WeNet has the goal of developing a protocol and a platform for empowering the diversity-aware communication among people. Specifically, the project will seek to develop a diversity-aware, machine-mediated paradigm of social interaction, exploiting the complementary competencies of humans to solve problems that are beyond the skills of any individual.

Fifteen universities, research institutes and technological companies of Mongolia, Italy, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Paraguay, India, Mexico and China are taking part in the project. The project’s kick-off meeting was held between January 30 and February 1 at the University of Trento, Italy, in which Dr. G.Amarsanaa and Dr. Ch.Altangerel from the NUM attended.

Kering (PPRUF), the owner of brands like Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, just reported bumper sales driven by strong growth in Asia.

Its revenue increased 26% in 2018 to €13.6 billion ($15.4 billion).

Luxury companies LVMH (LVMHF), L'Oreal (LRLCF) and Hermes (HESAF) have also defied expectations of weaker sales in China caused by a slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

Concerns were sparked earlier this year when Apple (AAPL) warned that it was selling fewer iPhones in China.

Kering did have some words of warning for investors. The company said the business environment "remains unsettled" because of geopolitical risks, trade policies and fluctuations in exchange rates.

Shares in Kering dropped 3% in Paris after earnings were announced. Helen Brand, an analyst at UBS, said the stock has been trading higher ahead of the earnings in anticipation of strong results.

The president noted that “a new machine” for the Russian military, the long-range heavy strategic bomber Tu-160 and its technology, could be developed into a civilian version.

“Everything is running like clockwork,” said the Russian president about the Tu-160. “So why not also create a supersonic passenger plane?”

The Soviet Union developed a supersonic passenger plane – the Tupolev Tu-144. The aircraft made its maiden flight in 1968, and was used for passenger service for less than a year in 1977-1978 before it was ruled economically unfeasible and potentially unsafe. The same happened to the only other similar aircraft, the British-French Concorde, which made its last flight in 2003.

It’s not the first time Putin has floated the idea of bringing back a civilian supersonic plane. After witnessing a test flight of Russia’s new Tu-160 strategic bomber last year, the president said that the Tu-144 was too costly for people for its time, but now the economic situation in the country is different and some companies would be able to operate this type of aircraft.

Earlier this year, the Russian Ministry of Industry said that the United Aviation Corporation (UAC) will be in charge of developing the supersonic passenger jet. The company will build a flight simulator demonstrating the new jet’s capabilities by 2022 and then start working on the plane’s design.

The legacy E190 will be configured in a two-class layout, with six seats in business- and 92 seats in economy-class. The aircraft will support the carrier’s seven domestic destinations, as well as international services to China’s Baotou, Manzhouli, Erlian and Russia’s Ulan-Ude.

“Hunnu Air has taken on a new direction, and is more committed than ever to providing convenient domestic and regional flights options to travelers,” Hunnu Air CEO Munkhjargal Purevjal said. “In conjunction with our growing fleet by these Embraer E190s from CDB Aviation and numerous scheduling options, we need to continue to grow our operations and further anchor ourselves within the country’s travel landscape.”

Hunnu Air, which currently flies two ATR 72-500s, is a private airline based out of Ulaanbaatar Chinggis Khaan International Airport. The airline had a short stint operating the Airbus A319 in 2013-14 and retired its last Fokker 50 on Jan. 22 this year.

Chen Chuanren, Chuanren@purplelightvisuals.com

On the sideline of PETROTECH, Minister D.Sumiyabazar paid a courtesy call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and conveyed a greeting of Mongolian Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh. The Minister also briefed about a progress of the project implementation to construct oil refinery in Mongolia with India’s soft loan.

Moreover, the Minister met with Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ms. Vijay Thakur, State Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, and Mr. Nadeem Panjetan, Chief General Manager of Exim Bank and discussed about successful implementation of the project to construct oil refinery which opens a new chapter in the history of Mongolia-India relations and cooperation.

India’s state-owned company ‘Engineers India Limited (EIL) has been pre-qualified to provide Project Management Consultancy services to Mongol Refinery for the project in accordance with the general loan agreement between two countries. The EIL is to open its Representative Office in Mongolia.

In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Engineers India Ltd, a PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and the Government of Mongolia through Mongol Refinery State Owned LLC was signed on February 10, 2019.

In the PETROTECH 2019, ministers of 27 countries attended and shared their views at some 20 sessions and over 6000 international businesses of petroleum and natural gas introduced their activities and products.

Furthermore, the Minister held meetings with authorities of companies such as ‘Hindustan Petroleum’, ‘ONGC’, and ‘Shapoorji Pallonji’ and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). At the meeting with the authority of IIT, the sides exchanged views on cooperating for training Mongolian students in oil refining in India.

Tavan Tolgoi residual deposits have a total methane reserve of up to 10 billion cubic meters. “One cubic meter of methane gas equals one-liter diesel fuel in terms of energy. In other words, the deposits have 10 billion liters of diesel fuel reserves. The annual average domestic demand is a bit over one million tons. Since the energy source is gas, it is environmentally friendly and can be used directly on-site,” according to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy.

According to scholars, extracting methane gas is highly efficient for the economy as the demand is currently high in China’s market. By extracting methane gas, Mongolia can annually export about 800 MW electricity. Plus, the gas can be liquified for domestic use and transported to the People’s Republic of China via both auto road, and gas pipes.

If supplied to the domestic market, the methane can cut the current cost per kWh of electricity by half. Specifically, the zero-loss price of methane gas is MNT 44-63 and the cost of equal energy production currently stands to about MNT 100.

Mongolia has an installed electricity capacity of 1.1 Gw. The national electricity grid, which consists of five systems, is in urgent need to increase the capacity of the Southern energy system. The undersupply is filled in by import from China at present. Although the upcoming Tavan Tolgoi Thermal Power Plant will solve the problem, the construction will take about 3-5 years. Thus, scholars are suggesting the use of coalbed methane gas to directly supply this gap.

ETT has announced 2019 "the year of development". With an aim to improve the efficiency of Tavan Tolgoi mine, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MNCS on adopting cutting-edge technology, refined coal, natural gas, ensuring the workers’ health, and developing ecologically friendly production.

"We are now cooperating with the Chinese side to organize the third Mongolia-China expo in Hohhot, capital of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in September," Tuvshintugs Battsetseg, deputy director of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, recently told Xinhua.

China has been Mongolia's biggest trading partner and top export market destination for almost two decades, and mining products have accounted for the majority of the Mongolian total exports, she said.

"Our country is willing to diversify its exports to China or increase the exports of non-mining sectors," she said.

Mongolia and China have set a 10-billion-U.S.-dollar target for bilateral trade by 2020, she said, expressing her hope that the biennial event will play a major role in achieving the target.

The Russian currency is trading 0.18 percent higher against the euro at 74.34, representing a 3.8 percent growth since January 1.

Russian stock indices opened higher with the dollar-denominated RTS up 0.7 percent to 1,207.5 points, while the ruble-based MOEX grew by 0.4 percent to 2,513.3 points.

Late on Friday, Moody’s announced the upgrade of Russia’s economy from Ba1 to Baa3, acknowledging the “positive impact” of government policies that managed to strengthen the country’s already robust public finances and may potentially help Moscow withstand possible US sanctions.

The agency noted that Washington is highly likely to introduce further anti-Russian sanctions in the coming months. The new measures by the White House could “be contained without material damage to the country’s credit profile,” Moody’s said.

“The sovereign’s vulnerability to such shocks has indeed materially diminished, and no longer constrains the rating to sub-investment grade,” the report said.

Last year, S&P Global Ratings upgraded the nation from junk level, bringing it in line with Fitch Ratings.

Raw coal will be replaced with refined coal and briquettes. Thus, public and private factories are working on the production of improved fuel for delivering it to the consumers next autumn.

‘Tavan Tolgoi Fuel’ factory, which commenced in November 2018, has produced about 20 thousand tons of briquettes. The factory is operating 24 hours a day with four shifts.

The factory has a capacity to produce 200 thousand tons of improved fuel annually, which will be expanded to 600 thousand tons. It is planned to fully supply the fuel needs of the capital. Thus, air pollution of the city will be reduced by 50 percent.