Mongolia Brief March 12
Speaker Receives Delegation of China’s Entities
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Speaker of the State Great Khural (parliament) Z.Enkhbold Tuesday received delegates of the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp) and of the “HOPU” group, in the State House.
The Speaker noted that the cabinet decided last week to set up a unit at the Mining Ministry to realize a project on introducing a coal gasifying technology, and said the unit’s activity has launched right after this meeting.
A cooperation memorandum was established between the Mongolian Mining Ministry and the Sinopec Corporation during a visit of the Mongolian Premier to China last year’s autumn to collaborate in introducing the technology of coal gasification.
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Speaker heads to South Korea on state visit
March 12 (news.mn) Speaker of the State Great Khural (Mongolian Parliament), Z.Enkhbold, has left for the Republic of Korea for a state visit upon the invitation of Speaker of South Korea"s National Assembly, Kang Chang-hee, between March 12th and 15th.
For the visit speaker Z.Enkhbold will have talks with Speaker Kang Chang-hee at an individual meeting. After the meeting the President of the Republic of Korea, Ms.ParkGeun-hye will receive speaker Z.Enkhbold.
Speaker Z.Enkhbold is scheduled to visit the Korea Industrial Complex Corp to see the high technology cluster and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. The Speaker will also attend “Mongolian-Korean Forum” and “Korean-Mongolian business forum” run by Korean NGOs.
It is also planned for Speaker Z.Enkhbold to conduct a meeting with Mongolians who live and work in Busan metropolitan city while visiting the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone.
Speaker Z.Enkhbold is being accompanied by government officials including cabinet ministers Head of the Standing Committee on Complaints Resolution R.Burmaa, Minister of Labor Ya.Sanjmyatav, Minister of Population Development and Social Protection S.Erdene and MP O.Baasankhuu, G.Batkhuu, D.Sarangerel, Ts.Tsolmon, the Ambassador from Mongolia to the Republic of Korea B.Ganbold, and other government agencies officials and media groups.
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Related:
Speaker Starts Visit to S.Korea – Montsame, March 12
Standing Committee Head Meets CoralieGevers
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) On Tuesday, a head of the parliamentary Standing committee on budget Ts.Davaasuren received MsCoralieGevers, a country director of the World Bank (WB) for Mongolia, in conjunction with her returning home soon.
The sides discussed a present situation of Mongolia’s economy and projects that will be implemented by the WB here. MsGevers said Mongolia should promptly make a decision about accepting some projects to be realized with soft loans before April 15, otherwise, capitals for these projects might be passed to other countries.
Emphasizing that soft loans negatively affect the debt burden over a country, the Standing committee head said Mongolia is ready to collaborate with the WB in augmenting the size of loans and in implementing the mining, education and agricultural biggest projects.
Link to article
FM Receives OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Program Head
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Foreign Affairs Minister L.Bold Wednesday received Mr Antonio Somma, Head of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program at Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
They exchanged opinions about relations and cooperation.
OECD is the Paris-headquartered international organization which is made up 34 member-countries and carries out projects in fields of fostering economic cooperation, exchanging experience on providing sustainable development and economic growth, increasing competitiveness and strengthening capacity. Mongolia is cooperating with the OECD in frames of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program.
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Minister of Economic Development Works in "11 11"
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Minister of Economic Development N.Batbayar Wednesday worked in the "11 11" center created at the cabinet for reforms.
Four thous. 700 people took information from him through several channels, a majority of them asked the Minister about a selection of projects on augmenting export and supporting import substitution industrialization. He replied that the government selected 888 projects in the first stage out of 1,151 offered by people and organizations, and that most of these projects have business proposals on the construction materials industry. Other 210 projects offer the production of construction materials urgently needed for the present construction sector, he added.
The projects selected will receive loans from commercial banks, the loan’s repayment period is up to five years with less than nine percent of interest, the loan shall be given in Mongolian currency, the Minister emphasized.
Other people asked about measures taken by the government for reducing the rate of US dollar against togrog. The Minister said the cabinet launched measures with several phases, focusing on the export increase.
Link to article
Justice Ministry State Secretary in London
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice J.Bayartsetseg, together with Border Protection and Police officers are visiting London these days.
The Mongolian delegation Tuesday attended an opening of an exhibition themed "Security and Policing" organized by UK Home Office.
After the exhibition opening, MsBayartsetseg met with Mr Chris Allison, a deputy chief of Home Office, Mr Phil Duffy, a chief operating officer at Border Force, Mr Mark Bishop, a senior officer at National Crime Agency, Stephen Phipson, a director of Security Industry Management at Home Office and others. Our State Secretary briefed them reforms of legal institutions of Mongolia and asked the British authorities to help in preparing legal staffers and to share experience. The high ranking officers of UK Home Office and National Crime Agency acknowledged the request and expressed an interest in further cooperating with Mongolia.
Tuesday afternoon, MsBayartsetseg met with Mr Nicholas Fluck, a president of the Law Society to share views on status and functions of lawyers, legal education system in the UK, and newly-founded Lawyers Association of Mongolia. The sides agreed to establish contacts between lawyers of Mongolia and UK and to take measures to broaden the cooperation between them.
Link to article
Mongolia Asks Practical Assistance to Prevent "DutchDisease"
March 12 (infomongolia.com) On March 11, 2014, Minister of Economic Development N.Batbayar received in hisoffice the Head of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program at Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Antonio Somma.
During the meeting, Program Director A.Somma introduced the implementationprocess of the “Project to Improve the Competitiveness of the Mining Sector”,“Economic Diversity” and “Anti-Corruption Project” being carried in Mongolia withOECD assistance.
Minister N.Batbayar affirmed the Government of Mongolia fully supports the proposedprojects, besides exchanged views on "Dutch Disease" the phenomenon ofeconomic crisis spread among mineral-rich countries and asked support from the OECD to collaborate on providing practicalassistance preventing the "Dutch Disease".
In turn, Program Director A.Somma pledged to conduct research for Mongolia in association OECD experts on this issue anddevelop appropriate solutions based on experiences of other countries, and soon to report the Minister N.Batbayar.
In economics, the “Dutch Disease” is the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and adecline in the manufacturing sector (or agriculture). The mechanism is that an increase in revenues from natural resources (orinflows of foreign aid) will make a given nation's currency stronger compared to that of other nations (manifest in an exchangerate), resulting in the nation's other exports becoming more expensive for other countries to buy, making the manufacturing sector less competitive.
Link to article
Government of Japan to Provide Mongolia with Soft Loan andGrant Aid of over 80 Million USD
March 12 (infomongolia.com) On March 11, 2014, Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Bold and Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Takenori Shimizu have signed on threeNotes to exchange between the Governments of Mongolia and Japan.
The first Note is considered on “Higher Engineering Education” project to be carriedout in Mongolia with 7 billion 535 million JPY or approximately 75 million USD softloan will be provided by the Government of Japan, also 750 million JPY or 7.5 millionUSD non-project aid and on providing cultural grant aid of 71 million 700 thousandJPY or 700 thousand USD.
In the scope of “Higher Engineering Education” project, over thousand studentsstudying at Mongolian state universities majored in engineering and technical schools will be enrolled in a 2-year rotationaltraining to study in Japan and Mongolia, also within this fund to organize vocational training, renew and equip workshops,laboratories and research pilot classrooms, and the project is aimed to train Mongolian engineering and technical work force fora short term and stimulate the introduction of state-of-the-art engineering-technical system in Mongolia.
The second non-project aid of 7.5 million USD will be earmarked for supplying diagnostic equipment to hospitals and maternityhouses such as MRI, CT and ultrasound devices, also surgical equipment, monitoring for intensive treatment, controlequipment, and treatment and diagnostic kits. The aid is aimed to accelerating the country's health reforms and supplyingmedical institutions with modern equipment, which are considered as vital importance today and will be distributed to Motherand Child Health National Center and Maternity Hospitals No.1, No.2 and No.3 respectively.
The third part of cultural grant aid of 700 thousand USD will be spent on "TV Software Improvement" project to improve quality ofcognitive educational programs and to promote Japanese language and cultural programs. The project will be implemented onMongolian National Broadcaster Television.
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Related:
Mongolia and Japan Sign Grant Aid Note – Montsame, March 12
23rd Mongolia-Russian joint exhibition held to promote business
March 12 (news.mn) The 23rd Mongolia-Russian joint exhibition “Door to Asia” is being held between March 11th and 13th in Ulaanbaatar by the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with the Representative Office of Irkutsk in Mongolia and the “Business Contact” company.
For the joint exhibition the Mongolian-Russian Business Forum was organized on Wednesday at the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry with organizations and companies related to agriculture, food, construction, basic and light industry, mining and tourism from Moscow, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Eketarinburg Angarsk, Ulan-Ude and Belarus.
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Index of Industrial Products Increases
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) The industrial products index (2010=100 experimental estimation) this February increased by 3.2% against the previous year, but decreased by 0.5% against the end of the last year and by 0.2% against the previous month.
The increase in the industrial output occurred due to 4.7% to 2.1-time increases in mining and quarrying products such as iron ore, molybdenum with concentrate, copper with concentrate, crude oil and broken or crashed stone, and to 2.1% to 4.7-time increases in industrial main products of manufacturing sector such as newspapers, printing plastic cards, kinds of sausages, camel woolen blankets, fruit compotes, milk, metal steel, knitted goods, sheepskin coat, Sawn wood and electric wires.
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Freight and Passenger in Statistics
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) In February of this year, 2846.7 thousand tons of freight and 533.7 thousand passengers (at duplicated counting) were carried by railway transport.
Compared to same period of the previous year, the size of freight decreased by 154.3 thousand tons or 5.1% and the number of passengers by 76.7 thousand people or 12.6%.
The revenue from the railway transport went down by 898.1 million togrog, or 1.7%, to 53.4 billion in February against the previous year.
498.5 tons of freight and 101.2 thousand passengers (at duplicated counting) were carried by the air transport. The number of the carried freight decreased by 37.0 tons or 6.9%, the number of passengers--by 6.9 thousand people or 6.4% against the previous year.
The revenue from this transport declined by 2.4 billion togrog or 7.6% to 28.8 billion in February 2014 against the previous year.
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Loss of Animals Declines
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)In the first two months of this year, natural losses of adult animals decreased by 39.7 thousand heads, or 71.4%, to 99.2 thousand heads against the previous year.
Out of the animals lost, there were 2.4 thousand horses, 5.9 thousand cows, 138 camels, 13.3 thousand sheep and 18.0 thousand goats.
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Russian Becomes Honorary Fellow of Mongolian University
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The University of Humanities awarded Ms Tatyana Soboleva, an officer at the Russian Education Ministry, with a title of honorary fellow in recognition of her "long-term commitment to Mongolian students".
The honorary certificate, robe and hat were awarded Tuesday to MsSoboleva by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to Russia Sh.Altangerel in the Embassy in Moscow. The title has been granted in connection with the 75th anniversary of the University of the Humanities of Mongolia, occurring this year.
Upon receiving the title, MsSokoleva said she has been working in the Education Ministry of Russia since 1973, she has been responsible for student exchange programs for Mongolians in the last 25 years. She is surprised and delighted with the award, she added.
Present at the award-presenting were also MsJ.Togtokh, an officer at Mongolia’s Education and Science Ministry, MsCh.Zegiimaa, a professor at the University of the Humanities, and staffers of the Mongolian Embassy in Moscow.
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New routes added for school buses
March 12 (news.mn) With the intent to ensure the security and safety of school children a school bus service was launched for certain routes in remote ger districts to provide regulations and reduce traffic strain in 2012.
In the first phase, a school bus services become available on five routes to Zuunsalaa, Narangiingol, Orbit, Ikh Naran and Bayankhoshuu.
Now Ulaanbaatar City Transportation Authority has added new routes to the school bus runs to Nisekh-120 Myangat by March 4th.
The bus service, belonging to Bus-1 company, will take children of schools 114, 7, 60, 118, 41, 34, 63, 18, 15, 52 and 75.
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Local Doctors Get First Aid Kits
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) Medical staffers of 78 bagas /baga-the smallest administrative unit in countryside/ of Arkhangai province have received first aid kits.
Now their emergency assistance to mothers and children will improve significantly.
The kits of 59 million togrog have been provided in frames of “Safe Motherhood” project, being co-implemented by the aimag's Health department and French-headquartered “SanteSud” a non-government organization /NGO/.
A two-day training on how to use these kits were given to the medical staff.
The NGO, founded in 1984 in Marseilles of France, is a specialist in health care development and is a reliable partner. It strengthens the capacities of health care professionals in developing countries allowing thus vulnerable strata to get more access to sustainable and quality health care.
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Korean Journalists Visiting
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) Invited by B.Galaarid, the president of the Journalists' Association of Mongolia, the S.Korean journalists are here with a visit March 12-14.
They are led by the S.Korean journalists association head Park Chong Ryul. The guests are studying development of the Mongolian journalism, holding meetings with press organizations and are to establish Thursday a mutual understanding memorandum with the Mongolia side after having agreed to make mutual visits and forward nowadays journalism.
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Sculpture Exhibition Opens in Blue Moon Art Gallery
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)A solo exhibition by sculptor A.Ochirbold opened in Blue Moon art gallery Tuesday.
After naming his piece of work as the best art during their earlier exhibition of "Paintings and Sculptures" in 2013, the "Blue Moon" art gallery awarded MrOchirbold an opportunity to display his works in solo.
MrOchirbold usually works with steel and bronze to reflect the mindset of a sculptor. The exhibition is displaying his "Sky Horizon", "Anticipations of Centuries", "Shadow of Centuries", "Smoke on Water", "In the Emptiness of Steppe" and "Steed" and others.
The exhibition will continue until March 20.
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Beavers to be introduced in Ider River
March 12 (news.mn) Over the past two decades in Mongolia, over 1500 lakes, rivers, and streams have disappeared according to an unconfirmed study.
However some rivers and streams are recovering because of plentiful rain in the past two years, but some rivers are still in bad shape. Everyday lakes and rivers run dry from pollutants and human related activities. One of them is Ider River, which runs through Zavkhanaimag and begins in the Altai Mountains and Otgontenger Mountain.
The 452 km long Ider River that runs through 24.555 square km of territory is running dry rapidly in the past years. Environment protection officers in Zavkhanaimag are working on a project to adopt beavers into the Ider River to save its ecosystem. When a few families of beavers settle down along one river, the changes in water level are smaller and the watercourse becomes more natural. The results of such changes are very important for the river ecosystem and the environments that surround it.
Last month, a survey about the possibility of adopting beavers into the river was conducted by “Amitanasralt” LLC. The local residents also appraised the campaign. Previously beavers were introduced successfully in Tes River. As a result the flow of the river and the number of the beaver increased.
The population of beavers is not increasing much. The beavers need plenty of natural resources in order to breed and they therefore care for that environment and improve the ecosystem of the area. The environment protection officers in Zavkhanaimag plan to adopt a family of beaver with a young beaver.
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Mongolian Skier B.Ganbold Finishes Men's 1 Km SprintFree, Standing in 25th Place
March 12 (infomongolia.com) Mongolian skier B.Ganbold, who finished his first distance in the Men’s 20 kmClassic, Standing two days ago, has been continuing to compete in the XIParalympics of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
On March 12, 2014, B.Ganbold has raced in the Men's 1 km Sprint Free Qualification,Standing, where a total of 35 athletes have competed and Mongolian skier came inthe 25th place with a time of 4:26:65.
In the Qualification contest, Russian five skiers came in the first five places and 12qualified skiers from 6 nations will continue in the Semifinal today at 12:51 pm bylocal time (04:51 pm by UB time).
There is one event left to participate for B.Ganbold, Men's 10km Free, Standing scheduled on Closing Day, March 16, 2014.
As of March 12, 2014, the Sochi 2014 Paralympics’ medal count table is led by the host nation Russia with a total of 34 medals(11+14+9) followed by Germany (4+0+0), Ukraine (3+3+5), Austria (2+2+0) and Japan (2+1+2).
Link to article
Related:
Mongolian Skier to Compete at Sprint Event in Sochi – Montsame, March 12
Mongolian Ice Hockey Team to Compete in 2014 IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia
March 12 (infomongolia.com) The 2014 Challenge Cup of Asia organized annually by International Ice HockeyFederation (IIHF) since 2008 will be commencing in Abu Dhabi, the United ArabEmirates on March 15-22, 2014.
This is the seventh edition, where six teams of Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong,Mongolia, Kuwait, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates are to compete in roundrobinmatches.
Mongolian hockey team will have its first match against the team of Chinese Taipeion March 16, and the game Mongolia vs. Hong Kong on March 17, Mongolia vs.Kuwait on March 19, Mongolia vs. Thailand on March 20 and against host nation theUnited Arab Emirates on March 22, 2014.
Mongolian ice hockey team has been participating since 2010 and in the 2013 IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia, Mongolia grabbeda Bronze medal winning over the team of Kuwait by 11:0.
Currently, Mongolian team is conducting its training in Chita, Russia.
The number of participants interested to compete in the Challenge Cup of Asia has been growing year-on-year, hence the IIHFdecided to have two separate tournaments for both the Men’s and Women’s categories from this year.
The 2014 edition, the Men’s category will be played in two divisions at two separate venues, where the top division will beplayed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on March 15-22, while the Division I tournament finished in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The Women’s Challenge Cup of Asia features eight teams this season.
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Hakuho Marks 29th Birthday with Easy Win over Endo on Day 3
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)YokozunaHakuho celebrated his 29th birthday on March 11 with a one-sided win over top maegashira Endo at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka, reported asahi.com the same day.
In a bout that resembled a practice session, Mongolian Hakuho calmly spun Endo around after the face-off and shoved him out from behind to improve to 3-0 in the day's final bout at Osaka's Prefectural Gymnasium.
Hakuho is bidding for his 29th career title, which is just two shy of former great Chiyonofuji and closing in on the all-time record held by Taiho with 32.
After impressing in previous tournaments, Endo quickly moved up the ranks and is fighting in this tournament as a top maegashira. But the rising star is getting a rude introduction to the higher ranks and dropped to 0-3 after the loss to Hakuho.
Endo was manhandled by yokozunaHarumafuji on March 10 and beaten by ozekiKakuryu on the opening day of the meet. He will be looking for a break in the bout on March 12 when he faces ozekiKotoshogiku, a less imposing opponent than the first three.
Elsewhere, Harumafuji, who sat out the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament with an injury, came in low at the face-off before getting both hands on the back of top maegashiraTamawashi's head and swatting the top maegashira down to stay tied for the lead at 3-0. Tamawashi was no match for the speedy Mongolian and dropped to 0-3.
In other major bouts, ozekiKakuryu, who is bidding for promotion to yokozuna, was handed his first loss of the 15-day tournament when he was shoved out by No. 2 maegashiraOkinoumi.
Kakuryu was never able to take charge and was knocked off balance by the taller No. 2 maegashira, who won his third straight bout against the Mongolian grappler and improved to 2-1.
OzekiKisenosato got a right-hand grip on the belt of Shohozan and toppled the winless komusubi at the edge to keep a clean slate and improve to 3-0.
OzekiKotoshogiku quickly established a grip on the belt and frog-marched Tochinowaka out over the edge to pick up his second win against one loss. Tochinowaka, a No. 2 maegashira, dropped to 1-2.
SekiwakeGoeido was all business when he came bursting out of the face-off and overpowered komusubiToyonoshima to stay perfect at 3-0. Toyonoshima fell to 1-2.
In an all-sekiwake showdown, Tochiozan got both arms around Kotooshu (1-2) and muscled out the larger Bulgarian wrestler to improve to 2-1.
Egypt's Osunaarashi, fighting as a No. 11 maegashira in the Osaka meet, used his height advantage to shove out No. 12 maegashiraChiyomaru (2-1) and improve to 3-0.
Link to article
Mongolian Delegation Meets IPC President
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) A Mongolian delegation in Sochi Tuesday met with Sir Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
At the meeting in Ayvazovsky Hotel present were D.Nyamkhuu, a president of the Mongolian Paralympic Committee (MPC), D.Surenkhorloo, a head of the Mongolian Paralympic team, and N.Oyunbat, a secretary-general at MPC.
After the Mongolians signed the Honorary guest book of the IPC, Sir Craven praised achievements of MPC, citing the gold medal won by D.Baatarjav in men’s archery recurve standing event of 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In his turn, Mr Nyamkhuu briefed their actions since 2009 and spoke about a decree by the President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj on development of winter sports in the country. He also mentioned a decision by the Government of Mongolia to build a sports house designated to the disabled, under a funding from the capital city budget. The IPC president promised a support in building of the sports house.
Amid the meeting, Sir Craven complimented official outfits of the Mongolian Paralympic team, and wanted one for himself. The Mongolians presented him cashmere wear of Gobi Co, who designed opening ceremony outfits of our paralympic team in Sochi.
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Sports Contests Organized among Staff of Foreign Embassies in Ulaanbaatar
March 12 (infomongolia.com) Welcoming the 93rd anniversary of Mongolian Armed Forces and MongolianSoldier's Day that celebrates annually on March 18th, the Ministry of Defenseorganized friendly sports events among personnel of the General Staff of MongolianArmed Forces, Foreign Embassies in Ulaanbaatar and Defense Attache at theEmbassies.
At the sports contests, diplomats, attaches and staff from the Embassies of China,Russia, United States and General Staff of Mongolian Armed Forces have competedin basketball, volleyball and table tennis competitions held on March 11, 2014.
In the basketball category, the team from China Embassy won a gold medal, Russianteam become winner in volleyball and in table tennis contest employees of the General Staff of Mongolian Armed Forces took a gold medal.
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Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Speaker of the State Great Khural (parliament) Z.Enkhbold Tuesday received delegates of the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp) and of the “HOPU” group, in the State House.
The Speaker noted that the cabinet decided last week to set up a unit at the Mining Ministry to realize a project on introducing a coal gasifying technology, and said the unit’s activity has launched right after this meeting.
A cooperation memorandum was established between the Mongolian Mining Ministry and the Sinopec Corporation during a visit of the Mongolian Premier to China last year’s autumn to collaborate in introducing the technology of coal gasification.
Link to article
Speaker heads to South Korea on state visit
March 12 (news.mn) Speaker of the State Great Khural (Mongolian Parliament), Z.Enkhbold, has left for the Republic of Korea for a state visit upon the invitation of Speaker of South Korea"s National Assembly, Kang Chang-hee, between March 12th and 15th.
For the visit speaker Z.Enkhbold will have talks with Speaker Kang Chang-hee at an individual meeting. After the meeting the President of the Republic of Korea, Ms.ParkGeun-hye will receive speaker Z.Enkhbold.
Speaker Z.Enkhbold is scheduled to visit the Korea Industrial Complex Corp to see the high technology cluster and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. The Speaker will also attend “Mongolian-Korean Forum” and “Korean-Mongolian business forum” run by Korean NGOs.
It is also planned for Speaker Z.Enkhbold to conduct a meeting with Mongolians who live and work in Busan metropolitan city while visiting the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone.
Speaker Z.Enkhbold is being accompanied by government officials including cabinet ministers Head of the Standing Committee on Complaints Resolution R.Burmaa, Minister of Labor Ya.Sanjmyatav, Minister of Population Development and Social Protection S.Erdene and MP O.Baasankhuu, G.Batkhuu, D.Sarangerel, Ts.Tsolmon, the Ambassador from Mongolia to the Republic of Korea B.Ganbold, and other government agencies officials and media groups.
Link to article
Related:
Speaker Starts Visit to S.Korea – Montsame, March 12
Standing Committee Head Meets CoralieGevers
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) On Tuesday, a head of the parliamentary Standing committee on budget Ts.Davaasuren received MsCoralieGevers, a country director of the World Bank (WB) for Mongolia, in conjunction with her returning home soon.
The sides discussed a present situation of Mongolia’s economy and projects that will be implemented by the WB here. MsGevers said Mongolia should promptly make a decision about accepting some projects to be realized with soft loans before April 15, otherwise, capitals for these projects might be passed to other countries.
Emphasizing that soft loans negatively affect the debt burden over a country, the Standing committee head said Mongolia is ready to collaborate with the WB in augmenting the size of loans and in implementing the mining, education and agricultural biggest projects.
Link to article
FM Receives OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Program Head
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Foreign Affairs Minister L.Bold Wednesday received Mr Antonio Somma, Head of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program at Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
They exchanged opinions about relations and cooperation.
OECD is the Paris-headquartered international organization which is made up 34 member-countries and carries out projects in fields of fostering economic cooperation, exchanging experience on providing sustainable development and economic growth, increasing competitiveness and strengthening capacity. Mongolia is cooperating with the OECD in frames of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program.
Link to article
Minister of Economic Development Works in "11 11"
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The Minister of Economic Development N.Batbayar Wednesday worked in the "11 11" center created at the cabinet for reforms.
Four thous. 700 people took information from him through several channels, a majority of them asked the Minister about a selection of projects on augmenting export and supporting import substitution industrialization. He replied that the government selected 888 projects in the first stage out of 1,151 offered by people and organizations, and that most of these projects have business proposals on the construction materials industry. Other 210 projects offer the production of construction materials urgently needed for the present construction sector, he added.
The projects selected will receive loans from commercial banks, the loan’s repayment period is up to five years with less than nine percent of interest, the loan shall be given in Mongolian currency, the Minister emphasized.
Other people asked about measures taken by the government for reducing the rate of US dollar against togrog. The Minister said the cabinet launched measures with several phases, focusing on the export increase.
Link to article
Justice Ministry State Secretary in London
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice J.Bayartsetseg, together with Border Protection and Police officers are visiting London these days.
The Mongolian delegation Tuesday attended an opening of an exhibition themed "Security and Policing" organized by UK Home Office.
After the exhibition opening, MsBayartsetseg met with Mr Chris Allison, a deputy chief of Home Office, Mr Phil Duffy, a chief operating officer at Border Force, Mr Mark Bishop, a senior officer at National Crime Agency, Stephen Phipson, a director of Security Industry Management at Home Office and others. Our State Secretary briefed them reforms of legal institutions of Mongolia and asked the British authorities to help in preparing legal staffers and to share experience. The high ranking officers of UK Home Office and National Crime Agency acknowledged the request and expressed an interest in further cooperating with Mongolia.
Tuesday afternoon, MsBayartsetseg met with Mr Nicholas Fluck, a president of the Law Society to share views on status and functions of lawyers, legal education system in the UK, and newly-founded Lawyers Association of Mongolia. The sides agreed to establish contacts between lawyers of Mongolia and UK and to take measures to broaden the cooperation between them.
Link to article
Mongolia Asks Practical Assistance to Prevent "DutchDisease"
March 12 (infomongolia.com) On March 11, 2014, Minister of Economic Development N.Batbayar received in hisoffice the Head of the Eurasia Competitiveness Program at Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Antonio Somma.
During the meeting, Program Director A.Somma introduced the implementationprocess of the “Project to Improve the Competitiveness of the Mining Sector”,“Economic Diversity” and “Anti-Corruption Project” being carried in Mongolia withOECD assistance.
Minister N.Batbayar affirmed the Government of Mongolia fully supports the proposedprojects, besides exchanged views on "Dutch Disease" the phenomenon ofeconomic crisis spread among mineral-rich countries and asked support from the OECD to collaborate on providing practicalassistance preventing the "Dutch Disease".
In turn, Program Director A.Somma pledged to conduct research for Mongolia in association OECD experts on this issue anddevelop appropriate solutions based on experiences of other countries, and soon to report the Minister N.Batbayar.
In economics, the “Dutch Disease” is the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and adecline in the manufacturing sector (or agriculture). The mechanism is that an increase in revenues from natural resources (orinflows of foreign aid) will make a given nation's currency stronger compared to that of other nations (manifest in an exchangerate), resulting in the nation's other exports becoming more expensive for other countries to buy, making the manufacturing sector less competitive.
Link to article
Government of Japan to Provide Mongolia with Soft Loan andGrant Aid of over 80 Million USD
March 12 (infomongolia.com) On March 11, 2014, Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Bold and Ambassador Extraordinaryand Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mongolia Takenori Shimizu have signed on threeNotes to exchange between the Governments of Mongolia and Japan.
The first Note is considered on “Higher Engineering Education” project to be carriedout in Mongolia with 7 billion 535 million JPY or approximately 75 million USD softloan will be provided by the Government of Japan, also 750 million JPY or 7.5 millionUSD non-project aid and on providing cultural grant aid of 71 million 700 thousandJPY or 700 thousand USD.
In the scope of “Higher Engineering Education” project, over thousand studentsstudying at Mongolian state universities majored in engineering and technical schools will be enrolled in a 2-year rotationaltraining to study in Japan and Mongolia, also within this fund to organize vocational training, renew and equip workshops,laboratories and research pilot classrooms, and the project is aimed to train Mongolian engineering and technical work force fora short term and stimulate the introduction of state-of-the-art engineering-technical system in Mongolia.
The second non-project aid of 7.5 million USD will be earmarked for supplying diagnostic equipment to hospitals and maternityhouses such as MRI, CT and ultrasound devices, also surgical equipment, monitoring for intensive treatment, controlequipment, and treatment and diagnostic kits. The aid is aimed to accelerating the country's health reforms and supplyingmedical institutions with modern equipment, which are considered as vital importance today and will be distributed to Motherand Child Health National Center and Maternity Hospitals No.1, No.2 and No.3 respectively.
The third part of cultural grant aid of 700 thousand USD will be spent on "TV Software Improvement" project to improve quality ofcognitive educational programs and to promote Japanese language and cultural programs. The project will be implemented onMongolian National Broadcaster Television.
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Related:
Mongolia and Japan Sign Grant Aid Note – Montsame, March 12
23rd Mongolia-Russian joint exhibition held to promote business
March 12 (news.mn) The 23rd Mongolia-Russian joint exhibition “Door to Asia” is being held between March 11th and 13th in Ulaanbaatar by the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with the Representative Office of Irkutsk in Mongolia and the “Business Contact” company.
For the joint exhibition the Mongolian-Russian Business Forum was organized on Wednesday at the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry with organizations and companies related to agriculture, food, construction, basic and light industry, mining and tourism from Moscow, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Eketarinburg Angarsk, Ulan-Ude and Belarus.
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Index of Industrial Products Increases
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) The industrial products index (2010=100 experimental estimation) this February increased by 3.2% against the previous year, but decreased by 0.5% against the end of the last year and by 0.2% against the previous month.
The increase in the industrial output occurred due to 4.7% to 2.1-time increases in mining and quarrying products such as iron ore, molybdenum with concentrate, copper with concentrate, crude oil and broken or crashed stone, and to 2.1% to 4.7-time increases in industrial main products of manufacturing sector such as newspapers, printing plastic cards, kinds of sausages, camel woolen blankets, fruit compotes, milk, metal steel, knitted goods, sheepskin coat, Sawn wood and electric wires.
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Freight and Passenger in Statistics
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) In February of this year, 2846.7 thousand tons of freight and 533.7 thousand passengers (at duplicated counting) were carried by railway transport.
Compared to same period of the previous year, the size of freight decreased by 154.3 thousand tons or 5.1% and the number of passengers by 76.7 thousand people or 12.6%.
The revenue from the railway transport went down by 898.1 million togrog, or 1.7%, to 53.4 billion in February against the previous year.
498.5 tons of freight and 101.2 thousand passengers (at duplicated counting) were carried by the air transport. The number of the carried freight decreased by 37.0 tons or 6.9%, the number of passengers--by 6.9 thousand people or 6.4% against the previous year.
The revenue from this transport declined by 2.4 billion togrog or 7.6% to 28.8 billion in February 2014 against the previous year.
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Loss of Animals Declines
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)In the first two months of this year, natural losses of adult animals decreased by 39.7 thousand heads, or 71.4%, to 99.2 thousand heads against the previous year.
Out of the animals lost, there were 2.4 thousand horses, 5.9 thousand cows, 138 camels, 13.3 thousand sheep and 18.0 thousand goats.
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Russian Becomes Honorary Fellow of Mongolian University
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)The University of Humanities awarded Ms Tatyana Soboleva, an officer at the Russian Education Ministry, with a title of honorary fellow in recognition of her "long-term commitment to Mongolian students".
The honorary certificate, robe and hat were awarded Tuesday to MsSoboleva by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to Russia Sh.Altangerel in the Embassy in Moscow. The title has been granted in connection with the 75th anniversary of the University of the Humanities of Mongolia, occurring this year.
Upon receiving the title, MsSokoleva said she has been working in the Education Ministry of Russia since 1973, she has been responsible for student exchange programs for Mongolians in the last 25 years. She is surprised and delighted with the award, she added.
Present at the award-presenting were also MsJ.Togtokh, an officer at Mongolia’s Education and Science Ministry, MsCh.Zegiimaa, a professor at the University of the Humanities, and staffers of the Mongolian Embassy in Moscow.
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New routes added for school buses
March 12 (news.mn) With the intent to ensure the security and safety of school children a school bus service was launched for certain routes in remote ger districts to provide regulations and reduce traffic strain in 2012.
In the first phase, a school bus services become available on five routes to Zuunsalaa, Narangiingol, Orbit, Ikh Naran and Bayankhoshuu.
Now Ulaanbaatar City Transportation Authority has added new routes to the school bus runs to Nisekh-120 Myangat by March 4th.
The bus service, belonging to Bus-1 company, will take children of schools 114, 7, 60, 118, 41, 34, 63, 18, 15, 52 and 75.
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Local Doctors Get First Aid Kits
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) Medical staffers of 78 bagas /baga-the smallest administrative unit in countryside/ of Arkhangai province have received first aid kits.
Now their emergency assistance to mothers and children will improve significantly.
The kits of 59 million togrog have been provided in frames of “Safe Motherhood” project, being co-implemented by the aimag's Health department and French-headquartered “SanteSud” a non-government organization /NGO/.
A two-day training on how to use these kits were given to the medical staff.
The NGO, founded in 1984 in Marseilles of France, is a specialist in health care development and is a reliable partner. It strengthens the capacities of health care professionals in developing countries allowing thus vulnerable strata to get more access to sustainable and quality health care.
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Korean Journalists Visiting
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) Invited by B.Galaarid, the president of the Journalists' Association of Mongolia, the S.Korean journalists are here with a visit March 12-14.
They are led by the S.Korean journalists association head Park Chong Ryul. The guests are studying development of the Mongolian journalism, holding meetings with press organizations and are to establish Thursday a mutual understanding memorandum with the Mongolia side after having agreed to make mutual visits and forward nowadays journalism.
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Sculpture Exhibition Opens in Blue Moon Art Gallery
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)A solo exhibition by sculptor A.Ochirbold opened in Blue Moon art gallery Tuesday.
After naming his piece of work as the best art during their earlier exhibition of "Paintings and Sculptures" in 2013, the "Blue Moon" art gallery awarded MrOchirbold an opportunity to display his works in solo.
MrOchirbold usually works with steel and bronze to reflect the mindset of a sculptor. The exhibition is displaying his "Sky Horizon", "Anticipations of Centuries", "Shadow of Centuries", "Smoke on Water", "In the Emptiness of Steppe" and "Steed" and others.
The exhibition will continue until March 20.
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Beavers to be introduced in Ider River
March 12 (news.mn) Over the past two decades in Mongolia, over 1500 lakes, rivers, and streams have disappeared according to an unconfirmed study.
However some rivers and streams are recovering because of plentiful rain in the past two years, but some rivers are still in bad shape. Everyday lakes and rivers run dry from pollutants and human related activities. One of them is Ider River, which runs through Zavkhanaimag and begins in the Altai Mountains and Otgontenger Mountain.
The 452 km long Ider River that runs through 24.555 square km of territory is running dry rapidly in the past years. Environment protection officers in Zavkhanaimag are working on a project to adopt beavers into the Ider River to save its ecosystem. When a few families of beavers settle down along one river, the changes in water level are smaller and the watercourse becomes more natural. The results of such changes are very important for the river ecosystem and the environments that surround it.
Last month, a survey about the possibility of adopting beavers into the river was conducted by “Amitanasralt” LLC. The local residents also appraised the campaign. Previously beavers were introduced successfully in Tes River. As a result the flow of the river and the number of the beaver increased.
The population of beavers is not increasing much. The beavers need plenty of natural resources in order to breed and they therefore care for that environment and improve the ecosystem of the area. The environment protection officers in Zavkhanaimag plan to adopt a family of beaver with a young beaver.
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Mongolian Skier B.Ganbold Finishes Men's 1 Km SprintFree, Standing in 25th Place
March 12 (infomongolia.com) Mongolian skier B.Ganbold, who finished his first distance in the Men’s 20 kmClassic, Standing two days ago, has been continuing to compete in the XIParalympics of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
On March 12, 2014, B.Ganbold has raced in the Men's 1 km Sprint Free Qualification,Standing, where a total of 35 athletes have competed and Mongolian skier came inthe 25th place with a time of 4:26:65.
In the Qualification contest, Russian five skiers came in the first five places and 12qualified skiers from 6 nations will continue in the Semifinal today at 12:51 pm bylocal time (04:51 pm by UB time).
There is one event left to participate for B.Ganbold, Men's 10km Free, Standing scheduled on Closing Day, March 16, 2014.
As of March 12, 2014, the Sochi 2014 Paralympics’ medal count table is led by the host nation Russia with a total of 34 medals(11+14+9) followed by Germany (4+0+0), Ukraine (3+3+5), Austria (2+2+0) and Japan (2+1+2).
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Related:
Mongolian Skier to Compete at Sprint Event in Sochi – Montsame, March 12
Mongolian Ice Hockey Team to Compete in 2014 IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia
March 12 (infomongolia.com) The 2014 Challenge Cup of Asia organized annually by International Ice HockeyFederation (IIHF) since 2008 will be commencing in Abu Dhabi, the United ArabEmirates on March 15-22, 2014.
This is the seventh edition, where six teams of Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong,Mongolia, Kuwait, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates are to compete in roundrobinmatches.
Mongolian hockey team will have its first match against the team of Chinese Taipeion March 16, and the game Mongolia vs. Hong Kong on March 17, Mongolia vs.Kuwait on March 19, Mongolia vs. Thailand on March 20 and against host nation theUnited Arab Emirates on March 22, 2014.
Mongolian ice hockey team has been participating since 2010 and in the 2013 IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia, Mongolia grabbeda Bronze medal winning over the team of Kuwait by 11:0.
Currently, Mongolian team is conducting its training in Chita, Russia.
The number of participants interested to compete in the Challenge Cup of Asia has been growing year-on-year, hence the IIHFdecided to have two separate tournaments for both the Men’s and Women’s categories from this year.
The 2014 edition, the Men’s category will be played in two divisions at two separate venues, where the top division will beplayed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on March 15-22, while the Division I tournament finished in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The Women’s Challenge Cup of Asia features eight teams this season.
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Hakuho Marks 29th Birthday with Easy Win over Endo on Day 3
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME)YokozunaHakuho celebrated his 29th birthday on March 11 with a one-sided win over top maegashira Endo at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka, reported asahi.com the same day.
In a bout that resembled a practice session, Mongolian Hakuho calmly spun Endo around after the face-off and shoved him out from behind to improve to 3-0 in the day's final bout at Osaka's Prefectural Gymnasium.
Hakuho is bidding for his 29th career title, which is just two shy of former great Chiyonofuji and closing in on the all-time record held by Taiho with 32.
After impressing in previous tournaments, Endo quickly moved up the ranks and is fighting in this tournament as a top maegashira. But the rising star is getting a rude introduction to the higher ranks and dropped to 0-3 after the loss to Hakuho.
Endo was manhandled by yokozunaHarumafuji on March 10 and beaten by ozekiKakuryu on the opening day of the meet. He will be looking for a break in the bout on March 12 when he faces ozekiKotoshogiku, a less imposing opponent than the first three.
Elsewhere, Harumafuji, who sat out the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament with an injury, came in low at the face-off before getting both hands on the back of top maegashiraTamawashi's head and swatting the top maegashira down to stay tied for the lead at 3-0. Tamawashi was no match for the speedy Mongolian and dropped to 0-3.
In other major bouts, ozekiKakuryu, who is bidding for promotion to yokozuna, was handed his first loss of the 15-day tournament when he was shoved out by No. 2 maegashiraOkinoumi.
Kakuryu was never able to take charge and was knocked off balance by the taller No. 2 maegashira, who won his third straight bout against the Mongolian grappler and improved to 2-1.
OzekiKisenosato got a right-hand grip on the belt of Shohozan and toppled the winless komusubi at the edge to keep a clean slate and improve to 3-0.
OzekiKotoshogiku quickly established a grip on the belt and frog-marched Tochinowaka out over the edge to pick up his second win against one loss. Tochinowaka, a No. 2 maegashira, dropped to 1-2.
SekiwakeGoeido was all business when he came bursting out of the face-off and overpowered komusubiToyonoshima to stay perfect at 3-0. Toyonoshima fell to 1-2.
In an all-sekiwake showdown, Tochiozan got both arms around Kotooshu (1-2) and muscled out the larger Bulgarian wrestler to improve to 2-1.
Egypt's Osunaarashi, fighting as a No. 11 maegashira in the Osaka meet, used his height advantage to shove out No. 12 maegashiraChiyomaru (2-1) and improve to 3-0.
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Mongolian Delegation Meets IPC President
Ulaanbaatar, March 12(MONTSAME) A Mongolian delegation in Sochi Tuesday met with Sir Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
At the meeting in Ayvazovsky Hotel present were D.Nyamkhuu, a president of the Mongolian Paralympic Committee (MPC), D.Surenkhorloo, a head of the Mongolian Paralympic team, and N.Oyunbat, a secretary-general at MPC.
After the Mongolians signed the Honorary guest book of the IPC, Sir Craven praised achievements of MPC, citing the gold medal won by D.Baatarjav in men’s archery recurve standing event of 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In his turn, Mr Nyamkhuu briefed their actions since 2009 and spoke about a decree by the President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj on development of winter sports in the country. He also mentioned a decision by the Government of Mongolia to build a sports house designated to the disabled, under a funding from the capital city budget. The IPC president promised a support in building of the sports house.
Amid the meeting, Sir Craven complimented official outfits of the Mongolian Paralympic team, and wanted one for himself. The Mongolians presented him cashmere wear of Gobi Co, who designed opening ceremony outfits of our paralympic team in Sochi.
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Sports Contests Organized among Staff of Foreign Embassies in Ulaanbaatar
March 12 (infomongolia.com) Welcoming the 93rd anniversary of Mongolian Armed Forces and MongolianSoldier's Day that celebrates annually on March 18th, the Ministry of Defenseorganized friendly sports events among personnel of the General Staff of MongolianArmed Forces, Foreign Embassies in Ulaanbaatar and Defense Attache at theEmbassies.
At the sports contests, diplomats, attaches and staff from the Embassies of China,Russia, United States and General Staff of Mongolian Armed Forces have competedin basketball, volleyball and table tennis competitions held on March 11, 2014.
In the basketball category, the team from China Embassy won a gold medal, Russianteam become winner in volleyball and in table tennis contest employees of the General Staff of Mongolian Armed Forces took a gold medal.
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