Mongolia Brief May 9, 2014 Part III
MIAT welcomes new plane
May 11 (UB
Post) MIAT Mongolian Airlines welcomed a fresh-out of the factory Boeing
737-800 on Saturday at Chinggis Khaan International Airport.
The plane was
named after Guyug Khaan, third ruler of the Mongol Empire and grandson of
Chinggis Khaan.
“Mongolia plans
to become a leading air transportation service provider in the region in the
future. To reach this goal, the new plain will serve a critical role,” said a
MIAT spokesperson upon welcoming the new plane.
The plane is
the second of three that Mongolia is to receive from Boeing. In 2011, President
of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj made a contract to purchase three planes from Boeing,
during his visit to the USA. Mongolia’s first very own Boeing 767-300ER was
delivered last year in May. MIAT previously leased all four of its planes from
other airlines. According to the Director of MIAT, G.Jargalsaikhan, the new
plane is being leased from Air Lease Corporation for a duration of 15 years,
after which, it will become the property of MIAT.
The plane has
capacity for 162 passengers, can fly up to 10 hours nonstop and is the fifth
plane in MIAT’s fleet.
Deputy Minister
of Transportation Kh.Erjan commented, “In relation to the state’s policy on air
travel, MIAT was given national airline status, which means the state will
support the company until 2020. By this time, we expect the fruits of this
support to mature and not only the company, but our nation will be able to
compete in the world through this sector. The new plane will not only add new
routes but also ensure the comfort and safety of passengers and help reach our
eventual goal.”
Currently, MIAT
offers direct flights to Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin, Erlian and Hong
Kong, and charters flights to Osaka, Jeju, Pyongyang, Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi
and Dubai. A direct flight to Frankfurt will launch from June 19 and a flight
to Singapore will launch in October, according to G.Jargalsaikhan.
State consultation promotes contributions of young herders
May 11 (UB
Post) The first ever state consultation of young herders was held on Friday at
the Government Palace, bringing together 360 young herders (between the ages of
15 and 34) from 330 soums across all 21 provinces as representatives of over
110,000 young herders nationwide.
The Mongol
Herder information agency held the event under the auspices of the Prime
Minister of Mongolia. Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag officiated at the
consultation and shared his support stating, “Mongolia’s 45 million livestock
are healthily breeding thanks to the young herders.”
Herders who
registered 2,000 to 3,800 livestock at the end of last year were specifically
invited to the consultation. A total of 68 female herders were invited as well.
The
consultation aimed to find solutions for the pressing problems of young
herders, promote their work, motivate them, and raise public awareness of how
they are contributing to the Mongolian economy.
During the
consultation, several separate discussions took place on the issues of
increasing income, education and health, labor relations and social security
for herders. Requests generated during the discussions will be submitted to the
Prime Minister for approval.
Organizers of
the consultation met representatives of the herders beforehand and received their
suggestions for the consultation’s agenda and future plans to keep the
consultation effective as possible.
The
consultation will be held once every two years, reported the Prime Minister.
The young
herders also visited dairy, cashmere and leather factories, as well as an
agricultural exchange.
D.Dulamsuren: Women make decisions for others’ happiness
instead of theirs
May 11 (UB
Post) Altan Duulga LLC grows wheat and
flour and produces forage in Tarialan soum of Khuvsgul Province. It also has
over 700 livestock. Women rarely run agricultural companies. However, this
considerably large company in the country is run by Ms. D.Dulamsuren. Her
skills are recognized by the people of the respective sector. The following is
an interview highlighting important aspects of Altan Duulga’s operation and
D.Dulamsuren’s work as the director.
How did you first enter the agricultural
sector?
I am a Russian
language and literature teacher. My brother introduced me to the agriculture
business. Just a year after my family moved to the city, my brother said crop
plantation was to be privatized so we should return to Khuvsgul Province and
grow crops. After discussing, we took ownership of our plantation.
In April 1998,
we came and settled in Tarialan soum of Khuvsgul Province. We only knew the
basics of animal husbandry but nothing about plantation. When I first started
working as a bookkeeper, I knew nothing and was often criticized. I learned
everything including plantation, flour mill technology and its process from
scratch and started working as the director in 2005.
The primary
focus of our company is plantation. Apart from producing flour and forage and
wheat, we also engage in livestock husbandry. We have a working field of 6,175
hectares. In a year, we plant and harvest crops in around 3,000 hectares of
land and use it to supply our flour mill. The flour mill has a capability to
mill around 100 tons of wheat and the forage factory can produce 10 tons of
forage and 15 tons of mixed fodder in a day. This year, we’ll grow oat and
colza in around 50 hectares of the 2,672 hectare field and grow wheat in the
rest.
When I first
got this work, crops were planted in a 250 hectare field. Furthermore, instead
of wheat, it was covered in weed. In the following year, we cultivated fallow
in 1,200 hectares. The crop grew well but just before harvesting, hail hit the
field and the next year, there was a drought. Just when I wanted to bring up
this farm which was working with a deficit and under a debt, this happened so I
was frustrated. My parents encouraged me by saying, “Such things happen in
agriculture and someday, you’ll achieve what you want. There will be much more
difficulties in the future. You don’t need to be discouraged just because the
long awaited harvest was hit by hail. You can’t do anything about the
environment and climate related problems. However, problems caused by one’s own
fault such as coming across something you don’t know or are incapable of doing
are much bigger troubles.”
They say that the government is indulging
farmers a lot. Do you agree?
Rather than a
lot, the government is giving little indulgence to farmers. From the sides, it
looks as if crops are growing extremely well and giving a lot of profit.
However, we’re working in conditions where harvest is unable to recover costs.
We’re only able to work efficiently because we don’t only harvest crops but
also produce flour and do livestock husbandry. With just crops, it’s not easy
to make profit.
You have English stallions and French cows.
For what purpose did you buy them?
Livestock
husbandry is imprinted in Mongolians’ hearts, therefore we didn’t want to leave
out livestock husbandry. We combined and raised our own livestock and the ones
we received when we purchased the collective farm and got around 2,000 livestock.
Raising livestock isn’t the main purpose so we sold around 1,000. Currently, if
we combine cows and horses, we have around 700 livestock. My father is famous
horse trainer G.Dorjpurev and a big fan of horses. In the last eight to nine
years, our family has aspired to raise our own native horse breed. Our horses
have raced very well in state and provincial events. In a year, they came in
first place five times and won six ayrag (fermented horse milk) festivals in
provinces. We bought French cows and English stallions three years ago.
Although they need special care, we are adapting them to Mongolian environment.
My father and brother first bought them to improve horse genetics, and breeds
faster horses by mixing breeds.
When did you begin producing flour?
Ever since we
built a small flour mill in 2000, we started producing flour. In 2011, we
started commissioning a dry comprehensive mechanized warehouse of the mill for
storing 4,000 tons of wheat. Through domestic investments, our own financial
resources and loans from banks, we purchased flour mill equipment for one
trillion MNT and built a crop warehouse for two billion MNT.
The flour mill seems to be not working at
full capacity. Is there a large enough market to produce at full capacity here?
Our mill only
uses 30 percent of its full capacity. From last year’s marketing research, it
showed that we were able to supply 40 percent of Khuvsgul Province’s market.
There is demand even if the mill works at its full capacity. Most importantly,
wheat supply is insufficient. Our motto is to produce organic products. When
producing flour, we don’t use any mixtures or other artificial means.
Do you purchase wheat from farmers to
supply the flour mill?
We are an
enterprise. Other than giving grains, we give them technical support, crop and
harvest their wheat. By doing so, they also combine their wheat with ours. We
have the opportunity to purchase wheat of those engaged in agriculture and
supply raw material to our flour mill. However, we get cash stringency when we
harvest in autumn. We aren’t capable of purchasing enough wheat from crop
farmers. Consequently, we aren’t able to fully supply raw materials. There is
no other reason for us not working at full capacity, crop farmers are willing
to sell their crop.
Do you have plans to manufacture flour-based
products in the future?
Of course, but
in rural areas, there is a difficulty of being farther from the market. In
Khuvsgul Province, there are plenty of food and fine pastry manufacturers. It’s
difficult for us to compete with them. I think it’s best to help them in making
high quality products by providing high quality flour. Manufacturing noodles,
bread and fine pastry is overall a good idea. At the moment, we are producing
necessities for our workers. It’ll be good to enter big markets in Ulaanbaatar,
Darkhan-Uul and Orkhon Provinces. It’s not actualized due to high
transportation fees. We have many plans and ambition. The biggest difficulty is
personnel issues. If we try to expand, there will be an inadequacy in
personnel. Our education sector is in bad shape so we cannot educate people.
Capable personnel who’ve studied abroad choose to work in large companies,
instead of working in rural areas. It’s hard to find people willing to work in
rural areas.
Is it difficult for a woman to run a
business? Do you think that you are treated differently than other people in
similar positions because you are a woman?
It isn’t
difficult. If you commit yourself to your work, nothing is difficult. People
engaged in agriculture support female directors. Sometimes, I do think that
women may be too soft-hearted and gentle. Due to this personality, we tend to
get deceived and make decisions more profitable for the other party.
How does your flour differ from others?
Before when people
said certain flour tasted delicious, I question about what exactly was so
special about it because they’re all flour and produced by the same method so
it should be exactly the same. But now, I can instantly recognize flour
produced by our mill. Nutrients of Tarialan soum are absorbed in our flour.
Can you describe the taste?
There’s this
distinct taste of ginseng and a similar taste of roots. Our locals are well
familiar with the taste.
When you see a well grown crop field, what
do think of?
A lot of things
come to my mind. The best thing about seeing a well grown field is that I
become more relaxed and cleanse my mind especially when I’m depressed. I think
to myself how wonderfully and fertile our land and earth is. If it fitted in my
arms, I would hug it.
What motivates you to continue working and
expanding?
The main goal
of our company is to become a leading business in the country. We’re getting
closer to it step by step. I want to make our crop production reach the same
level as major companies in Canada. Since I went there myself, I can only
imagine theirs. In a year, I want to plant crops in a 6,000 hectare field and
become a modern business.
Old Grey Goose to perform in Mongolia
May 11 (UB
Post) The U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar and Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State announced that they will
introduce an arts envoy to Mongolia, Old Grey Goose International.
Old Grey Goose
is a musical band that will perform in Mongolia from May 13 to 22 to introduce
Mongolia to a truly American musical genre old-time country music, a precursor
to bluegrass. The band also teaches old-time country dancing and features the
fiddle tunes that accompany the dances.
Bluegrass,
which shares roots with American country music, is engaging, has a sense of
timelessness, and urges people to clap to the rhythm, get up and dance, and
sing along. During their visit, Old Grey Goose will be performing and sharing
their musical knowledge with budding Mongolian musicians, dancers, and artists.
Old Grey Goose
will hold two free public concerts featuring budding Mongolian performers. The
first will be on May 18 in cooperation with Mongolian Selenge Dolgio National
Song & Dance Ensemble in Selenge Province and the second will be on May 21
at the State Philharmonic in Ulaanbaatar. The concerts will be a culturally
enriching experience and a rare opportunity to see this American music
performed live in Mongolia.
The musicians
are international artists who have had extremely successful performances with
traditional artists in Central Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Europe,
and Africa.
Old Grey Goose
is experienced in composing and arranging collaborative musical scores designed
uniquely for each host country and presenting educational workshops. They will
be active in cultural exchange activities throughout their visit.
e-Mongolia
May 11 (UB
Post) A historic opportunity to achieve great development can be seized if
countries like Mongolia, which have a small population but large territory, can
truly utilize the cyberspace we have today. On the other hand, if Mongolians do
not start taking advantage of modern communications technology, it will become
harder for us to develop and catch up with other countries. We have no choice
but to enter cyberspace, adapt our lives and work accordingly, and increase
individual competitiveness.
Today, nations
are creating e-societies, which allow people to vote in elections without
leaving their home, access all kinds of reports, applications and information,
and sign agreements and contracts through their cell phone. Furthermore, people
are registering their newly established companies in a matter of minutes,
checking financial and legal information on their phone, and selling their
products and services on the internet in a secure way. Government organizations
have started linking their databases together and providing online services to
citizens. It is making bureaucracy fade away into the past.
Those countries that have successfully created an e-society established
a decentralized, open information and communications infrastructure, with
various interconnected databases available. As new industries and products are
created over time, such communications infrastructure expands itself and
becomes able to meet emerging needs and demands.
Estonia, a
country building one of the world’s most efficient e-societies, has
successfully created an e-environment where the transparency and openness of
public governance have been ensured, and the exchange of information between
citizens, businesses and government is allowed in a highly secure cyberspace.
Estonia’s e-society allows its citizens to receive social services faster than
ever and enjoy improved healthcare. It has significantly increased the average
life expectancy of the nation. Their education sector has also seen positive
changes and is acquiring more competitiveness internationally.
Estonia has
developed their technology universities into knowledge transfer centers with
Ericsson and Samsung laboratories, and Mitsubishi electric car research
facilities. As a result of such new projects and programs, Estonia is
attracting the most skilled engineers and technology gurus in Northern Europe.
Having an improved business environment and a knowledge economy, Estonia has
been leading Europe in its socio-economic development for the last ten years.
Mongolians are
nomads who naturally possess a sense of curiosity, which makes us always try to
find out the reason why something is happening. We are also quick learners when
it comes to foreign languages. Also, Mongolians can adapt to a new environment
easily. If we compare the total number of Mongolians who are residing abroad to
our local population, the percentage will be relatively higher than that of
other countries. However, these factors are simply not sufficient to take full
advantage of the cyberspace we find ourselves in today. What we need today is a
good business environment that encourages innovation and new initiatives, and
an information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure supported by
transparent government policy.
In the 2014
Global Information Technology Report released by the World Economic Forum,
Mongolia was ranked 61st out of 144 countries, which was two places lower than
the year before. The criteria of the ranking included dozens of factors such as
internet access, download speed, adult education, use of mobile phones, and the
number of investors in the information and communications industry. In the 2014
Global Information Technology Report, Finland, Singapore, and Sweden were
ranked in the top three, and Hong Kong and South Korea were other Asian
countries in the top ten. These countries were superior to others in many
aspects including having a good business environment, advanced ICT
infrastructure, and a more tech-savvy population. For example, Finland has one
of the best education systems in the world, has become the hub of international
e-initiatives, acquired the most number of ICT patents in proportion to its
total population, and 90 percent of its households are connected to the
internet (the figures are 85 percent in England, 70 percent in the United
States, and 14 percent in Mongolia).
Mongolia was
ranked 95th in importance of ICTs to government vision, 45th for its government
online services index, and 103rd in its government’s success in ICT promotion.
The
transformation into an e-society allows economic growth and the creation of new
jobs. Digitization is a term that describes the act of connecting smart
databases based on ICT and converting data into digital formats. Booz and
Company, which ranks countries on a scale from one to 100 using a digitization
index, discovered that an increase of 10 percent in a country’s digitization
score creates a 0.75 percent growth in its GDP per capita, and reduces the
unemployment rate by 1.02 percent. In this digitization index, Mongolia scored
35-50 out of 100, the range of points shared by transition economies. Establishment
of an e-society (developing and implementing an e-Mongolia project) will be
essential to reducing economic dependence on the mining industry, carrying out
economic diversification, and building a knowledge economy.
About 27
percent of our total population is under 14 years old and 20 percent are 15-24
years old, which means that almost half of our population is young people under
25 years old who are learning and developing. One could say that most of our
younger generation never knew how life was without the digital world, mobile
phones, and the internet. If all Mongolians become bilingual by learning
English, and are presented with a good opportunity to learn other languages
along with advanced development of ICT, our country can achieve rapid development
in a short amount of time.
In order to
achieve that goal, our ICT infrastructure must be highly secure so that the
confidentiality of personal, business, and government information is well
protected. However, it does not mean that there should be restrictions on
internet use due to security reasons. Every person must have the right to
access the internet. Protection of personal information and internet freedom
has become one of the biggest challenges that needs to be tackled by democratic
countries to achieve development today. It was recently discussed by about 400
delegates from 64 countries at the Fourth Conference of the Freedom Online
Coalition that took place in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
Mongolia was
elected to chair the Freedom Online Coalition’s next conference to be held in
Ulaanbaatar next year. It is a clear indicator that Mongolia is a democratic
country that protects internet freedom. It should be noted that, thanks to this
coalition and conference, Mongolians now have a great opportunity to learn from
and cooperate with the other member countries, and supporting companies such as
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to create an e-society. Ban Ki-moon, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, and John Kerry, the United States
Secretary of State gave speeches at the Tallinn Conference along with the
President of Estonia, President of Georgia, Speaker of the National Assembly of
Kenya, and foreign ministers of other member countries. The Tallinn
recommendations for Freedom Online were approved at the conference and measures
to be taken under the goal of “delivering free and secure internet to everyone”
were agreed upon.
It is time for
our government, civil society, private sector, and people to understand that
creating an e-Mongolia is one of our foremost objectives, as well as our
responsibility, for future generations. Therefore, we need to carefully develop
and successfully implement an e-Mongolia project.
Translated by
B.AMAR
M.Urantsetseg wins gold at Judo Grand Slam in Baku
May 11 (UB
Post) Azerbaijan’s capital Baku hosted the 2014 Judo Grand Slam from Friday to
Sunday.
Mongolian
female judoka M.Urantsetseg won a gold medal in the women’s 48 kg weight
category on the first day. Her opponent in the finals was Amelie Rosseneu of
Israel.
M.Urantsetseg
is the current world judo champion in her weight category and State Honored
Athlete of Mongolia. She secured the gold medal without a single defeat.
Other Mongolian
judokas did not do as well as M.Urantsetseg. A.Tsolmon, G.Kherlen,
Kh.Tsagaanbaatar, B.Khishigbayar, S.Nyam-Ochir and N.Tuvshinbayar were not able
to win any medals from this year’s event.
A total of 90
female and 157 male judokas from 41 countries competed in the Baku Grand Slam.
Seven Mongolian judokas partook in the Grand Slam this year.
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