Majority of people were apprehensive about current air pollution in Mongolia that continues thorough winter season which is the main source of various social health issues in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

In addition, Mr. Gonchigsumlaa Sukhbaatar has questioned whether there is fair competition without corruption, opportunities in the labour market for overseas graduates and healthy environment to live in.

Mr. Batbold Ayurzana has also supported equal opportunities for younger generation and stood against the corruption in the society.

“Younger generations should take steps everyday towards their dreams and if millennials have positive mindset and collaborate more the future is bright in Mongolia” said Ms. Oyuntuya Davaatseren.

Mr. Davaasuren addressed, “I, hereby, announce this year as the year for Smart Energy System. The entire world is adapting to the usage of a smart system. We have to follow this practice. This will allow us to settle various issues. In doing so, we will involve top-notch programmers, technicians, and engineers, as well as all the government bodies in the energy sector.”

Within the frame, electricity and heat measurement instruments will be installed in power plants, which will drastically reduce the risks of accidents and delays. For instance, the ministry is planning to cooperate with the Russian Federation to install a smart system in turbine generators. The cost is currently unidentified and will be set soon as the ministry assigned tasks to the boards of implementing companies.

According to the ministry, the construction of the Fifth Thermal Power Plant has been suspended due to the dissolution of the consortium. Therefore, the ministry plans to increase the capacities of currently existing power plants. For example, the feasibility study of expanding the capacity of the Second Thermal Powerplant to 300MW has been completed. Additionally, Mr. Davaasuren noted that the night-time electricity discount will further continue in 2019- 2020.

As for the Erdeneburen Hydropower Plant, the ministry has reportedly settled the project financing and is planning to commence the construction this year. However, the Egiin Gol Hydroelectricity project is on a hold-up due to environmental issues. The minister highlighted that the completion of these two hydropower plants will create a fully independent electrical system.

On the air pollution reduction actions, the ministry announced to install a 4 kWh heating equipment in 42,000 households in Ulaanbaatar city.

ENERGY SECTOR FACES MNT 20 BILLION LOSS ANNUALLY

According to the Director General of the Energy Regulatory Commission Tleikhan Almalik, the base electric charge did not change since 2015. Currently, Mongolia is purchasing electricity at MNT 32,000 per kWh and is selling them to private entities at MNT 9,000 per kWh. The annual loss of the energy sector is currently over MNT 20 billion. With the exception of coal, all the materials and equipment are imported, and due to the increase in foreign exchange rates, the deficit has further piled up. Therefore, the commission is planning to revise the base charge this year.

For December, imports fell 4.7 percent from the previous month to 429,000 tonnes from a revised figure of 450,000 tonnes in Novemeber, the General Administration of Customs said. December was also down 4.7 percent from the same month a year ago.

Annual imports of unwrought copper – which topped the previous record of 4.94 million tonnes set in 2016 – were buoyed by China's crackdown on scrap copper in 2018, part of efforts to combat pollution.

There's certainly continuing tightening pressure on China's imports of lower quality scrap so it's not a terrible surprise that China is importing more metal
Imports of Category 7 copper scrap, such as coiled copper cable and waste motors, were down sharply from 2017 and have been banned completely in 2019, while China in August slapped a 25 percent tariff on imports of scrap material from the United States, one of its top suppliers.

This has left consumers seeking more of the metal in other forms.

"There's certainly continuing tightening pressure on China's imports of lower quality scrap so it's not a terrible surprise that China is importing more metal," said Lachlan Shaw, a commodities strategist at UBS in Melbourne.

Importers are "getting less copper units from scrap, and more from concentrate and metal," he added, noting that China's overall scrap crackdown looked set to continue with additional restrictions to come into force in July.

Annual copper concentrate imports rose 13.7 percent in 2018 year-on-year to a record 19.72 million tonnes, although December imports fell by 13.4 percent from November to 1.46 million tonnes, the lowest since February 2018.

(By Tom Daly and Melanie Burton; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Russia-China trade turnover has grown significantly over recent years. In 2017, mutual trade amounted to $84.07 billion demonstrating a growth of 20.8 percent. In 2016, the trade turnover grew by 2.2 percent in annual terms to $69.52 billion.

Russia became China’s number one partner when it comes to trade growth dynamics, according to the GAC spokesman Li Kuiwen. The spokesman added that China had mostly exported electromechanical goods to Russia, while purchased oil, coal, and wood.

Last week, the Chinese commerce ministry said that mutual trade between the countries in December reached $100 billion for the first time ever. Russia is currently ranked as China’s tenth biggest trade partner. Beijing remained a major importer of Russian produce, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s international trade as of 2017.

The program is scheduled to pilot within the next six months in Ulaanbaatar’s Nalaikh District, with plans to expand citywide. The initiative will offer blockchain-powered mobile payments and instant peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfers among users of different banks.

Reportedly, the project aims to eventually replace the current payment methods for utility bills and government subsidies with the Terra stablecoin. This will, in effect, reform the largely cash-based Mongolia infrastructure and power the next-generation payment network using blockchain as the driving technology.

“Facilitating P2P and recurring utility payments with Terra are important first steps towards building a blockchain-based financial infrastructure in Mongolia,” said Terra’s co-founder Daniel Shin. “From there, we will build out a wider range of financial services, reforming the remittance, loan, and overall banking industry.”

Nalaikh District governor Radnaabazar Choijinsambuu also commented on the initiative:

“We believe this pilot programme with Terra will reform how the people of Nalaikh City make everyday payments. It will contribute to the development and enrichment of the nation’s digital payment infrastructure, while creating a new online platform to easily share information and offering great opportunities to connect with our citizens through advanced technology,” said Radnaabazar Choijinsambuu, Governor, Nalaikh District of the Capital City.

Back in August 2018, Terra closed a $32 million funding round to support its stablecoin project. The venture, led by South Korean e-commerce marketplace Ticket Monster, won the backing of four of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges — Binance, OKEx, Huobi and Upbit’s parent company Dunamu.

Last year, the Central Bank of Mongolia approved crypto-friendly legislation and gave permission to Mobicom, the country's largest telecoms operator, to issue its own cryptocurrency, dubbed Candy, whose value is pegged to Mongolia’s fiat currency, the tugrik.

"The festival aims to promote the ethnic Kazakh tradition of hunting with eagles internationally and boost the country's tourism," Tsend Enkhtuvshin, deputy head of Ulan Bator's tourism department, told Xinhua.

More than 20 eagle hunters are expected to compete in the 12th edition of the festival to catch small animals, such as foxes and hares, with specially trained golden eagles, showing off the skills of both the birds and their trainers.

"The festival is one of the most popular tourism activities in our country. The number of domestic and foreign tourists who visit the festival has been rising year after year," Enkhtuvshin said, expressing his hope for more tourists in this year's festival.

Last year's Spring Golden Eagle Festival attracted around 4,000 domestic and foreign tourists, he said.

Mongolia is home to the thousand year-old tradition of hunting with trained Golden Eagles. This unique tradition has been passed from generation to generation among the Kazakh nomads.

The Golden Eagle Festival is held twice a year in the spring and autumn season in Mongolia. The autumn festival is held in western Bayan-Ulgii Province.

The crew departed from Ulaangom on the morning of 14 January and tried to land on the winter grazing land of herder Zandan, which was located at the foot of Mount Bayankhairkhan, 2,275 meters above sea level, and 15 kilometers southeast of Malchin soum in Uvs Province. However, the Russian-made MI-8 helicopter spun out of control about 50 meters (165 feet) off the ground, crashed and exploded in flames.

The victims included Sh.Otgonbileg, Member of Parliament of Mongolia; Sabine Metzner-Strack from Germany, United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team leader and head of the Asia & Pacific Desk Disaster Response Branch in OCHA; Gerard Le Claire from Jersey, United Kingdom, UNDAC team member and Director of Environmental Services of the Jersey Planning & Environmental Department; Matthew Girvin from the United States of America, Programme Officer of the UNICEF office in Mongolia; Batchuluun Bayarmaa from Mongolia, Programme Officer of the UNFPA office in Mongolia; Tsevegmid Batzorig, photographer from Mongolia’s Gamma Agency; Takahiro Kato, reporter for NHK Japan; Minoru Masaki, cameraman for NHK Japan; and D.Otgon, the helicopter’s technician.

On July 21, a 2.5 meter marble sculpture was built close to the accident site. The sculpture is carved with the words “On January 14, 2001 people on a humanitarian mission were lost. They will never be forgotten.” The names of deceased are also on the sculpture. The Bayarmaa Foundation, named after B.Bayarmaa, was established and a monument dedicated to Sh.Otgonbileg was unveiled in the city of Erdenet.

In the list of the countries with the highest average IQ, Mongolia was ranked 12th with an average IQ of 100. Forbes highlighted it is surprising to see Mongolia in 12th place while the US doesn’t even make the top 25. With an average IQ of 107.1, Singapore topped the list.

Coal production also reached its highest level since 2013—at 431.76 million mt, Russia’s production increased by six percent in 2018 compared to 2017.

According to Platts estimates and to thermal coal traders who spoke to Platts, Russian producers continue to seek domination on the European market and have been putting in a lot of effort to grab more market shares on the Asian markets such as South Korea and Taiwan.

Last year, the average free on board (FOB) coal prices for the Atlantic and Pacific markets were both higher compared to 2017, which could be a big incentive for Russia to continue producing and exporting more coal to seaborne destinations, according to Platts.

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak briefed on Thursday President Vladimir Putin on the Russian energy sector production in 2018, saying that the coal production of around 433 million tons was planned to be reached in 2020. Russia plans to invest around $22.4 billion (1.5 trillion Russian rubles) in its coal industry and port infrastructure, Novak told Putin. 
Due to the OPEC+ production cuts, Russia’s crude oil production in 2019 could be lower than originally planned—at 552 million tons, or 11.085 million bpd, Novak said last month after the new OPEC/non-OPEC deal was struck. Originally, plans for next year were for Russia’s oil production to stand at 555 million tons-556 million tons, or 11.145 million bpd-11.165 million bpd, according to Novak.