On January 14, Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan presented a bill to Speaker G.Zandanshatar on a resolution for establishing a Free Economic Zone at Khushig Valley.

With an area of 1,000 hectares in the territory of Sergelen soum, Tuv aimag, the Free Economic Zone will be based around the new Chinggis Khaan International Airport.

By establishing the Khushig Valley Free Economic Zone:

• A specialized zone will be established for tourism, business, and financial operations through production and services, such as tourism services focusing on nomadic culture, betting games and associated services, cultural and creative industry, trades, and international bank and financing services,

• A zone will be created for export-oriented production and innovation based on science, advanced technology, and artificial intelligence,

• Opportunities will be created for the country to become ‘Transit Mongolia’ by utilizing the geographical advantage of being located between Asia and Europe in facilitating trade and transportation and creating more favorable conditions for investment.

In a traditionally patriarchic sectors – such as the military, police, and security forces – women around the world have faced political, social, and cultural barriers for centuries. Since the 1950s, the United Nations’ operations have led and promoted the inclusion of women in global missions. However, to this day, the number of women in higher ranks and leadership positions remains disappointingly low. The experience of Mongolian female peacekeepers can exemplify these global shortcomings.

Throughout history, women from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds have served as shieldmaidens, wartime strategists, and behind-the-curtain contributors in making modern history. Unfortunately, in modern times, women’s roles when serving the armed forces were switched to support functions, such as nursing, cooking, caregiving, and administration. These roles, in turn, prevent women from receiving promotions, blocking them from advancing in career and rank due to their lack of experience in other fields within the security sector.

In 1957, female peacekeepers were introduced in the U.N. However, from 1957 to 1979, there were only five women out of a total of 6,250 soldiers. From 1980 to 1989, the number increased to 15 women out of approximately 13,750 military personnel, and these women “served mainly as nurses in medical units.” The early 2000s showed consistent growth of women soldiers, bringing the numbers to 1,034 women out of 71,673 soldiers in 2007, finally breaking the 1 percent mark. As of 2020, the U.N. reports that “out of approximately 95,000 peacekeepers, women constitute 4.8% of military contingents,” and has set a goal to increase that to 15 percent by 2028.

The end of the Cold War promoted a new era of U.N. involvement in global and regional peace and security efforts. Many countries began to participate in these efforts, and so did women.

The UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) was created in 1992. Two years later in 1994, the General Assembly set a goal to reach gender parity – 50 percent men and 50 percent women – in peacekeeping operations by 2000. To implement this goal into the U.N. missions, the secretary-general extended the goal to all “field mission and mission replacements posts” in 1995. On the U.N.’s part, there has been a consistent push for the inclusion of women in peacekeeping missions. In order to accelerate this goal, in 2000, the U.N.’s commitment to gender equality was reinforced with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). This was the first time the UNSC discussed and promoted women’s participation in promoting peace and security.

Since the UNSC resolution 1325, DPKO has called on member states to “double the number of female service uniformed peacekeepers every year for the next few years.” A year later, in January 2007, the First All-Female Police Unit (FFPU) from India was sent to Liberia. The FFPU played a significant role in security in Liberia, and their presence encouraged Liberian women to join the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the national police force. India’s mission to Liberia became a role model for women worldwide who serve in the military and security forces, including Mongolia.

Even though Mongolia joined the U.N. in 1961, it was not until 1996 that Mongolia expressed an interest in contributing to U.N. peacekeeping operations. In 1999, Mongolia and the U.N. signed a Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Contributions to the United Nations Standby Arrangements. In 2002, Mongolia adopted a “Law on participation of Military and Police personnel in the United Nations peacekeeping operations and other international operations” and began sending military observers to U.N. peacekeeping missions.

Since joining the U.N peacekeeping operations, Mongolia has successfully pushed forward a foreign policy aimed at developing the state’s military capacity through multilateral cooperation in international military operations. Since 2002, Mongolia has deployed more than 19,000 peacekeepers to the U.N. peacekeeping operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Chad, Sudan, West Sahara, Congo, Ethiopia, and Georgia. Moreover, Mongolian military observers are working in Congo, West Sahara, and South Sudan. As of August 2021, Mongolia ranked 24th among 117 U.N. troop-contributing countries and had sent 62 female and 824 male soldiers to U.N. operations.

The first female soldier from Mongolia joined a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 2006, as an unarmed military observer to the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Two years later, in 2008, Mongolia sent the first six female peacekeepers with the military contingent in Sierra Leone. In 2010, the first female Staff Officer was stationed in the mission Force Head Quarter (FHQ) MINURCAT Chad, the Central African Republic.

In 2013, Bolor Ganbold (one of the authors of this piece) served as the first female Section Head (Chief J6) in the FHQ in UNMISS, South Sudan. After serving in UNMISS, she was the first woman to be deployed as a Peacekeeping Affairs Officer in U.N. headquarters in New York. The same year, Mongolia deployed the first female contingent Commander of Level II hospital to the UMAMID in Sudan. The following years saw an increase in Mongolian female participation in global forces such as in Sudan. In 2019, the first female troops from Mongolia also participated as a member of the German Joint Forces, who took part in Operation Enduring Support in NATO in Afghanistan.

As of 2021, more than 900 Mongolian women have served as military observers, staff officers, and military contingent members in both U.N. peacekeeping operations and NATO coalition forces. The successful deployment and the completion of their missions has a significant influence and promotes women’s participation in the military and the security forces. These accomplishments must be recognized at an international level.

As the next step, female peacekeepers should be considered for senior-level posts within the U.N., not only as contingent members. However, several challenges prevent women from accelerating into higher-level positions or posts within U.N. peacekeeping operations.

In U.N. peacekeeping missions, most women serve as doctors, nurses, cooks, laundry staff, or administrators. In interviews conducted by Bolor Ganbold, for example, female Mongolian peacekeepers expressed that there are many levels of barriers that prevent them from fully reaching their potential as peacekeepers.

For example, one of the significant problems experienced by female peacekeepers across the board, but especially in military contingents, was that they could not leave the compound to interact with locals. Having access to the local communities is particularly important to the roles envisioned for female peacekeepers, but in practice it is impossible to inspire, assist, and engage with the local community of women from the compound.

Education and training gaps – including on language study – are another issue. Mongolian female peacekeepers do not have the opportunity to study at the Mongolian Army Command Staff College before being selected and deployed, and this lack of access is a significant hurdle that blocks their career path as a whole. More female Mongolian Army Command Staff College officers should qualify for special education and specific training. In that case, the female soldiers will have a chance to hold senior positions in the Mongolian Armed Forces and peacekeeping operations abroad. Therefore, it is crucial for the government to invest in female soldiers, training both key officers and non-commissioned officers. In the past, only a few female English-speaking officers from Mongolia have had the opportunity to study abroad in the United States, Australia, or India and had a chance to work the selected U.N. missions.

Today the U.N. peacekeeping operations continue to see slow improvement on gender parity. While it is difficult to address the situation within contingent troops, the Office of Military Affairs (OMA) goal is to reach 25 percent women by 2028. To overcome these challenges and find a noticeable solution, critical operations and missions by the U.N. must increase the number of women in senior roles and decision-making posts. Alongside these changes, it would have a direct impact if the U.N. missions were to deploy all-female contingents in global missions and integrate them into mixed-gender environments. Finally, international coalition missions must deploy women ready to bring about substantive changes in the peacekeeping environment.

The challenges ahead concern not only Mongolian female peacekeepers but also all the women in the world’s armed and security forces who possess strength, knowledge, and dedication to serving. UNSCR 1325 is quite explicit in urging the secretary-general to seek to expand the role and contribution of women in United Nations field-based operations, especially among military observers, civilian police, human rights, and humanitarian personnel. From a military perspective, increasing women’s contribution strengthens both the U.N. missions and the serving country and their female population immensely.

AUTHORS

Bolor Lkhaajav

Bolor Lkhaajav is a researcher specializing in Mongolia, China, Russia, Japan, East Asia, and the Americas. She holds an M.A. in Asia-Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco.

Bolor Ganbold

Col. Bolor Ganbold has previously served in U.N. peacekeeping missions. She is currently serving as the dean of the National Defense University of Mongolia.

Through a castling move in cabinet and a presidential election, the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) solidified its dominance in 2021. Persistently high COVID-19 infections finally began to wane late in the year, just as an offer from RioTinto arrived to potentially conclude a (re)new(ed) agreement to jumpstart the underground construction at the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

Ahead of the June presidential election, Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh used minor demonstrations against his COVID-19 policies as an excuse to resign as prime minister. In hindsight, it seems clear that this was a strategic decision rather than any contrition about pandemic failures. Khurelsukh was succeeded as prime minister by his cabinet secretary, Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene.

This castling reduced the risk to Khurelsukh that he would be closely associated with any deterioration of the COVID-19 situation and seems to have enabled his resounding victory in the 9 June presidential election.

The run-up to the election brought some democratic fireworks that seem to be turning into a worrisome pattern in Mongolia — someone or some political event crosses a line that raises fundamental doubts about the stability of democracy. In this case, it was claimed by then-president Khaltmaagiin Battulga in April that the country was heading toward one-party rule. Having watched an MPP-dominated parliament with an MPP president, so far, it seems those fears were unfounded and may have said more about Battulga’s reluctance to cede the presidency.

Perhaps of greater concern were shenanigans surrounding fratricidal turmoil in the Democratic Party. A lack of clarity about the legitimate leadership led to a battle over the nomination of a presidential candidate. This delayed the nomination and thus the party’s ability to campaign effectively.

Still, this challenge was largely of the party’s own doing and the result of uncertainty around whether Battulga would be allowed to run for re-election under the 2019 constitutional amendments that limited the presidency to a single term. In the end, the party’s nominee, Sodnomzundi Erdene received the support of less than 7 per cent of voters.

Politically, the most interesting aspect of the presidential election was perhaps the result achieved by Dangaasuren Enkhbat, nominated by the upstart National Labour Party. A tech and social entrepreneur who was a member of parliament from 2008–12, Enkhbat gathered over 20 per cent of the votes. While some dismissed him as a candidate only for urban elites, he received some support across the country, and votes far beyond a small professional class in city districts.

While this suggests some momentum and the possibility of the National Labour Party supplanting the Democratic Party in the long run, the party’s candidate did not come close to winning a majority in parliamentary by-elections in October.

Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene was confirmed as MPP party chair in December and seems firmly focused on his Vision 2050 agenda for comprehensive development and e-government agendas. In the revision of National Determined Contributions ahead of COP26, there emerged a more pointed realisation of the need for more political and regulatory attention to be paid to the climate change emergency. Discussions about the foreseeable end to the coal mining industry have at least begun.

COVID-19 infections continued to drag the economy down, though at least industrial mining was able to resume. The extremely cautious Chinese regime at Mongolia’s border closed the country several times, leading to spikes in prices of consumer goods and some slowdowns in mineral exports, but these were temporary, as was a fuel shortage in late summer. Inflation and persistent poverty remain significant challenges for fiscal and economic policy.

The darkest cloud over Mongolia’s economy has been dissatisfaction with the agreements signed with RioTinto over the giant Oyu Tolgoi mine. An offer in December to write off government debt stemming from a 34 per cent equity stake in the project seemed to receive an enthusiastic welcome from the MPP and suggests that negotiations might progress at pace.

Like much of the world, Mongolia is watching closely to see whether the US–China rivalry develops into a bipolar situation that would leave the country at risk of being forced to pick sides between its instinctive affinity with democracies and its total economic dependence on China. Fortunately, President Khurelsukh has indicated his focus on international relations through his attendance at the UN General Assembly, suggesting that this area of policy-making that had languished under Battulga will receive significant attention. One option is for Mongolia to tilt even further toward the UN, something that a proposed peacekeeping training centre might accomplish.

Given the political constellation of an MPP president and prime minister, and settled party leadership, 2022 is likely to be a politically calm year that might lead to some implementation of the many development plans the Vision 2050 foresees, especially if a reconfirmed agreement for the Oyu Tolgoi mine makes long-term fiscal prospects more secure. COVID-19 will continue to threaten Mongolia’s economic development, challenging the recovery of its tourism industry, but possibly also spurring further growth in agricultural production.

BY: Julian Dierkes is Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. He is one of the principal authors of the Mongolia Focus blog.

This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2021 in review and the year ahead.

‘Boldtumur Eruu River’ LLC is building the Altan shireet Industrial and Technology Park in Altanshiree soum of Dornogobi aimag between 2019 and 2025.

A factory with an annual capacity of 500 thousand tons of cast iron and other plants including iron ore wet processing, coal washing, coking coal and iron ore pellet plants, under construction on a 140 ha area, will be put into operation in 2025.

Moreover, the construction of a wet processing iron ore plant with an annual capacity of 2 million tons was launched in 2019 and the facility was put into operation after a trial in September 2021.

Highly competitive, value-added new export products are expected to be produced at Altan shireet industrial and technology park. Moreover, the raw iron ore export can be decreased as a result of local processing of iron ore, report the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry.

World Bank initially projected Mongolia's economic growth to expand by 3.5 percent in 2021. However, it lowered the forecast by 2.4 percentage in its previous forecast released in June, 2021. It was noted that the rising inflation rate put significant pressure on the country’s economy in addition to the risks of new variants of COVID-19 and external debt.

Inflation has reached the highest level since 2011 in most developing countries with external debts putting pressure at the same time. World Bank analysts also point out that commodity price fluctuations are an obstacle for countries that depend on commodity exports. In addition, income inequality is deepening around the world, and access to vaccines varies.

As for this year's outlook, Mongolia's economy is projected to grow by 2.1 percent in 2022 and 6.2 percent in 2023.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) of Mongolia and the World Bank announced December 30, 2021 their joint official poverty rate estimation for 2020. The two organizations have collaborated on poverty measurement based on household consumption surveys since 2002.

According to the 2020 Household Socio-Economic Survey (HSES), the national official poverty rate in 2020 was 27.8 percent [1], 0.6 percentage points lower than in 2018. This translates to about 903.4 thousand people of Mongolia living in poverty in 2020.

Compared to 2018, the urban poverty rate dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 26.5 percent, while the rural poverty rate fell by 0.3 percentage points to 30.5 percent. Among the poor, 64 percent lived in the urban areas in 2020, with 43 percent living in Ulaanbaatar.

While estimates show that poverty in 2020 was slightly lower than it was in 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic has sharply slowed down the pace of poverty reduction. Simulations indicate that in the absence of the pandemic, poverty in 2020 may have been about 3 percentage points lower, suggesting that poverty reduction stalled as a result of the pandemic. The wide array of COVID-19 relief packages, including top-ups on existing social assistance programs, undoubtedly played a crucial role in preventing a rise in poverty between 2018 and 2020.

Table 1 Poverty headcount rate and number of poor, 2018-2020

[1] The 2020 household welfare and official poverty rate were estimated by a survey-to-survey imputation approach (see Annex)

Annex. The poverty estimation methodology for the 2020 Household Socio-Economic Survey

The Household Socio-Economic Survey (HSES) is the official survey for monitoring household welfare and poverty as well as key socio-economic indicators in Mongolia. The HSES has been implemented biennially since 2012. Official poverty rates have been reported at the national, urban/rural and aimag level, estimated as a share of the population that has consumption below the national poverty line.

In line with international best practices, changes were introduced to the 2020 HSES consumption module to better reflect current consumption patterns. While these changes improve the accuracy of the consumption measured by the 2020 survey, household consumptions over time are no longer comparable. In order to restore comparability of the 2020 household consumptions and poverty rates to previous survey years, the 2020 poverty rate was simulated based on the SWIFT Plus (“Survey of Well-being via Instant and Frequent Tracking”)[2] survey-to-survey imputation approach. In the SWIFT Plus imputation approach, the 2018 HSES is used to model consumption, and this model is applied to the 2020 HSES data to predict consumption and poverty in 2020. In addition, in order to improve the accuracy of estimates at the aimag level, the model was individually developed by each group of aimags (8 urban groups and 6 rural groups) and poverty was estimated at national, urban and rural, and aimag levels. The 2020 poverty estimation was carried out through a close collaboration and technical support from the World Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice and SWIFT team.

Going forward, future HSES will adopt the same consumption module as the 2020 survey and a new poverty series will commence with the rebasing of the national poverty line to the 2022 survey. While rebasing is typically done at the same time as revision of a consumption module, it was decided to postpone the exercise to 2022 due to COVID-19 induced disruptions to field work and consumption patterns.

[2] For more details, please refer to Yoshida, N., Munoz, R., Skinner, A., Lee, C., Brataj, M., Durbin, S.W., and Sharma, D. (2015). “Survey of WellBeing via Instant and Frequent Tracking (SWIFT) Data Collection Guidelines.” Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. and a forthcoming technical note for Mongolia 2020 poverty estimation.

Source: World Bank Mongolia

A bipartisan piece of legislation to be introduced in the US Senate on Friday would force defense contractors to stop buying rare earth minerals from China by 2026, Reuters reports.

The bill will also require the use of the Pentagon to create a permanent stockpile of the strategic minerals. It essentially uses the Pentagon’s purchase of billions of dollars-worth of fighter jets, missiles and other weapons as leverage to require contractors to stop using Chinese rare earths and thus support revival of domestic output. Waivers are allowed only in rare situations.

Rare-earth metals – a group of 17 elements that are critical for a wide range of industries from consumer electronics to military hardware – have long been at the center of the US-China trade war. The US used to be the world’s number-one producer of those minerals, but is now heavily dependent on Chinese exports.

The United States currently has only one rare-earths mine and has no capability to process the minerals. Meanwhile, China accounts for around 80% of global rare-earth production and holds the largest reserves.

“Ending American dependence on China for rare earths extraction and processing is critical to building up the US defense and technology sectors,” Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, told Reuters.

He has described China’s evolution into global rare-earths leader as “simply a policy choice that the United States made,” adding that he hoped fresh policies would loosen Beijing's grip.

To build its reserves the Pentagon buys supply in part from China, but the new requirements “should encourage more domestic (rare earths) development in our country,” Cotton explained.

In the past two years, the Pentagon has given grants to companies trying to resume US rare-earth processing and magnet production.

Beijing (CNN Business)People trying to fly from the United States to China may soon be confronted with an unthinkable scenario: Starting next week, there are likely to be no commercial flights bound for the country as Beijing tries to keep coronavirus infections out ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beginning January 19 and continuing for at least two weeks, all flights from the United States to China have either been canceled or are likely to be suspended because of Chinese aviation regulations, according to CNN Business research of government announcements and published flight schedules. As of Friday, only two flights still appeared eligible to operate for that period, one of them with United Airlines (UAL).

The Beijing Winter Games open on February 4, and participants are mostly taking special flights restricted to people with OIympics credentials as part of a strict bubble that authorities are implementing around the event.

Since June, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has applied a so-called "circuit-breaker" rule to international flights. That rule means that a flight is automatically suspended for two weeks if five or more passengers test positive upon landing in China. If 10 or more passengers test positive, the suspension period increases.

China has defended its "circuit-breaker" regulations as "an important step to reduce the risk of cross-border spread of the epidemic."

"The measures, which are open and fair, apply equally to both Chinese and foreign airlines," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in August. "For airlines that do not meet the conditions to trigger the circuit-breaker, China has never applied relevant measures on them."

From December 24 to January 12, more than a third of the 9,356 international flights scheduled to depart for China — already a fraction of pre-pandemic levels — were canceled, according to data from Umetrip, an app developed by Chinese state-owned aviation industry IT provider TravelSky.

During this period, a growing number of passengers on flights from the United States — operated by both US and Chinese carriers — tested positive upon arrival in China, triggering a wave of cancellations just ahead of the Olympics and the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in China.

Three US carriers — United (UAL), Delta (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) — operate 10 flights per week into Shanghai, China's biggest city, where a steady rise of Covid cases among international arrivals has seen local officials under growing pressure to tighten containment measures. The city on Thursday recorded five new locally transmitted cases, all linked to a resident who had recently returned from the United States.

"US airlines are concerned about the implications of a disruption and are continuing to assess the impact to operations," said Airlines for America, a Washington-based trade group that represents major US carriers, in a statement Thursday. "We are in communication with the US and Chinese governments to identify a path forward that minimizes impact to travelers."

CNN Business has sought comment from the US Department of Transportation, which has the authority to suspend the eight weekly US flights operated by four Chinese airlines.

China largely sealed off its borders in March 2020 and has continued to stick to its strict zero-Covid policy. Flights to and from China— the world's second-biggest air travel market after the United States — have been drastically cut back, even as international travel has begun to rebound in other parts of the globe.

Last month, a Delta flight from Seattle to Shanghai turned around midair because of a change in cleaning procedures at the Chinese airport that "significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable," according to the airline. Chinese officials disputed the account, urging the carrier to "protect customers' legitimate rights."

Russian airlines of Aeroflot has resumed direct regular flights to Ulaanbaatar capital city of Mongolia. The airline will operate flights once a week, according to the schedule.

The company added that the flights will be operated on Boeing 737-800 aircraft in business and economy classes.

The flight from Moscow departed on Fridays at 01:05 a.m. and arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 12:10 a.m. (local time), the return flight will be operated on Saturdays at 07:55 am, arrival in Moscow at 09:55 am.

A top Chinese consumer group has called for a boycott of a KFC meal promotion, saying it encourages food waste.

The China Consumers Association (CCA) says the promotion sent some customers into a buying frenzy.

KFC launched the promotion last week with Pop Mart, a Chinese toy maker known for its mystery boxes.

Customers are able to collect limited edition versions of large-eyed and round-faced Dimoo dolls when buying certain KFC set meals.

KFC "used limited-edition blind box sales to induce and condone consumers' irrational and excessive purchase of meal sets, which goes against public order, good customs and the spirit of the law", the state-affiliated CCA said in a statement.

That led one customer to spend 10,494 yuan (£1,202; $1,649) on more than 100 of the meals in one go to collect the toys, while people also paid others to purchase meals for them, or just threw them away, the statement added.

Yum China, which operates KFC China, and Pop Mart did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the BBC.

In 2020, the Chinese government launched a major campaign against food waste, which was spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.

President Xi called the amount of food wasted as "shocking and distressing".

The "Clean Plate Campaign" came against the backdrop of growing concerns about food security during the pandemic.

The campaign saw online influencers being banned from binge eating on social media platforms, while restaurant-goers were urged to not order more than they could eat.