On February 8, Minister of Education and Science L.Enkh-Amgalan announced that the Ministry will work towards the goal of having schools and kindergartens organize in-person lessons as much as possible as a study has recently found that there are 2,000 children in risk of facing disruptions to their education.

“Around 60-70 percent of total students were involved in online classes. As there is a significant number of students that have fallen behind, the Ministry has developed a plan to resolve the situation. According to the students that were involved in the study, 23 percent have reported falling behind in class due to issues relating to technology and infrastructure.

Alongside having all schools return to in-person teaching, it is important to improve the cooperation between the students, their parents, and the schools in order to help students catch up.

The study has also found that parents aged below 40 were significantly better at helping their children with their studies compared to their peers aged above 40.”

Highlighting that schools and kindergartens were re-opened in autumn as the country’s population were sufficiently vaccinated, the Minister said, “The hybrid schedule of in-person and online classes was highly effective. During the time of its implementation, infection cases were detected at 69 kindergartens and 332 schools. However, there were only a very limited number of cases as a result.”

Furthermore, he informed about the Ministry’s plans to have school counselors at public schools starting from the coming academic year as it is considered to be increasingly important to support students during the time of the pandemic.

The iron ore price surged past $150 a tonne on Tuesday as China offered its huge steel industry five extra years of rising carbon emissions.

Steelmaking accounts for about 15% of China’s carbon emissions. On Monday, the government set 2030 as the new deadline for peak emissions for the sector, against an earlier target of 2025.

“This is a big adjustment to the timetable, which gives more room for the steel sector to reach peak emissions in an orderly way,” said Xu Xiangchun, an analyst with researcher Mysteel.

“A rush to meet carbon goals could lead to “unbearable economic costs”, he said.

According to Fastmarkets MB, benchmark 62% Fe fines imported into Northern China were changing hands for $149.64 a tonne during morning trading, the highest since August 31. The metal has rebounded more than 70% from November’s plunge on expectations of steadier growth in 2022.

Iron ore futures in Singapore rose as much as 3.8% to $153 a tonne, the highest level since Aug. 31, and traded at $148.20 by 4:20 p.m. local time.

President Xi Jinping said last month that climate targets shouldn’t compromise supplies of commodities that “ensure the normal life of the masses.”

Related read: China plans to increase iron ore output, boost use of steel scrap

Iron ore price

The policy shift may put China’s overall target of reaching peak emissions by 2030 at risk, according to Li Shuo, analyst at Greenpeace East Asia.

“Traditional sectors such as steel will need to peak much earlier to make space for sectors such as transportation that are still developing.”

(With files from Bloomberg)

In January, the gold purchase of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) was 1.6 tons. It means the amount of precious metal purchase increased by 312 kg compared with the same period of the previous year.

In January, the BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimags bought 48.5 kg and 64.1 kg of precious metals respectively.

The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 166,244.8 last month.

Minister of Environment and Tourism B.Bat-Erdene is holding series of meetings with representatives of foreign companies. On February 7, the Minister together with Deputy Environment Minister G.Tuvdendorj, Acting Director of the environment ministry’s Tourism Policy Coordination Department A.Enkhbat, Director of Tourism Development Center S.Bat-Erdene met with Turkish Airlines Ulaanbaatar Director Ali Özdemir.

At the meeting, the Turkish Airlines representative said it is possible to add Ulaanbaatar to multi-city package tours from China, Japan, and South Korea to Europe and from Europe to Southeast Asia, which would enable the traveler to tour Ulaanbaatar without much additional cost.

In particular, the airline’s flights which cost USD 992 on the route Europe-Tokyo-Europe could cost additional USD 170 on Tokyo-Europe-Ulaanbaatar-Tokyo route and the cost for flights on Seoul-Europe-Seoul route is estimated to increase by USD 70 if the route is changed to Seoul-Europe-Ulaanbaatar-Seoul.

A 2019 study shows around 6 million tourists from Japan, 8 million tourists from China and 9 million tourists from South Korea traveled to Europe on Turkish Airlines flights. In the same year, the three countries received about 11 million tourists from Europe.

Mr. Ali Özdemir said Ulaanbaatar could be added to the multi-city package tours without any increase in flight cost as well and that he is confident that the tourists would be glad to visit Ulaanbaatar without paying more. “They will be able to see the Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs and Tumen Ekh Ensemble in Ulaanbaatar, and shamanic rituals and buy cashmere products at relatively less prices than in Europe, which will bring economic benefits to not only tourism, but other industries. Most importantly, Ulaanbaatar will have tourists in winter and spring,”

“For example, a tourist going from Europe to South Korea for a 15-day travel could spend three days in Ulaanbaatar on their way,” he added, presenting estimates made in this regard. During the meeting the Turkish Airlines also put forth a request to increase the number of its flights, saying the current regulation limiting seating capacity to 800 seats for three flights per week is affecting tourists. “Turkish Airlines has the capacity to offer flights every day through the year, especially three to four flights a day in summer,”

The airline representative also emphasized the need to liberalize the airline industry in Mongolia, saying that ticket prices became cheaper and Turkey started receiving 60 million tourists after the privatization of Turkish Airlines and that the country’s airline industry expanded thanks to the privatization. “As someone who works in the industry, I would say people now want to see the nomadic culture, not the sea. I am confident that Mongolia will receive a great number of tourist if the industry is liberalized”

Environment Minister B.Bat-Erdene concurred with the airline representative that the liberalization of the industry will pave the way for the arrival of more tourists, saying the economy would expand with more tourist arrivals.

Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 1,192 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 452,882, the health ministry said Wednesday.

More than half of the latest confirmed cases were detected in rural areas, the ministry said, adding that daily COVID-19 infections is expected to increase in rural areas due to celebrations of the traditional White Moon festival or the Lunar New Year.

Meanwhile, three more COVID-19 patients died in the past day, bringing the death toll to 2,062, the ministry added.

So far, 66.7 percent of the country's total population of 3.4 million has received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while more than 1,010,300 people aged over 18 have received a third dose.

In addition, over 85,300 Mongolians have received a fourth dose, which the country started to administer from Jan. 7 on a voluntary basis.

The APO Technical Expert Services (TES) Program engages specialists in a range of topics at the request of member countries for in-country consultancy. TES aims to boost national productivity by providing real-world solutions to problems and assisting member countries and National Productivity Organizations (NPO) in upgrading their technical knowledge and competencies through tailor-made, intensive interventions by experts on diverse productivity issues and challenges. TES projects were recently conducted for Mongolia, Pakistan, and Thailand.

In cooperation with the Mongolian Productivity Organization (MPO), a virtual in-country TES project on Business Continuity and Resilience for SMEs was held 13–15 December 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many SMEs and other businesses closed or nearly closed in Mongolia. Therefore, the MPO found it crucial to provide training to help SMEs stay productive and be prepared for disruptions. One of its new strategies for productivity improvement and promotion is to assist businesses in being more resilient. This TES project focused on providing skills and knowledge on the most effective productivity tools and techniques for SMEs to prepare for and cope with the pandemic or other external threats. It also provided guidance on developing strategies for SME business continuity, helped the MPO prepare training modules on business continuity, and increased public awareness of the need for productivity enhancement in the new normal. A total of 10 participants from the MPO participated, and two resource persons from Malaysia conducted the sessions.

TES project on Business Continuity and Resilience for SMEs

Another digital in-country TES capacity-building course on Heat-tolerant Wheat for Pakistan was organized with the NPO Pakistan, 15–22 December 2021. A total of 45 participants from the NPO and Wheat Research Institute, Faisalabad, participated in the sessions conducted by two resource persons from the USA and UK. Wheat is the major staple food crop of Pakistan, where estimated per capita consumption is about 124 kg/year. High temperature is a major problem for cropping systems in the country, with unexpected spatial and temporal variations causing reduced plant growth and productivity. To cope with this, the NPO and other institutions initiated a capacity-building program to share the latest know-how for enhancing wheat yield and productivity under the evolving climate scenario. The TES project aimed to create awareness among agriculturists and practitioners of changing climatic conditions and their effect on wheat production as well as to enhance wheat yield.

TES capacity-building course on Heat-tolerant Wheat for Pakistan

The Thailand Productivity Institute (FTPI) intends to conduct an impact assessment for the public sector as it is one channel that can incentivize productivity. The APO and FTPI organized a digital in-country TES workshop on Assessment of Socioeconomic Impacts of Government’s Operations, 29 November–3 December 2021. The program covered all aspects of social and economic impact assessment and evaluation for seven participants from the FTPI Research Department with the support of a resource person from Australia. The workshop developed the competency of participants in socioeconomic impact assessment to enable them to conduct future FTPI research on the topic.

On January 19, 2022, the Parliament of Mongolia approved the Foreign Ministry’s appointment of two female diplomats. A long-time diplomat, E.Sarantogos, was appointed as the ambassador to South Korea, and D.Gerelmaa was appointed as the ambassador to Switzerland. Before that, in late December 2021, U.Nyamkhuu was appointed as ambassador to France, marking the first female diplomat to head the Mongolian mission there. As an ambassador to France, her mission also includes strengthening relations with Spain, Portugal, Monaco, and Andorra.

With these appointments, Mongolia officially set its record for the most female ambassadors serving at a given time. Foreign Minister of Mongolia B.Battsetseg Batmunkh – one of Mongolia’s female diplomats herself – stated in a tweet, “In the history of the Mongol diplomacy, Mongolia now has the highest number of female ambassadors, six out of 31 ambassadors”. (diplomat)

Perhaps inhibited by the freezing temperatures, most national team uniforms featured thick windproof down coats and bulky headgear when the athletes entered Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium for Friday night’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

There were plenty of dark, neutral tones and colour blocks in line with delegations’ flags – which was fair enough, given the athletes are representing their homelands at Beijing 2022. However, some delegations stood out with vibrant patterns or unique shapes that caught the eye. There are of course no medals for best dressed at the Winter Olympics, but regardless, we were still treated so some spectacular showcases of style.

Indeed, many countries at the Games chose to outfit their athletes in uniforms made by representative national brands. Mongolians costumes made by ‘Misheel Amazonca’, a local brand was named one of the best national team uniforms. Mongolia also chose to go the same route – though their athletes would have been a little warmer than most countries.