prices for Brent crude oil and uranium will be calculated from June 1-25 and import about 10 days from Angarsk, Russia. The price drop of the previous month will make a noticeable change in the economy from the middle of next month as the country accumulates an average rese.

The two-day conference had brought together more than 200 government officials, scholars and representatives from around 20 countries and international organizations, including China, Russia, South Korea, the United Nations and the European Union.

According to Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar, the conference would cover five topics of opportunities and challenges in Northeast Asian security environment, cooperation and competition dynamics in the region, regional energy cooperation, humanitarian challenges in emergency situations, and perspectives for dialogue in Northeast Asia.

Initially intended to facilitate a peaceful solution to the Korean Peninsula issue, the agenda of the conference had been expanded year after year, said Tsogtbaatar.

"There should be new attempts to establish regional security regime that includes all regional states. The Ulan Bator Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security is an excellent move towards this direction," said Yuan Chong, deputy director of Institute of Japanese Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, at the conference.

So far, the enterprise has provided the region with 800 jobs, with the company pledging to create an additional 1,000 jobs during the second stage of the project’s implementation.

Located 40 kilometers from the city of Tula, the new assembly plant is expected to produce 80,000 vehicles annually, with the share of locally-made parts at 30 percent at the initial stage. The Chinese automaker is planning to gradually increase the degree of localization, with production projected to rise to 150,000 cars-per-year.

“With the Tula Factory, we are helping stimulate local economic development as part of the Belt and Road Initiative,” Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, told journalists.

The plant has reportedly become the first full-process plant overseas. The enterprise, which covers all production stages including pressing, welding, painting and integrated assembly, will manufacture Haval Sport Utility Vehicles, reportedly China's leading SUV brand and part of the GWM group.

“I believe our globalization strategy has the potential to go beyond opening international markets – it will propel Haval to be a key player on the global auto stage,” Wei said.

Automobiles from the new factory will also be exported to neighboring countries, bolstering Tula’s foreign exchange income. The Chinese automaker signed a cooperation deal with the regional authorities in May 2014, having become a cornerstone investor in the Uzlovaya Industrial Park.