Mongolia’s economic recovery continued through this year and gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be maintained in the near term, according to Asian Development Outlook (ADO) September 2023, released today. It is anticipated to be driven by robust external demand, recovery in exports, and revived domestic demand, though tempered by persistently high inflation, contractionary monetary policy, and tight domestic financing conditions.

In its Asian Development Outlook (ADO) September 2023, the growth forecast for 2023 is revised up slightly from the projection of 5.4 percent in April to 5.7 percent, but revised down to 5.9 percent for 2024, from the previous forecast of 6.1 percent. GDP growth in 2024 will be driven by mining, with positive spillover into transport and other services, as well as private sector lending.

Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is expected to remain solid, although risks to the outlook are rising, according to the ADB report. The region’s developing economies are forecast to grow 4.7 percent this year, a slight downward revision from a previous projection of 4.8 percent. The growth forecast for next year is maintained at 4.8 percent.

“Although the recovery of Mongolia was uneven in terms of sector contributions, the economy’s near-term growth prospects remain robust,” said ADB Senior Country Economist for Mongolia Edward Faber. “Maintaining price stability, improving employment, and strengthening economic resilience through structural reforms are imperative to make growth more sustainable and inclusive.”

Economic expectation and visibility in Mongolia have improved since the beginning of this year, mainly due to reopening in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), subsequent recovery in exports, significant improvements in the current account balance, rebounding of foreign exchange reserves and lowered risks associated with the external debt repayment.

However, inflation remained high and above the central bank’s target for the past 27 consecutive months despite recent moderations. Inflation is likely to trend downward in the second half of 2023, though average inflation will remain high at 10.5 percent for this year before moderating to 8.6 percent for 2024, revised down slightly from the previous projections in April.

Downside risks to the outlook would arise from any decrease in the PRC’s demand for bulk commodities, a fall in coal and metals prices, new trade restrictions, disruption caused by exacerbated geopolitical tensions, negative spillover from tighter financing conditions, global uncertainty and slowdown, or capital flow reversal.

The "Study Australia" Education Fair was held on 16th of September 2023 at the Shangri-La Hotel. Representatives of Australian educational institutions, universities and colleges participated in this exhibition.

Thousands of people, especially the younger generations, attended the exhibition to meet with representatives of Australian institutions face to face to learn more about their programs, scholarships, and admission opportunities. Katie Smith, Australian Ambassador to Mongolia opened the exhibition.

She said “Australia is also known for being one of the most livable countries in the world. Our relaxed lifestyle, along with the opportunity to enjoy our beautiful nature, offers students a balanced experience.

In addition, we are a multicultural society that respects and celebrates different cultures. Nearly half of all Australian residents were either born overseas or had at least one parent who was born overseas, so diversity underpins the Australian way of life. Prior to the pandemic, the number of Mongolians choosing to study in Australia had been increasing every year, and there were approximately 5,700 Mongolian students studying in Australia’s education institutions by the end of 2019.

While these connections were disrupted during COVID, it is pleasing to see very strong recovery of Mongolian students returning to Australia, particularly in the first six months of this year, with enrolments up 97% on 2022 levels, and even up 24% on 2019 pre-pandemic levels! I am confident we will continue to see more and more Mongolians take up the fantastic opportunity to study and deepen their experience through spending some time in Australia, including – I hope – many of you who are here today”.

We have asked questions to Ambassador Katie Smith about the exhibition and the Australian Awards scholarship.

- What is the aim of Australian Education Fair 2023?

- The Study Australia Education Fair 2023, is all about getting the message out there to young Mongolians about the opportunities to study in Australia, be that tertiary education or English language or technical and vocational education or even high school education. Australia is such a wonderful place for young Mongolians to come and study. We have such a great lifestyle. It's a very livable country. Their student support services are very strong, including for international students. So they will have a very supported experience in Australia. Also, there's amazing opportunities in Australia's, nature and wildlife, and I think they'll really enjoy that opportunity.

We have such strong linkages in education, be that from the scholarships or be that from young Mongolians who've been studying in Australia

- How many universities and colleges are participating in this event?

- So at today's event, there are 22 Australian institutions here. These are technical and vocational education, higher education, and English language colleges. And there's some high schools as well represented. So they've come all the way from Australia just to talk to young Mongolians. And we are so pleased we've had around 4000 young Mongolians show interest. So they'll be coming in today and talking face to face to these universities about the courses they offer, and all the extra support services that they offer as well.

- When I came in here, I saw there was a long line of young generation in the outside. So that means a lot of Mongolian young generations are very interested in Australian education. What is the advantage of the Australian Awards to Mongolian, especially for young generation?

- Well, we’re so proud of our Australia Awards program. This is our 30th anniversary this year. It’s been running for that long. During that time, we’ve had over 700 Mongolians graduate from that program. And they’re just so inspirational, these alumni, because they come back and they really contribute to Mongolia’s development, be that in private sector or public sector or government or civil society, whatever they choose to do, they’re so extremely successful. The scholarships program is really beneficial because the families can go to Australia with the students. So it’s really an experience for the whole family. And we’ve had generations now of Mongolians going under this program. Again, it’s all about the quality of the experience in Australia as well.

Our universities, 90% of them are globally ranked universities, so their reputation is very strong and those support services and that lifestyle is also really strong. This year, I was so pleased to announce an increase in our scholarships program. So next year we’ll be offering 50% increase to 15 scholarships. And hopefully in future years, we can just keep increasing. For me, education is the cornerstone of our relationship, the Australia-Mongolia relationship. We have such strong linkages in education, be that from the scholarships or be that from young Mongolians who've been studying in Australia. We now have over 22,000 Mongolians who've studied in Australia over the past 20 years. So the numbers really are a testament to the strong relationship that we have.

- Thank you so much for your time.

India and Mongolia reviewed the progress of construction of the country's first oil refinery, which is being built with the assistance of New Delhi. The project review was conducted during the three-day visit of Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs Saurabh Kumar to Mongolia, which ended on Thursday.

Kumar held talks with Mongolian Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ankhbayar Nyamdorj and visited Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan, as well as Minister and Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve.

He also visited the Gandan and Pethub monasteries, and toured the Dornogovi province, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes.

The sides discussed further strengthening the India-Mongolia strategic partnership and maintaining high-level interaction, the Ministry added.

The parties exchanged views on cooperation in various sectors, including development partnership, education, information technology, renewable energy, communications, culture, capacity building, hydrocarbons, mining, defense and security.

President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa arrived in New York (USA) on September 19-23 to participate in general discussions at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

The President of Mongolia will take part in the general discussions of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. He will make a speech in which he will express Mongolia's position on current issues of international relations. He also plans to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and heads of state and government of several countries.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Development of Mongolia Khurelbaatar Chimed will participate in the high-level meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals and the high-level discussion on Financing for Development.

Government representatives led by Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh will take part in the main events of the conference.

The country produced 44.97 million tonnes of coal in the first eight months of 2023, jumping 183.80% from the preceding year.

Mongolia's iron ore production was 845,900 tonnes in August, down 6.29% on the year but up 26.46% on the month. This included 545,700 tonnes of iron sand, down 29.29% year on year yet up 23.69% from July, and 300,200 tonnes of iron concentrate, soaring 129.16% from a year ago and up 31.84% month on month.

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Production of iron ore in Mongolia totaled 4.64 million tonnes during first eight months, down 32.99% year on year. Iron sand output was 3.11 million tonnes, slumping 43.57% year on year and iron concentrate production was 1.53 million tonnes, up 8.39%.

Rio Tinto has been solely funding preparatory work at the blocks it holds at Simandou, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits, as its Chinese partners are yet to make their funds available, two sources close to the matter said.

The Anglo-Australian miner owns two of four Simandou mining blocks as part of its Simfer joint venture with China’s Chalco Iron Ore Holdings (CIOH) and the government of Guinea, where the mine is located.

It has so far spent more than $500 million on developing the project that should have been split with CIOH, due to a delay in the Chinese consortium getting state approval on the financing, the sources said.

CIOH is 75% held by Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) and 20% by Baowu Steel Group, with China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) each holding 2.5%.

“The worry is that if their (Rio’s) partners don’t get approval from China on their funding, the money will deplete,” added one of the sources, who declined to be named because the information is not public.

Rio declined to comment. Chinalco, Baowu, CRCC and CHEC did not respond to Reuters‘ requests for comment.

Most Chinese companies are backed or owned by state entities, their financial approvals complicated by convoluted structures amid an economic slowdown that has seen the world’s second-largest economy struggle after a brief post-Covid recovery.

With a complex ownership structure, Simandou has been haggled over for years, its construction delayed by legal wrangling, Guinea’s political changes and the difficulty and cost of the 600 km of rail and port that need to be built to export the ore from the mines in the southeast of the country.

Raphael Gnambalamou, a director-general at Guinea’s mines ministry said that “the project is moving well”.

Simandou’s other two blocks are owned by the Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS), made up of Singapore-based Winning International Group, Weiqiao Aluminium – part of the China Hongqiao Group – and United Mining Suppliers.

A WCS spokesperson said in an email that the consortium had been “steadfastly progressing with our construction work” on Simandou blocks 1 and 2 and associated infrastructure development, with a workforce of more than 10,000.

Simfer and its contractors have employed around 3,000 people so far, after agreeing to share capacity and associated costs for the trans-Guinean rail line of the project with WCS.

Rio earmarked $800 million for its share of the development in 2023 and around $2 billion a year in 2024 and 2025.

(By Clara Denina, Felix Njini and Amy Lv; Editing by Jan Harvey)

On September 19-23, 2023, Khuresukh Ukhnaa, the President of Mongolia, will work in New York, USA, and participate in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The theme of the 78th session of the General Assembly, including the general debate, will be: "Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all." More than 100 political leaders have announced their personal participation.

The President of Mongolia will participate in the General Debate of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly and will make a speech expressing Mongolia's position on the pressing issues of international relations. During this time, the President is planning to meet with Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, and heads of state and government of some countries.

Ch.Khurelbaatar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Development of Mongolia, will participate in a high-level meeting on "Sustainable Development Goals'' and a high-level discussion on "Development Financing". Government representatives headed by B.Battsetseg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will participate in the main activities of the session.

U.Khurelsukh, the President of Mongolia, has been attending the General Debate of the UN General Assembly every year since 2021.