Mongolia Business and Mongolian Daily Business News

Russian Mir opened its branch in Mongolia yesterday. This event conflicts with the visit of the RF President and many other veterans of Russia who are about 95 years old. These veterans are the member of the Friendship association and some have the “Hero” title of Russia and Mongolia. Nikonov Viachislov Alekseevich, President of the Russian Mir Fund and other representatives took part in this event. Russian Mir Fund has over 40 branches around the world. They have opened its center in the central library of University of Science and Technology and have gifted over 680 books to the library. They are also fully decorating the library with computers and new technologies worth around 23 thousand USD.

Price of most common used A92 type of petroleum has been increased up to 1300 MNT per liter from last Sunday. The price rise already started to affect the price of consumer goods. Frustrations started to grow as the price of petroleum increased three times in a month without prior notice. Petroleum importers explain that ‘unavoidable’ increase was caused by the export tax of Russia and Rosneft, Russian oil supplier. Mongolia imports most of its petroleum directly from Rosneft.

From yesterday, price of all types of petroleum was increased by 80 MNT per litre which means price of petroleum was increased by nearly 200 MNT in a space of one month. Oil import tax was set at 0% by the Mongolian government to stabilise the price of petrol but Russia had increased its tax on export of oil from 152.8 USD to 212.6 USD per tonne. This increase had directly affected the price of petrol in Mongolia explains the officials. Russia also reported that they will increase the export tax to 224.0 USD per tonne from next month. Read the rest of this entry »

Mongolia expects to welcome half a million tourists this year and Ministry of Environment and Tourism is working together with the tourist camps operators to achieve this target during this summer. Their policy is to attract group of tourists rather than individuals says the representatives of the Ministry. They are working closely to improve and develop the standards of the tourist camps as this is their main priority this year. Another policy to increase the number of visitors annually is to implement improved tourist guides and programmes to attract group of tourists. Statistics shows that most tourists come from China and Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

Red Hill Energy announced that it will authorize the construction of a USD 250 million project at its Ulaan Ovoo coal site. This follows the release of a pre-feasibility study at Ulaan Ovoo indicating there are some 208 million tones of coal available for mining and shipment to the Port of Nadhodka on the Russian eastern seaboard.

Officials said that infrastructure construction at the site should begin in the latter half of 2009 with mining and the sale of coal to begin in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

Non regular meeting of State Great Khural is being held right now and they are discussing about the grant aid of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. 188.3 million USD worth Railway project is due to stop as Russia believes 188.3 million USD grant aid is ineffectual to implement the project. This is due as Mongolia partially owns the 50% of the Railway in Mongolia. This matter is being discussed during this non regular meeting.

The last visit of the Russian PM V.Putin was in the year 2000. According to the Russian and worldwide media he will visit Mongolia from the 13th of May. This visit is continuation of series of Diplomatic meetings between Mongolia and Russia but none to do with the Presidential election explains the Ministry of External Relations of Mongolia.

The PM of Russia is planning to discuss many issues in a short space of time. They will discuss about joint invested Ulan-Bator Railway Association, railway extension project to South Gobi parts of Mongolia, Tavan Tolgoi project and other matters regarding the two countries. Additionally, this visit will reveal how the Russian would like to participate in the Tavan Tolgoi project. The visit of the Russian PM is definite this time as the preparatory works for the visit has begun.

Russia will lend Mongolia $300 million for agriculture, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after a meeting with his Mongolian counterpart where agreements on atomic and political cooperation were also signed.

The loan, which is to be issued by Rosselkhozbank, “will be used to buy Russian machinery and other Russian goods,” Putin said after the meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaagin Bayar.
Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines—Former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has added his voice to the calls to stop the fighting in Mindanao and urged the revival of the peace talks with the Moro secessionist rebels

In a press statement Sunday, De Venecia said he attended a gathering of political and civil society leaders in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, over the weekend and told journalists there that the revival of the peace talks in the southern Philippines should be combined “with a full-scale economic action program,” his “Mini Marshall Plan.” Read the rest of this entry »

Commentary by William Pesek

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — I’m barreling down a Mongolian highway at 70 miles (113 kilometers) an hour and am about to die.

That’s what I thought as my sport-utility vehicle veered into a ditch to avoid two massive cows the other day. It wasn’t my driver’s fault. The ditch — which locals call a pothole even though it could swallow a Volkswagen — was actually on the road.

Welcome to rural driving, Mongolian-style. My near-death experience didn’t happen hundreds of miles from Ulaanbaatar, but 20 minutes outside the Mongolian capital. It was my own all-too- graphic reminder of the desperate infrastructure needs of what’s heralded to become Asia’s fastest-growing economy. Read the rest of this entry »