The development index of Ulaanbaatar city is 0.464, defined by 86 indicators in four groups: sustainability, quality of the living environment, accessibility, and competitiveness, and six categories: health, infrastructure, economy, society, education, and governance. The capital city authorities aim to increase the index to 0.570 in 2025, 0.630 in 2030, and 0.930 in 2050.

On August 21, the Governor of the Capital City and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren made a report on the actions and measures, including Law, Economy, and Healthy Governance Programs implemented since taking office as well as future plans to Members of Parliament elected from Ulaanbaatar city.

Having reported on the implementation process of the three pillars program - Law Program (70 percent performance) Economy Program (60 percent), and Healthy Governance Program (over 40 percent) Governor D. Sumiyabazar noted, "If a set of laws related to Ulaanbaatar city are developed and the law on land, law on construction, law on water, law on road transport, law on energy, law on specially protected areas, and the general law on state registration are adopted, the problems facing to the capital can be sorted out economically and in terms of governance. Over 48 thousand employees are working in 123 organizations under the capital. It is possible to direct the development of Ulaanbaatar city within the 86 indicators that are presented today.”

“With the support of the Temporary Committee responsible for the development of Ulaanbaatar city, the Law on the Legal Status of the Capital was renewed after 27 years. Also, at an extended session of 2021, the government comprehensively discussed the problems in Ulaanbaatar city for the first time and decided to allot a budget of MNT 420 billion annually to solve the city congestion, one of the biggest problems in the capital.

An average of 2.8 million daily commuters travel to the city center from five major locations. 1042 buses serve 107 routes on the 48.2 km road through the city's four main avenues: Peace Avenue, Chinggis Avenue, Ard Ayush Avenue, and Chinggeltei Avenue. The population of Ulaanbaatar is expected to reach 2.6 million by 2040. To increase the accessibility of public transport and assist relieve traffic congestion, it is considered necessary to extend the above four avenues, creating new lanes to make them have three lanes at the first stage. Only public transport should travel on the first lane, and the 13.7 km of road should be expanded in the first step. As a result, traffic congestion will be reduced by eight percent, and the average driving speed will be 11.7 km/h.

Moreover, it has been estimated that traffic congestion will decrease by six percent by introducing short turns to remote areas of the capital city, where accessibility of public transportation is poor. In other words, by establishing 181 bus stations for short-turn service and building 86.1 km of new roads, it is possible to expand access to public transportation, underscored Mayor D.Sumiyabazar. A comprehensive reform is being carried out to renew the fleet of public transport, planning to buy a total of 1225 buses. Out of them, 415 buses have been imported and the remaining 810 buses will be brought this year.

In addition, the Mayor pointed out that the Policy Research and Analysis Center operates under the Governor of the Capital and the Capital makes decisions based on the results of studies and research by foreign and domestic scholars.

In the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, the number of seats in general education schools increased by 5300 and kindergarten beds by 3605 in the past three years. Specifically, four schools, 14 kindergartens, seven complexes of elementary schools and kindergartens, and 11 Houses of Mongolian heritage and traditions were established.

In conjunction with the Mongolian Government’s announcing 2023 to 2024 as the “Years to Visit Mongolia,” Nas Summit, a global conference for content creators took place in Mongolia on August 19, 2023. It was co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia.

The most influential Mongolian and international content creators and investors in the creative economy gathered at the Conference, which has been held in over ten countries, to share their unique knowledge and insights.

"Nas Summit – Mongolia" received applications from over ten thousand young people, and 1,200 participants were selected to attend.

The Nas Summit featured a variety of speakers, including:

Nuseir Yassin, CEO of Nas Company and Creator of the popular YouTube channel Nas Daily (63 million followers)

Julius Dein, the World's Biggest Magician (72 million followers)

Dhruv Rathee, Explainers that Inspire (21.4 million followers)

Daniela Rita, travel creator and audiovisual communicator (4 million followers)

Wil Dasovich, Filipino-American television personality, model, and vlogger (7 million followers)

Alan Wurman, creator of Alan's Theory (1.3 million followers)

Alyne Tamir, the internet's favorite travel vlogger (3.8 million followers)

Jordan Matter, the Most successful “Old” YouTuber in the World (28 million followers)

Mark Weins, an American travel and food blogger (20 million followers)

Ch. Nomin, Minister of Culture; Una Bold, Mongolia's Best Vlogger; Gremix, the biggest Mongolian YouTuber; and Gankhuyag Chuluun Khutagt, CEO of Ard Financial Group participated in the Nas Summit – Mongolia from the Mongolian side, discussing the future of content creation in Mongolia, and creating content outside and inside Mongolia.

“Good content is produced by people who can build relationships with others, not people with a lot of money. Content creators in the online world are all unique. They can stand out for a variety of reasons, such as the topics they discuss, their dress, style, or words. For example, you could stand out as a Mongolian, as there are only about 3 million Mongolians in the world out of more than 8 billion people. Please remember to share with someone what you have learned through content creation,” highlighted Alyne Tamir.

In his presentation, Charles Kerr, Strategic Partner Member at YouTube, said “To stay ahead of the curve, content creators must be mindful of the ever-changing needs and preferences of their audiences and make sure to update their content accordingly. Based on a recent survey, YouTube users are more likely to watch content presented in a variety of formats. Therefore, it is significant to diversify your content on your YouTube channel by creating different types of content, such as long and short videos, podcasts, and live streams. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing and is making inroads into the content industry. AI-based systems, such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Midjourney can help content creators increase their reach by automating tasks, generating ideas, and personalizing content.”

As of July, the total foreign exchange reserves reached USD 3.8 billion. It increased by 12% from the beginning of the year and by 33% from a year ago.

However foreign exchange reserves increased, MNT has weakened against the USD and is equal to MNT 3473. 1 USD was equal to MNT 3440 in July.

The Bank of Mongolia is in charge of ensuring the ability and reliability of foreign exchange reserves that it owns and manages. The state reserves of foreign exchange in the Bank of Mongolia consist of the following types of assets:

Gold stored in foreign banks and financial institutions,

Convertible foreign exchange in cash and non-cash form,

Promissory notes held in freely convertible foreign currencies,

All types of securities denominated in freely convertible foreign currency issued or certified by foreign governments, central banks, and international financial institutions,

Other assets considered as foreign exchange reserves internationally.

The number of flights between Russia and Mongolia will increase to seven per week with the possibility of connection flights to China and Europe, the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsia) said.

"The parties agreed to set the frequency of flights by designated air carriers on each route at seven flights per week. Restrictions on the capacity of the aircraft types that are used will be lifted for the parties' airlines," the document, which was published on the agency's website, says.

Under the agreement, Russian airlines will be able to fly to Ulaanbaatar, Choibalsan, Ulgiy, and Ulaangom, while Mongolian airlines will be able to fly to Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Chita, Ulan-Ude, Novosibirsk, and Kyzyl.

The destinations in other countries which the air carriers can fly to are also indicated. For Russian air carriers, these are flights to Seoul and Beijing, and for Mongolian air carriers to Istanbul, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, London, Prague, and Munich. The flights require approval from the aviation authorities of other countries.

New Delhi: An EIL delegation met with the Honorable Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia, Mr Khurelbaatar Chimed, the Honorable Deputy Speaker of State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia, Mr Munkhbaatar Lkhagva and the Honorable Chairman of Citizens’ Representative Khural of Dornogobi Province, Mr B. Ganzorig in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to discuss the implementation of the 1.5 MMTPA Crude Oil Refinery in Mongolia, being executed by EIL as PMC under G2G collaboration through Line of Credit (LOC).

The EIL delegation was led by Ms Vartika Shukla, C&MD, Senior officials from EIL along with H.E. Mr M.P. Singh, Indian Ambassador to Mongolia and Dr Altantsetseg, CEO - Mongol Refinery State Owned LLC.

The Robot Challenge World 2023 competition was held in Beijing, China, on August 11-13, 2023.

3,000 participants from 24 countries, more than 1,600 robots competed for 12 sets of medals, 600 judges, and 220 organizations cooperated in the competition. Mongolian team with 45 members led by captain Batzaya took part in the opening.

14 students from Mongol Temuulel School with teachers B.Ariunbolor and G.Shine-Od, 4 students from Shine Erin School with teacher G.Iderjargal participated in 7 categories. Teacher G.Shine-Od, who took part in the mega sumo-adult category, took second place on the first day and won a silver medal.

On the 3rd day of the competition, Mongolian 2 student teams participated in the Robot rugby-senior category and won gold and bronze medals, and the name of Mongol Temuulel School was highly valued on the international stage. The Shine Erin School team took 5th place out of 25 teams and participated successfully.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia B. Battsetseg received young diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China yesterday.

The Minister B. Battsetseg underscored the active development of all-embracing cooperation based on the comprehensive strategic partnership between Mongolia and China, highly appreciated the contribution of the diplomats of the two countries to the further expansion of good neighborly relations, and pointed out that young diplomats play an important role in developing this cooperation in a new era.

As part of the cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, young Chinese diplomats are visiting Mongolia on August 21-24 and will get acquainted with the development of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar and the countryside, Mongolian history, culture and lifestyle.

The production of the industrial sector in Mongolia reached MNT 15.6 trillion in seven months, increasing by MNT 5.4 trillion or 53.2 percent compared to last year.

This was due to the increase of the mining production by MNT 4.3 trillion or 64.8 percent and the processing industry by MNT 825.7 billion or 32percent, according to the National Statistics Office.

The preliminary estimates indicate that sales of the products of the industrial sector in the first seven months of 2023 reached MNT 25.1 trillion, increasing by 75.5 percent. This was due to the increase in the sales of the mining and extraction industry by MNT 9.3 trillion or 92.5 percent and the sales of the processing industry by 36.8 percent .

Growth of the sales of the mining and extraction industries by 92.5 percent compared to the previous year was mainly due to the increase of sales of the coal mining sector by 3.8 times, metal ore mining by MNT 624.5 billion, and oil mining by MNT 555.5 billion.

An operation has been carried out in Lake Khuvsgul to locate and remove sunken vehicles since this June at the initiative of President of Mongolia. The operation aims to protect the local ecological system by cleaning the bottom of the lake from hazardous waste and reducing its pollution.

During his visit, a 17.8-ton tank car of the Zil-130 model was removed from the lake, which sank in 1981 at a depth of 74 meters.

The vehicles that have been recovered since this June include a Zil-130 fuel truck with a trailer that sank in 1995 at a depth of 128 meters, about 2.5 kilometers from the Maraan Bay of Lake Khuvsgul, and a 6-ton fuel trail at a depth of 54 meters, about 1.4 kilometers from the shore of Lake Khuvsgul.

In total, 34.7 tons of fuel and lubricants were removed from vehicles, which is a significant contribution to reducing pollution of Khuvsgul Lake and the environment.

Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

This will be the pope’s 43rd trip abroad since his election on March 13, 2013: He has visited 12 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia and 10 in Africa.

What do these visits tell us about this pope’s mission and focus?

As a scholar of Roman Catholicism, I have studied Catholicism’s appeal for immigrants and refugees, and I argue that the pontiff’s official travels since 2013 are part of his decadelong effort to rebrand the Roman Catholic Church as a religious institution that centers the poor.

Prioritizing the poor

While previous popes have included the poor in their speeches, what has distinguished this pope is that he has focused on the Global South and prioritized immigrants, refugees and the less privileged, from Bolivia to Myanmar to Mongolia.

At his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to commemorate migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, Francis gave a blistering critique of the world’s failure to care for the poor: “In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!”

Three years later, the pope flew 12 Syrian Muslim refugees from a Greek refugee camp to Rome. Francis is the first pope to relocate refugees and to work with groups like The Community of St. Egidio charity in Rome that have successfully resettled thousands of refugees.

During my own interviews with Central American Catholic immigrants and refugees in central and eastern Iowa between 2013-2020 for my book, “Meatpacking America,” I heard from women and men who fled violence and poverty in their home nations that they look up to this pope “because he cares about us,” as Fernando said. And Josefina told me back in 2017 that this pope is “the real deal” in terms of supporting immigrants and the poor.

Francis and liberation theology

His predecessors – Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict – specifically condemned liberation theology, a philosophy rooted in Catholic social teachings that calls for a preferential option for the poor and an embrace of Marxist ideology.

According to Austen Ivereigh prior to his becoming pope, Francis — then Jorge Mario Bergoglio – condemned liberation theology as well. He would say “that they were for the people but never with them,” wrote Ivereigh, in his biography of Pope Francis.

Since his election as pope, however, Francis has undertaken what I call “people-focused” liberationism. In one of his first official announcements in 2013, “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel,” the pope wrote about the essential inclusion of the poor in society, arguing that “without the preferential option for the poor, the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications.”

In other words, the Gospel’s message that all Christians proclaim doesn’t mean a whole lot if the poor are not central to the goal of personal as well as collective salvation.

Journeying to Mongolia

How does the pope’s upcoming visit to Mongolia factor into this decade-spanning trajectory of his people-focused liberation?

Christianity has been present in Mongolia since the seventh century. Nestorianism, an Eastern branch of Christianity named after the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, who lived from 386 C.E. to 451 C.E., coexisted alongside an even older religious practice, shamanism, which emphasized the natural world and dates to the third century. Nestorians believe that Christ had two natures – one human and one divine.

While Mary was seen as important within Nestorian theology as Christ’s mother, she is not seen as divine. This is similar to Roman Catholic theology where Mary is deemed special because she is Christ’s mother and worthy of veneration.

According to historian Robert Merrihew Adams, the missionary activity of Nestorian Christians in central Asia from the seventh to the 13th centuries was “the most impressive Christian enterprise” of the Middle Ages because of its rapid spread and influence.

Adams argues that Nestorianism’s spread was in part because of its belief that Christ was a two-natured individual – one divine and one human. These two natures in one body meshed well with preexisting shamanic beliefs, as shamanism sees individuals as able to harness the supernatural.

In addition to this branch of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, as did Islam. Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion of Mongolia, while Islam and Christianity remain very small percentages at 3% and 2.5%.

Pope Francis has made it clear throughout his tenure that interfaith dialogue is an essential remedy to division. During his visit he will preside over an interfaith gathering and the opening of a Catholic charity house.

A strategic visit

The past decade has brought rapid urbanization and growth in major cities such as the capital of Ulaanbaatar, along with high rates of unemployment and Covid-era economic downturn.

And yet, according to the World Bank, the economic forecast for Mongolia remains “promising” because of its rich natural resources, such as gold, copper, coal and other minerals.

However, extraction of Mongolia’s resources is occurring at a rapid pace – so much so that the country, according to the Harvard International Review, has been called “Minegolia.” The United States has made significant investment in Mongolia’s mining industry, and China is a major importer of Mongolian coal. Two rail lines connecting Mongolia to China were installed in January 2022 and a third is being built.

In the past, Francis has made strong comments against corruption and environmental degradation, and it would not be surprising if he addressed the challenges of the mining industry during his trip. During his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, he critiqued the Global North that contributed to “the poison of greed” that has “smeared its diamonds with blood.” In 2018, the pope spent a few hours in Madre de Dios, an area in the Peruvian Amazon, where mining has led to large-scale environmental degradation.

The pope’s visit will be bold given the challenges before Mongolia and its geographic location between Russia and China. A peace delegation on behalf of Pope Francis for the war in Ukraine, led by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, that visted Russia this summer is likely to head to China in the coming months.

As Italian Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, a missionary in Mongolia for two decades, has emphasized, Pope Francis’s visit to this country with a tiny minority of Catholics will “manifest the attention that the (pope) has for every individual, every person who embarks in this journey of faith.”

This piece has been updated to correct the depiction of the Roman Catholic Church’s view on Mary’s divinity.

BY Kristy Nabhan-Warren, University of Iowa.