Prime Minister S.Batbold’s busy schedule during his
official visit to Russia yesterday included talks with his counterpart
V.V.Putin,  and several other important
leaders. After his meeting with Putin, where they signed agreements of
bilateral cooperation, Batbold met S.M.Mironov, Chief of the Federal Council of
Russia,

The
National Development and Innovation Committee and GTZ, the German international
cooperation organization, recently organized a seminar at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to explore the possibilities of developing rare earths based
industries in Mongolia. The participants exchanged views and information on
cooperation with German

The
discovery of water deep under the Gobi desert is likely to remain one of the
greatest achievements of the Oyutolgoi LLC environmental team. The Gunii Hooloi
aquifer, a geological formation containing ground water, is forecast to provide
water to the mine for the

Rating
agency Fitch has announced that it has affirmed long-term foreign and local
currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) for Khan Bank and XacBank at B, with
positive and stable outlooks respectively, each up from previous negative
outlooks, according to Eurasia Capital. Fitch affirmed both

James Schaeffer, CEO of Mongolia Energy Corp., has said the
company aims to produce between 2 million and 2.5 million tons of raw coal in
2011 from its colliery in western Mongolia. Next January, the firm”s monthly
coal output capacity is expected to

The Standing Committee on Food and Agriculture yesterday approved
the law draft to set up an agricultural raw material exchange and will now
submit it to Parliament for approval. Some MPs, including E.Bat-Uul and
Ts.Bayarsaikhan, felt the draft was incomplete and wanted clearer

MP Ts.Shinebayar has said he will soon seek court help in reclaiming the
old name of the MPRP. His lawyers will present archival evidence to support his
claim and he has charged managing officials of the MPP with making such
documents unavailable.

DP members who are calling for a Special Assembly of the party and have signed
an agreement on this with DP Secretary-General D.Erdenebat have demanded the resignation
of the party Chairman, N.Altankhuyag, by January 11, failing which they would
adopt stronger measures of

Sections of the  MPRP which have not accepted the change of the
party’s name to MPP and continue to run their party from “the MPRP headquarters”
 have announced plans to hold a special
assembly, without giving any date. The manager of the headquarters,

China and Mongolia have vowed to step up cooperation on law enforcement
to safeguard security in border area, after a meeting in Beijing between
Chinese State Councillor Meng Jianzhu, who also serves as Chinese Public
Security Minister, and visiting secretary-general of Mongolia”s National
Security