Government Approves Baidrag Hydropower Plant Project Under PPP Framework www.montsame.mn

The Government of Mongolia, during its regular session on May 20, decided to implement the Baidrag Hydropower Plant Project under a public-private partnership framework through a build-operate-transfer agreement that includes project design, detailed environmental impact assessment, construction, operation, and transfer phases.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Development Enkhbayar Jadamba and Minister of Energy Naidalaa Badrakh were instructed to organize the selection process for the private-sector partner in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

According to the project’s feasibility study, construction is planned for 2026–2030, while operation and routine maintenance will be carried out from 2030 to 2055 under a 25-year agreement, before the facility is transferred to the state.

Once implemented, the project is expected to increase the installed capacity and electricity generation of Mongolia’s central energy system.

According to the Government’s Media and Public Relations Department, hydropower plants, as a source of renewable energy, do not pose adverse impacts on public health and society. The project is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help create a healthier and safer living environment through clean energy production.

In the Gobi region, construction has begun on Mongolia's first high-capacity road with a thickness of 80 cm www.open.kg

Roads with a foundation and surface thickness of 80 cm are designed for challenging geological conditions and can withstand high transportation loads. These capital structures will provide reliable transportation routes in Mongolia, which is especially important for a country where over 20% of exports and about 80% of imports pass through new highways. The opening of the road will allow cargo from southern and third countries to reach their destinations without hindrance, which, in turn, will improve the living conditions of the local population.

On May 17, a ceremony was held in the Govisumber aimag to inaugurate a 435.6 km road for heavy cargo, connecting the city of Choir and the Zamyn-Uud border point. This road will become a key transit corridor for freight transport in the region.

The Chinese company Zhongshan Urban Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd. has been selected as the investor for the construction of this highway, which will become an important artery for Mongolia's exports and imports. The contractor for the project will be the Chinese state-owned company China Construction Sixth Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd. Specialized equipment has already begun to be delivered to the construction site, and work on the construction of the two-lane road for heavy cargo will start towards the Khoshig Valley.

The technical and economic justification, as well as the design, have been carried out by the company "RCSC" at the request of "Mongolian Special Purpose Road". After the project was approved by the relevant authorities, the route of the road was officially sanctioned.
The following facilities are planned to be built along the route:

Temporary parking every 50 km

Service complexes every 100 km

4 toll booths

470 drainage structures

16 bridges

Animal crossings

The project includes the construction of special structures to prevent flooding and ensure the migration of wild animals, which is of great importance for the ecology of the region.

The road surface structure includes:

4 cm of colored asphalt concrete

4 cm of base asphalt concrete

12 cm of black asphalt

30 cm of cement-stabilized gravel

Total thickness of 80 cm

Roads in the Gobi, such as in the Tavan Tolgoi and Oyu Tolgoi areas, will withstand high loads from heavy machinery, which is particularly relevant in the extreme climate conditions of the country. This highway will be an important step for Mongolia, opening new opportunities for transit and trade.

Mongolia Launches Nationwide Campaign Against Online Fraud www.montsame.mn

The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications, in cooperation with the General Police Department, the Communications Regulatory Commission, the Mongolian Bankers Association, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has launched a month-long campaign titled “Let’s Prevent Online Fraud.”

The campaign aims to raise public awareness about various forms and methods of online fraud, provide guidance and advice to citizens, improve public knowledge of digital security, and encourage safer online practices such as protecting personal information and not sharing banking credentials or passwords with others. Organizers said the initiative is intended to help citizens better understand cyber fraud crimes and strengthen preventive measures.

Myagmarnaran B., State Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications, said the ministry has been implementing cybersecurity projects and programs with international organizations and partner countries, while also focusing on experience sharing and capacity building for human resources.

As an example, he noted that the ministry is jointly implementing the “Cybersecurity Human Resource Capacity Building Program 2024–2026” with JICA to improve public knowledge of digital usage and online safety and to help prevent cyber fraud.

According to him, studies show that 83% of the population — or four out of every five people — use digital platforms. Therefore, the campaign will also focus on developing citizens’ digital skills and conducting public awareness activities to help people protect themselves and their families from online scams and false information circulating on social media.

Nationwide, the number of online fraud-related crimes increased from 11,711 cases in 2024 to 12,233 cases in 2025, marking an increase of 522 cases or 4.5%.

Mongolian Climbers Reach Summit of Mount Everest www.montsame.mn

 On May 19, Mongolian climbers Nergui B. and Munkhuu M. successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak standing at 8,848 meters above sea level.

With this achievement, they become the 18th and 19th Mongolians to stand atop Everest. The two climbers began their ascent together last week and reached the summit one day apart. The first Mongolian to reach the “roof of the world” was Honored Athlete Usukhbayar G., who summited Everest 21 years ago. In 2011, Honored Athlete Gangaamaa B. became the first Mongolian woman to climb Everest, securing her place in history.

In 2012, four Mongolian climbers: Honored Athlete Tseveendash B., international masters Bat-Erdene S., Bayarsaikhan L., and Tsogzolmaa Ts. also reached the summit.

Since then, Byambasuren J. reached the summit of Everest in 2018; Gantulga B. in 2022; and Zolbookhuu O., Gankhuu S., Gerelt-Od Ts., and Ankhbayar Ts. in 2023. Last year, Battogtokh A., Batkhishig B., Ariunzul Ch., and Nergui B. also successfully reached the summit.

However, in 2024, Purevsuren L. and Usukhjargal Ts. reached the summit of Everest but tragically lost their lives during the descent.

Ministry of Energy and UNDP Convene High-Level Dialogue on Introducing a Regulatory Sandbox for Mongolia’s Energy Sector www.undp.org

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, convened a high-level workshop on “Introducing Regulatory Sandbox for Energy Sector Regulation in Mongolia” to explore adaptive and innovation-friendly regulatory approaches that can support Mongolia’s energy transition and sustainable infrastructure development. A regulatory sandbox is a framework that allows innovative solutions to be tested in a controlled, time-bound environment under regulatory oversight. It enables evidence-based learning while ensuring appropriate safeguards for consumers and the public interest. 

Organized under the Sustainable Infrastructure Programme in Asia (SIPA) in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and supported by the Government of Germany through the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the workshop brought together representatives from government institutions, regulators, development partners, financial institutions, investors, local authorities, academia, and the private sector.

The workshop discussed the opportunities, legal foundations, and implementation pathways for establishing a Regulatory Sandbox mechanism and presented the findings of a SIPA-supported study reviewing international experience and Mongolia’s regulatory environment, and proposed possible approaches for piloting innovative energy solutions. 

Mr. Naidalaa Badrakh, Minister of Energy of Mongolia, emphasized: “A Regulatory Sandbox mechanism can become an important tool for testing innovative technologies and developing a more flexible, consumer-centered, and inclusive energy system for Mongolia. The Government of Mongolia, particularly the Ministry of Energy, remains committed to advancing energy sector reforms and creating an enabling environment for clean energy innovation and investment”.

Panel discussions highlighted that Mongolia’s energy transition requires both investment and adaptive and forward-looking regulatory approaches. Participants also stressed that sandbox approaches should deliver tangible benefits for communities, including cleaner heating, improved air quality, stronger energy reliability, and greater access, particularly at the local level.

Speaker at a lectern at a conference stage with two flags and an audience.
Mr. Udo Weber, Head of Cooperation at the German Embassy in Mongolia noted: “German Government is pleased to support Mongolia’s efforts to advance practical and forward-looking approaches for clean energy transition. Achieving this will require strong cooperation between government institutions, regulators, development partners, and the private sector”.

Ms. Matilda Dimovska, UNDP Resident Representative in Mongolia, noted: “For UNDP, supporting adaptive and forward-looking regulatory approaches is part of our broader partnership with Mongolia on advancing a just and green transition. A sandbox provides a practical way to test innovative energy solutions under real-world conditions while supporting evidence-based and gradual policy reform”.

Photograph of a man in a suit speaking at a UN podium during a workshop.
Mr. William Tompson, Head of Eurasia Division at the OECD, highlighted: “OECD is proud to help Mongolia explore regulatory experimentation in support of energy sector reform. International experience shows that Regulatory Sandboxes, in particular, are one of the main approaches through which governments foster a conducive regulatory environment for innovation by introducing controlled flexibility, allowing collaborative testing of new products, services and business models. As such, Regulatory Sandboxes can be an interesting tool for Mongolia to advance its energy sector reform and adjust its framework conditions for promoting cleaner and innovative energy systems”. 

The workshop identified next steps, including legal analysis, development of the technical framework, capacity-building, stakeholder consultations, and identification of pilot projects to support Mongolia’s energy transition and sustainable development objectives.

Conference room full of attendees facing a speaker at a podium with a large screen and flags.
About SIPA 

The Sustainable Infrastructure Programme in Asia (SIPA) supports countries in strengthening policy and regulatory frameworks for sustainable, climate-resilient, and low-emission infrastructure development. In Mongolia, SIPA supports efforts to advance sustainable infrastructure governance, climate-aligned planning, and clean energy transition pathways. SIPA is co-funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. 

About UNDP 

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. 

Seoul concludes urban development training program for Mongolian officials www.koreatimes.co.kr

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it has completed an eight-day urban development training program for Mongolian public officials and experts aimed at strengthening policy cooperation with Ulaanbaatar.

The program, held from May 11-18, was part of the “S-Quad Project,” a professional training initiative jointly organized by the Korea International Cooperation Agency and the Korea-Mongolia Urban Cooperation Center at Seoul National University.

According to Seoul city officials, the training was designed to share Seoul’s urban planning and development experience with Mongolian policymakers facing challenges linked to rapid urbanization, including uncontrolled development, insufficient infrastructure and environmental issues.

More than 20 participants joined the program, including members of the Ulaanbaatar city council, officials from the city’s construction and urban development sector and experts from Mongolian University of Science and Technology.

Lecture sessions covered sustainable urban planning, Seoul’s housing policy and advanced transportation systems. Participants also visited key infrastructure sites including the Magok district, the Seonam Water Recycling Center, the Transport Operation and the Information Service traffic control center, autonomous driving facilities in Yeouido and the Seoul International Garden Show.

Seoul officials said previous training sessions had already contributed to practical policy discussions in Ulaanbaatar, including landfill restoration and new sewage treatment projects.

On the final day of the program, participants presented policy proposals on how Seoul’s urban policies could be applied in Mongolia.

Ulaanbaatar city council member Odontuya Enkhbold said Seoul’s “people-centered, flexible and sustainable future city policies” provided significant inspiration for addressing urban issues in the Mongolian capital.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.

Father Costa: The Church in Mongolia is also a ‘laboratory’ of synodality and inculturation www.fides.org

Ulaanbaatar (Fides News Agency) - At the heart of a numerically small (less than 0.1% of the country’s population) yet surprisingly creative Church, the “pastoral week” recently held by the Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar offered this year a very concrete workshop on synodality and inculturation, marked by the presence of Father Giacomo Costa, consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.
Among the week’s most significant moments, the inauguration on 5 May of the Studium, a new research centre on Mongolian language and culture, speaks volumes about how the Catholic Church in Mongolia has, for years, sought to take deep root in the country’s cultural fabric. Promoted by the Apostolic Prefecture, this project is, as the Apostolic Prefect, Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, told Fides, “a hub for cultural research, a physical space, but above all a team of people”. Located next to the cathedral, the Studium will include a space dedicated to a library currently under construction, as well as an office and a meeting room, “where people, particularly members of our team, will be able to meet figures from the world of culture and university professors”. Beneath these rooms there is also a large, fully equipped conference hall, where the inauguration took place. But, the Cardinal insists, the heart of the Studium is not primarily its infrastructure: “We are working on two fronts: the first is to offer a monthly conference, aimed primarily at missionaries, on topics related to Mongolian cultural identity, with a view to providing a program of ongoing formation that enables a better understanding of Mongolian culture and identity from cultural, historical, political, religious and linguistic point of view.”
The other front is that of language: “We wish to provide increasingly accurate translations, and to check and revise the materials we already possess in order to offer linguistic support in the translation of texts useful to the Church,” adds the Cardinal. Through this dual service – formation and linguistic work – the Studium places itself at the centre of a long process of inculturation.
It is in this context, at the intersection of inculturation and synodality, that Father Giacomo Costa’s participation in the Pastoral Week takes place. A Jesuit and theologian involved in the synodal process undertaken by the universal Church, Father Costa is accompanying a theological-pastoral journey in Mongolia that seriously takes the reality of a young Church, composed of faithful from a culture shaped by other religious traditions.

Father Costa, you are accompanying a synodal theological-pastoral journey in Mongolia. How do you perceive this ecclesial reality? What strikes you most?

When you arrive in Mongolia, you really get the impression of entering a different ecclesiastical context. There, Christianity is not merely a minority: it does not represent a shared cultural memory, nor does it form part of society’s everyday symbolic landscape. I was told of a child who, upon entering a chapel for the first time, was frightened by the crucifix and began to cry. It is a very simple episode, but it reveals something profound: there, the cross has not yet become an image tamed by habit. It regains all its strangeness and all its power. In some way, it forces us too to look at it anew.
This has a very concrete consequence for the Church. In Mongolia, one cannot start from implicit assumptions. There is no existing Christian lexicon, no spontaneous familiarity with the Gospel, nor even that set of cultural structures which in Europe continue, at least in part, to support the ecclesial experience even when religious practice weakens. For this reason, the missionary question regains its original radicalism: what does it mean to proclaim Christ to people who have no prior image of Christianity? Where does one really begin? Furthermore, many regions of the country remain virtually unknown from an ecclesiastical perspective. It is clear that evangelization does not primarily coincide with the expansion of an institutional presence, but rather the opportunity to foster trustworthy, human and selfless relationships. In Mongolia, the Gospel is once again revealed above all as a way of life, even before being a religious discourse. And perhaps this is one of its most evangelical and fascinating aspects.

What is the specific nature of the synodal journey in a Church as young and small as the Mongolian one, with just over 1,400 baptized members?

The current phase of the Synod’s implementation places great emphasis on the fact that every Church is called to embody the synodal journey within its own concrete history. In Mongolia, this takes on a particularly strong meaning, because it is a Church that was practically born from scratch after 1992. Paradoxically, it is precisely such a young Church that risks being quickly weighed down by imported models. When a community is born, it is almost instinctive to reproduce structures, languages and pastoral categories that come from the missionaries’ Churches of origin. The problem concerns not only practical organization. It concerns the very way of conceiving the Church. The risk is that institutional structures will precede the ecclesial experience, that the building of structures comes before truly listening to people’s lives and to the concrete way in which the Gospel can take root in that culture.
Synodality, on the other hand, introduces a different approach. It compels us to slow down, to listen, and to discern together. It continually asks: what is truly necessary for a Christian community to emerge here? What forms truly help the Gospel to become shared life? In this sense, synodality protects the young Mongolian Church from the temptation to become a scaled-down copy of foreign ecclesial models.
There is also another very significant element. The Mongolian Church is made up of missionaries from almost thirty different countries. Here, ‘unity in diversity’ cannot remain a spiritual or diplomatic formula. It becomes a very concrete daily practice, concerning the way decisions are made, authority is exercised, and relationships are built between missionaries and Mongolian laypeople, between different religious congregations, and between ecclesial cultures that are sometimes very distant from one another. Synodality offers precisely a space in which this plurality can be transformed into communion without being reduced to uniformity.

The theme of the pastoral week was “The Catholic Church in Mongolia: gift and mission”. In what way does this pairing express the synodal vocation of a local Church?

Rather than a pairing, I would almost speak of a circularity. In Mongolia, it is abundantly clear that mission arises solely from the experience of having received something that does not belong to us. The Gospel is not primarily a project to be realized or an identity to be defended. It is a gift that precedes the Church itself. As Pope Francis said in Evangelii Gaudium, “Christians have a duty to proclaim it […] as those who share a joy, point to a beautiful horizon, offer a desirable banquet”. Pope Leo also emphasized that the Church evangelizes “by attraction”.
In such small and fragile contexts, another issue immediately comes to the fore. A missionary Church easily runs the risk of being identified with its own works, its organizational capacity, and the financial resources it manages to mobilize. Of course, all this has real value, especially in a country marked by many social vulnerabilities. However, the heart of the mission lies elsewhere. If the evangelical relationship does not remain at the centre, the Church inevitably ends up being perceived as just one of the many humanitarian agencies present in the area.
In Mongolia, then, it is understood with greater clarity that the Christian message is conveyed through the quality of relationships: time given freely, listening, the ability to share life without immediately occupying the other’s space. In Mongolia, the Church can only emerge within this logic of gratuitousness and openness. And perhaps it is precisely here that we touch upon one of the deepest core aspects of synodality: a Church that understands itself as a network of relationships animated, permeated and regenerated by the presence of the Lord.
Pope Francis, speaking of Mongolia during his visit, praised the missionaries who ‘inculturated’ themselves in order to ‘preach the Gospel in the Mongolian style’. How does this process of inculturation fit in with synodality?
If one takes the perspective of the Synod’s Final Document seriously, the relationship between inculturation and synodality appears almost inevitable. Synodality does not, in fact, consist of a participatory technique or a functional redistribution of ecclesial tasks. It concerns the way in which the people of God listen together to what the Spirit says within a specific history and a specific culture.
In Mongolia, this point emerges with particular clarity because Christianity is still in the early stages of taking root, and the steps taken by the missionaries and the Mongolian people are truly admirable. It is clear that the issue is not simply a matter of translating certain contents into the local language. It concerns something much deeper: how the Gospel can take root in the imagination, in the way relationships are lived, in the relationship with time, with nature, with the family, and with the hospitality characteristic of Mongolian culture.
Such a process cannot be imposed from above nor developed exclusively by missionaries. Rather, it requires genuine spaces for shared discernment. Dialogue in the Spirit takes on a very concrete significance here, because it allows newly baptized Mongolians to express what they genuinely feel is compatible with the Gospel and what, on the other hand, still seems alien or imposed from outside. Authentic inculturation always arises from reciprocity: the Gospel transforms a culture and, at the same time, the Church is transformed by its encounter with that people. Synodality safeguards and encourages precisely this reciprocal dynamism.

What is the added value of the synodal methodology for a Church that already lives out simple and flexible structures?

In reality, the structures I have encountered are fragile, perhaps simple, but not necessarily flexible. Even in Mongolia, there is a fairly rapid risk of building pastoral structures modeled on the ecclesial habits of missionaries. This is understandable, because every missionary inevitably brings with them their own way of conceiving the Church.
The synodal approach emphasizes the quality of relationships. Above all, it allows us to discover how rare it is, even within the Church, to listen authentically both to the Word of God and to others. We must recognize that many dynamics emerging in Mongolia are the same as those found elsewhere: the tendency to react immediately without pausing to consider what the other person is saying, the difficulty of allowing oneself to be truly questioned, and the struggle to discern together in the light of the Word of God rather than solely on the basis of one’s own pastoral convictions.
And the experience of the past few days has truly been a significant step forward. For example, some Mongolian laypeople spoke about their understanding of hospitality. It is striking how much importance is given to that very first contact, to the quality of one’s presence, and to the sensitivity with which one enters into another person’s life. This raises very practical questions for all of us: do our parishes, charitable organizations and schools truly reflect this sensitivity? How can we welcome, without expecting anything in return, someone who arrives for economic reasons and is not interested in the faith? How can asymmetrical relationships between those who give and those who receive be lived out in a spirit of generosity? Synodality allows us precisely to dwell on these questions without closing them off too quickly, whilst remaining attentive.
Finally, there is a very significant fruit already visible in the journey we have undertaken: the emergence of a small group of facilitators capable of guiding conversation in the Spirit and community dynamics. In a Church that feels a strong need to grow spiritually, this represents something very precious. The house of spirituality near Ulaanbaatar is moving precisely in this direction. However, places alone are not enough. A Church grows when there are people capable of nurturing spiritual processes, accompanying discernment and supporting mature ecclesial relationships.

Can the Mongolian experience offer something to the universal Church, both in terms of understanding synodality and the relationship between evangelization and inculturation?

I am certain of it: Mongolia compels the Church to return to questions that elsewhere risk being obscured by habit. In many countries with an ancient Christian tradition, people unconsciously continue to think of the Church within a cultural horizon which, though weakened, remains available: a shared religious language, a certain symbolic familiarity, established structures, and moral and social references settled over time. In Mongolia, however, what is essential and what belongs to secondary historical layers re-emerges with greater clarity.
The Mongolian experience reminds us all once again that synodality does not arise from an organizational need. It arises from the need to build real communion within a fragile, scattered, multicultural and minority Church, to nurture the missionary impulse, and to value each of the few baptized members who make it up. In such a context, it becomes particularly clear that synodality does not take shape around a logic of opposition or internal rebalancing, but around a shared responsibility for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the concrete life of the ecclesial community.
The Mongolian experience also serves as a reminder that synodality is not simply a matter of holding more and more consultations. It concerns the way in which the Church learns to live in relationships that are non-dominant, non-clerical and non-self-referential. In this sense, the ‘relational conversion’ referred to in the Final Document appears to be very much a reality in Mongolia.
Furthermore, Mongolia offers a valuable lesson even to the oldest Churches: it reminds us that Christianity never coincides perfectly with a civilization, a culture or a definitive historical form. The Gospel always transcends the structures and cultures that host it.

Pope Leo XIV, from his very first address, highlighted the importance of synodality for the Church. What would be the specific nature of the Holy Father’s approach in comparison to synodality defined as “mission, participation, communion” in the previous Synod?

Every Pope inevitably brings his own spiritual style, his own language and his own ecclesial sensibility. However, the decisive point of the synodal journey does not lie in the Pope’s personality, but in the process of assimilating the Second Vatican Council. Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have strongly emphasized this continuity. Synodality represents, in fact, one of the ways in which the Church is seeking to embrace conciliar ecclesiology more deeply within the historical conditions of the present.
For this reason, I would not speak of a break between a “Synod of Francis” and a new phase inaugurated by Leo XIV. The process is the same. The emphasis, priorities and way of exercising the Petrine ministry inevitably change, but the conviction that the Church is called to walk together through history under the guidance of the Spirit remains shared.
It seems to me, however, that the current context makes the prophetic significance of synodality even more evident, and that Pope Leo is fully grasping it. We live in a world marked by growing polarization, identity conflicts, and a progressive inability to live with differences without turning them into opposition. In this context, it is clear that synodality supports the way in which the Church bears witness to the possibility of a reconciled coexistence. Ecclesial communion does not eliminate tensions, but it prevents them from becoming a logic of mutual exclusion. And this is what can be offered to the broader society as well.
The categories of “communion, participation, mission” therefore remain central to Pope Leo XIV’s approach as well. In particular, mission increasingly appears as the horizon capable of bringing everything else together. A truly missionary Church cannot operate in self-referential ways, because the Gospel continually pushes it beyond itself.
There remains, moreover, a very strong awareness that has matured throughout the synodal journey: documents, on their own, do not bring about ecclesial transformation. They can guide, clarify and initiate processes. However, the true fruit of the Synod will depend on the concrete ability of the Churches to allow themselves to be transformed in their relationships, in the exercise of authority, in pastoral practices and in structures, with a view to mission. Ultimately, the Synod does not invite the Church to become something other than itself, but to allow that way of living, relating and walking together—which finds its source and criterion in Christ and his Gospel—to emerge more deeply, even in the concrete forms of daily life. (ML) (Fides News Agency, 19/5/2026)

Oyu Tolgoi Management Fee Agreed to Be Halved www.montsame.mn

 A working group established under Prime Ministerial Order No. 68 to reduce the management fee rate of the Oyu Tolgoi project is currently holding talks with the investor-side Rio Tinto.

Prime Minister Uchral Nyam-Osor stated that “the Government has achieved its first successful outcome in the Oyu Tolgoi negotiations.” The working group, led by Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Damdinnyam Gongor, has reportedly reached an agreement with Rio Tinto to cut the Oyu Tolgoi project’s management fee by half and eliminate overlapping charges.

According to the Government Media and Public Relations Department, the agreement is expected to reduce costs by USD 2.2 billion and increase Mongolia’s benefits from the project by USD 1.5 billion.

N.Uchral: Oyu Tolgoi management fees to be cut by half www.gogo.mn

Prime Minister N.Uchral announced on his official website today that Mongolia has secured its first major result in the Oyu Tolgoi agreement. 

He said that as a result of negotiations with the Rio Tinto Group, the working group led by the Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources has reached an agreement to halve Oyu Tolgoi management fees and eliminate duplicate payments.

According to the Prime Minister, the agreement will reduce payment costs by USD 2.2 billion and increase the benefits Mongolia receives by USD 1.5 billion. The outcome is also positive for investors, noting that it reflects Mongolia’s ability to protect its interests and negotiate with investors on equal footing. 

Advanced Water Purification Plant put into operation www.gogo.mn

The Advanced Water Purification Plant (AWPP), built with advanced technology, has been put into operation, increasing Ulaanbaatar’s water supply.

Under the Millennium Challenge Compact signed between the Government of Mongolia and the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation on July 27, 2018, the “Ulaanbaatar City Water Supply Enhancement Program” was launched with a grant of USD 350 million from the U.S. government and USD 111.7 million from the Government of Mongolia.

Within this framework, a new western water source for Ulaanbaatar was established based on groundwater resources around Biokombinat and the Shuvuun Factory area, and a deep water purification plant equipped with advanced technology was built and commissioned.

President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia Richard Buangan, Acting Chief of Staff of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation Dan Petrie, Deputy Minister of Finance B.Khulan, and Capital City Governor and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar Kh.Nyambaatar officially opened the plant.

The Water Compact is a major project that has introduced and localized advanced global technologies and infrastructure in Mongolia for the first time, while also improving the policy and legal environment in the sector. It is not only the largest investment in Mongolia’s water sector in the past 30 years, but also a symbol of the Mongolia–U.S. strategic partnership.

The new western water source will increase Ulaanbaatar’s overall water supply by up to 80% compared with 2016 levels and provide the capital’s 2.4 million residents with sustainable access to clean water meeting standards for the next 30 years. It is also expected to help prevent future water shortages and create the basic conditions for Ulaanbaatar’s westward expansion, including the development of satellite cities and residential areas.

In addition, the wastewater recycling plant, which is scheduled to be commissioned in March 2026, will introduce Mongolia’s first experience in recycling wastewater for energy production. The project is expected to save 18 million cubic meters of groundwater annually for future generations.

To ensure the long-term benefits of the program, work was also carried out to improve the legal, regulatory, and policy framework for the water sector, revise water service cost and tariff policies, support wastewater pollution control and reduction, and strengthen the institutional capacity of water supply and sanitation organizations.

A total of 8,270 jobs were created during the construction phase of the program, 92% of them filled by Mongolian workers. In addition, 73 new jobs were created in newly established factories.

To strengthen the human resources of water supply organizations operating the new infrastructure, 187 engineers and technicians from water supply organizations were trained and certified.

The opening ceremony was attended by high-level representatives from the two governments, officials from the capital city, representatives of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Mongolian Millennium Challenge Fund, contractors involved in the project, and other guests.