Japan, Mongolia to launch talks on free trade agreement - The Mainichi Daily News: "TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan and Mongolia said Monday they will begin negotiating for the fast-growing north Asian nation's first bilateral free trade agreement.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Mongolian counterpart Sukhbaatar Batbold also agreed that the two countries will boost cooperation in the development of natural resources and infrastructure, according to a joint announcement released after their meeting in Tokyo.
Mongolia, whose economy grew 17.3 percent in 2011, has no FTAs with other countries. Japan is keen on working more closely with Mongolia as the fast-growing country has abundant natural resources, including coal, copper, uranium and rare earth minerals.
Batbold, who is on a six-day visit to Japan from Saturday, told Noda that Mongolia will ensure Japanese companies' participation in developing the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine in the south Gobi desert, one of the world's largest deposits of high-quality coal, the announcement said."
'via Blog this'
