As of today, 1.1 million children from 993,725 households are receiving children allowance.

The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour has digitized 110 services out of 160 services in the sector and connected 18 services to the E-Mongolia electronic system.

The main systems of the industry such as ehalamj, ejob, ezuvshuurul and etuslamj have been presented during the meeting. E.Batshugar, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Parliament, emphasized the "ejob" platform, which provides employment mediation services of public and private sector employers.

E.Batshugar also mentioned that citizens are able to check their information and apply through the e-mongolia and e-halamj systems.

The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour plays an important role in forming human resources in the field of information technology. Therefore, the operations at the policy level of the ministry have been presented.

Mongolia, a country with a relatively small population of three million people who maintain very close relations, has a vibrant LGBTQ+ community. Yet, for them, living an openly queer life can be so challenging that many consider exile the only viable solution.

As several reports indicate, queer Mongolians who step out of a hidden, often underground life and come out to their families, or publicly at work and in public spaces face rejection, abuse, verbal and physical violence in a vast majority of cases. To unpack the reasons for homophobia and transphobia, Global Voices spoke to Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel, who is a co-founder and former executive director of the LGBT Center of Mongolia. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at Doctoral School of Sociology of Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary, exploring the notion of shame and how it characterizes the lived experiences of contemporary Mongolian queers. The interview has been edited for clarity.

Filip Noubel (FN): What are the roots of homophobia and transphobia in Mongolia? What factors contribute to it?

Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel (OT): The root causes of hatred against LGBTQ+ people in Mongolia are a mix of different factors. Making it a taboo topic during socialism led to lack of knowledge and understanding of sexuality; also, the patriarchy perpetuating strict gender norms and roles alienates LGBTQ+ people as it condemns them for not conforming to the stereotypical masculine and feminine binary. Finally, nationalists and conservatives view the community as a threat to national security in the context of reproduction and accuse it of ‘perversion’ and ‘unnaturalness.’ Given that one third of the population lives under the poverty line, that there is a corrupt government and consequent deteriorating educational and health systems, understanding and respecting LGBTQ+ Mongolians is not a priority, sadly. Whereas Buddhist teachings preach tolerance and sympathy towards individual beings, and shamanism implies and practices two-spiritedness, such concepts are not fully embraced by the public in terms of accepting sexual and gender minorities. On a positive note, religion is not used as a weapon to demonize queer Mongolians.

FN: Most if not all Mongolian queers seem to experience shame due to rejection, and also erasure or invisibility. Can you describe the legal status of queer people in Mongolia and the availability of supportive and safer spaces?

OT: In my opinion, consciously or subconsciously, most Mongolian queers experience some level of shame of being born and living as belonging to sexual and gender minorities. The Mongolian Constitution implicitly protects queer Mongolians, and our Criminal Code prohibits hate crime and speech against LGBTQ+ people. The younger generation, civil society, and human rights NGOs discussing minority issues, intersectionality, feminism, and other controversial issues, and most importantly the hard work of Ulaanbaatar's LGBT Center, have been driving forces in advancing queer rights. Pride has been held since 2013.

Promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion through queer art and literature not only by media, but also by queer community members does help improve public awareness. Although there are some progressive media outlets, art projects, and emerging queer literature that shed light on acceptance and understanding of queer Mongolians, certain mainstream media, plays, movies, and other insensitive, old-fashioned artists still portray LGBTQ+ roles as subjects and objects of joke, slapstick, and outright insult. All of this turns into a source of shaming in return.

FN: In your recent academic research, you point out that both families who reject LGBTQ+ members and queer people seem to consider exile a “solution.” Why?

OT: Through this research and interviews with Mongolian queer diaspora, I realized how many of us have left Mongolia to seek better lives free from discrimination, hatred and violence. First, laws can’t protect us. Even if laws have SOGIESC-friendly [friendly to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics] provisions, judges are not doing their jobs to implement them. I heard from a respondent that a judge shamed her for bringing her family member to court for physical assault and violence because of her sexuality. In addition, going through these procedures is expensive for victims. That is why most queer Mongolians do not bother to report cases to the police and to go to court.

Secondly, relatives and others from intimate circles directly and indirectly insult and verbally abuse queers so that their family members are in the difficult position of living, with the fact that there is someone labeled as ‘pervert’ in the family. For the sake of safety and the ability to live free from all these problems, Mongolian queers are in both forced and self-imposed ‘exile.’ Mongolia's population is small — a little over 3 million people — and about half lives in the capital city Ulaanbaatar, thus there is hardly any degree of separation. As a result, people know no boundaries and limits when it comes to privacy. Once you are out, your laundry will be done openly; and it is unbearable for most queers to put up with it.

FN: Do you see a change in acceptance of queer Mongolians within Mongolia among certain groups — youth, artists, global Mongolians?

OT: In the past ten years, it has been changing a lot for the better. We have an androgynous-then-transgender model, who struts her stuff for major fashion shows, which indicates open-mindedness, tolerance, and inclusivity of the fashion industry of Mongolia. Playtime Festival, an annual summer music festival, featured a solo drag show last year. Most Mongolian expats are exposed to foreign societies with progressive understanding of and respect for LGBTQ+ people all around the world, so they tend to understand and sympathize with queer Mongolians at home.

Nevertheless, there is a long road towards truly genuine social and gender justice for LGBTQ+ Mongolians. Naturally, we should dismantle patriarchal norms and systemic barriers that prevent Mongolian queers to be and live as they are. More importantly, it is an attitudinal issue that Mongolians should learn about and get accustomed to sexual diversity, gender equality, and sexual and gender fluidity from their early years through comprehensive sexuality education at schools and through honest and enabling dialogues at home with empathetic and kind-hearted parents, friends, siblings, caregivers, and guardians.

BY Filip Noubel

Mongolia is intensifying plans to upgrade public toilets at tourism destinations nationwide to bolster its travel sector and prevent soil pollution, the country's Ministry of Environment and Tourism said Wednesday.

Over 900 pit latrines or traditional wooden toilets in tourism areas across the country have been removed, the ministry said in a statement.

More than 1,600 pit latrines remain in tourist spots across the country's 21 provinces, the ministry said, adding that these pit latrines will be removed or replaced by modern standard toilets as soon as possible.

The Mongolian government has been taking measures to revive the pandemic-hit tourism sector. The country has declared 2023, 2024 and 2025 as "Years to Visit Mongolia" under the official motto "Welcome to Mongolia." It has set a goal of welcoming at least 1 million foreign tourists in the coming years.

The proportion of new energy has exceeded 20% of total power generation in northern China's Inner Mongolia for the first time, local official statistics showed.

In the first two months, Inner Mongolia's new energy generation totaled 22.68 TWh, an increase of 28.2% year on year, accounting for 20.6% of the total generation, reaching the highest level in history.

Wind generation was 20.03 TWh during this period, up 32.8% year on year, the main driver behind the growth of new energy generation in the region.

As of the end of February, the region's installed capacity of new energy has reached 63.8 GW, an increase of 9.62 GW from a year earlier and accounting for 36.6% of the region's total installed capacity, an increase of 1.5 percentage points year on year.

Wind, solar, garbage incineration, and biomass power generation installed capacity increased by 7.62 GW, 1.95 GW, 18 MW and 35 MW respectively.

Inner Mongolia is undergoing significant development in new energy sources, with the central government having put in place a three-phase plan to create a "giant wind and solar base" in the region with a total capacity of 450 GW. Currently, the first batch of projects, totaling 95 GW, is underway.

Mongolian Bankers’ Association held a press conference on March 28. “Consumer goods prices are cheaper in Mongolia than in other countries. It could be a leverage for our country to improve competitive advantages.”, N. Sosorburam, Economic Researcher, informed at the press conference.

The real rate of return on deposits was negative during the pandemic, leading people to withdraw their deposits and choose other types of investments, like cryptocurrencies and real estate. With the tendency for interest rates of deposits to increase this year, people are getting interested in traditional and risk-free deposits again.

The foreign trade balance increased by 60 percent last year, compared to 2021. Exports, which were declining in 2022 due to difficulties in transport logistics, started increasing from the middle of that year. As a result, we have gained profitable trade balance. Imports are increasing as well. Overall, a recovery of the mining sector is playing an important role in economic growth.

As of the end of 2022, the performance indicators of the banking sector have shown comparatively sustainable growth. Total assets in the banking sector have reached MNT 3.4 trillion, an increase of 9 percent, compared to the same period last year. In particular, the financial indicators of five systematically influential banks have shown signs of improvement, and two of them have listed their IPOs.

Due to the uncertainty of the domestic and external economic environment, the Central bank raised the policy interest rate to 13 percent in 2022. The increase in the policy interest rate has resulted in slowdown in the loan growth of the banking sector. Although loan growth in the banking sector has slowed, it remains the main engine supporting the economy.

According to the Executive Director of the Mongolian Bankers’ Association L. Amar, banks have enough equity to sustain the recovery of main economic sectors.

At the press conference, G. Bumchimeg, Executive Director of the Banking and Finance Academy, presented the outcomes of the “Customer Satisfaction Survey”, which was conducted by the Academy in order to identify how reputable the banks are among the customers and their level of trust in banks.

The survey showed that the satisfaction level of bank customers in our country is at the same level as other developing countries. Moreover, the survey has laid bare the need to keep customers informed on banks’ products and services and improve their financial literacy.