Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The construction of Science and Innovation Center commenced on October 2. The commencement ceremony was attended by Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh, Minister of Education and Science L.Tsedevsuren, President of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS) D.Regdel, and other officials and scholars.

In his remarks at the ceremony, PM U.Khurelsukh said, “The Government deems that the country’s development will advance through science-based government policy. A historic development project kicks off on the threshold of the 100th anniversaries of the People’s Revolution and the establishment of modern scientific organization in Mongolia which fall next year”

The Science and Innovation Center development project is being implemented in accordance with the decisions made at the First State Congress of Scientific Workers in 2019 and the goals of the Government’s 2020-2024 Action Program such as those aimed at elevating scientific research, improving research outcomes, increasing the role of science in the country’s development, supporting research institutes and centers and research and innovation projects and encouraging startups.

The center worth MNT 94 billion will be built on a 4.8 ha area in the Botanical Garden located in 12th subdistrict of Bayanzurkh district until 2022. It will have laboratories, model workshop, office, library, conference hall, sports hall, repository, and museums of paleontology, archaeology, and astronomy where 3,300 scholars and workers of MAS institutes, universities, and other scientific organizations will carry out their researches.

The center will also open up an opportunity for joint research activities in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology among research organizations and universities.

The UK government has temporarily blocked the development of what would be the nation’s first new deep coal mine in 30 years, while it decides whether to call in the application or hand the decision back to local authorities in Cumbria, in the northwest of England.

Cumbria County councillors voted 12-3 to grant planning permission to West Cumbria Mining’s Woodhouse Colliery project on Friday.

Environment groups condemned the approval, urging the government to intervene and block it. They claim the new coal mine would emit 8 million tonnes of carbon annually, which threatens to undermine the UK’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Development of the Woodhouse Colliery was approved last year but it was later delayed by the High Court, which granted permission to a local campaign group to pursue a judicial review of the project.

The planned mine is expected to produce as much as 3.1 million tonnes of metallurgical coal a year, mainly from under the seabed. Processed coal would then be transferred by underground conveyor to trains using a new loading facility and sidings.

Woodhouse Colliery is scheduled to begin production in the second half of 2021, creating 500 jobs. It had originally been slated to run for 70 years, but West Cumbria Mining had to resubmit plans following the judicial review. The mine is now expected to close in 2049, one year before the country must have net zero emissions.

Growing skepticism

Most in the UK are skeptical about achieving the net zero target, according to a survey by the centre-right think tank Bright Blue published Friday.

The report found that 58% of the public believe that it is unlikely that the target will be achieved even by 2050.

The UK is set to host the COP26 round of UN global climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. The event is considered the most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015.

England’s last operating deep coal mine, Kellingley, closed in 2015 and the country’s last coal mine stopped operating this year.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Honored Artists of Mongolia E.Amartuvshin will perform at La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. The baritone is to sing the part of Amonasro. King of Ethiopia, in the opera Aida.

The opera to feature Cultural Ambassador of Mongolia E.Amartuvshin will take place from October 6 to 19 at the Milan theater that was built in 1776 on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre got its name.

They are called ninja miners – some 100’000 people at peak times digging for gold or other natural resources in Mongolia. “Ninja” as they often cover their faces from dust and carry green pans that resemble the shells of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Many former pastoralists have engaged in this artisanal mining, working aside industrial miners, as one of few income generating activities. The mining boom started in the 1990s when Mongolia transitioned to a free marked democracy allowing foreign investments. Since then, the sector has had an oversized influence on Mongolia’s GDP, leaving behind agriculture as the economy’s former center piece.

What are the main stages that have shaped the mining sector since the 1990s? How has the boom in mining transformed society? What answers do regulators and actors have to the toll mining has taken on the land, air, and the environment as a whole? And what role do Chinese investment and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) play?

In this webcast, the University of Zurich’s Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo starts off by giving us an in-depth understanding of the evolution and ongoing issues around mining in Mongolia. He will then be joined by Beibei Gu of the Zoï Environment Network, who focuses on environmental issues, the Chinese perspective as importer and investor as well as the challenges and opportunities of the BRI for Mongolia’s mining sector. This webcast is moderated by the anthropologist Emilia Sulek.

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Byamba

Dr. Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo is a senior lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, the University of Zurich and a co-investigator of "Gobi Framework" research project, the University of Oxford. As a social anthropologist, Byamba is studying how people make a living in Mongolia since 1990. His research mainly focuses on pastoralism, political ecology, and mining. Apart from his academic career, he worked as a research consultant in development agencies and interacted with different actors whose perceptions and opinions contrast sharply.

Beibei Gu

Beibei Gu is a sustainability and environmental policy specialist working for the Geneva based NGO Zoï Environment Network. Beibei contributed to the recently launched synthesis report Greening the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. She has more than ten years of professional experience across international organizations (UNEP), multinational corporations and environmental NGOs, and is experienced in the global environment agenda including the United Nations (UN) Inclusive Green Economy, sustainable infrastructure and investment, China’s clean air policy, environmental transparency and green supply chain.

Emilia Sulek

Dr. Emilia Sulek is a scholar of China, Tibet and Central Asia. She writes about contemporary Asian societies, shadow economies, development, state power, political conflict and environment, and gender politics. She is a member of ROADWORK: an anthropological research project about the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Photo by Daniela Kienzler.

Mongolia’s Joint Programme (JP) for Integrated Social Protection focuses on extending social protection to herders and their families, and enhancing the system’s shock-responsiveness to minimize their vulnerability to extreme climate change and poverty. The JP aims to combine its investment in social protection system development with an intervention to prevent herders and their families from sliding into a poverty trap.

The JP has achieved significant progress over the first six months. A shock-responsive social protection tool (“Child Money Programme”) has been piloted in Zavkhan Province to minimize herders’ risks to shocks, and make social protection more accessible to them during the current pandemic. The Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis Tool (RIMA-II) has been introduced to analyze herder household resilience capacity to climate-related risks such as dzud and other shocks. Data has been collected from 2240 herder households in soums across Zavkhan and Khuvsgul provinces to analyze their capacity for introducing a resilience strategy to their groups and local communities.

Herders’ entrepreneurial and business skills have been strengthened through new technology,

equipment and advanced knowledge of livestock production, which may lead to increased income and participation in social and health protection schemes. Technical assistance has been provided to the Government on shock-responsive social protection policy implementation and monitoring. The team has also supported the decentralization of social protection infrastructure and designed capacity-building training programmes for Social Insurance General Office staff in order to promote effective social insurance coverage of herders. Thus, over the first six months, the Mongolia JP has made significant headway toward extending shock-responsive social protection to herder communities.

New research published in the Strategic Management Journal shows that companies working in countries where corruption is rampant are able to operate better when they make deeper, long-term commitments.

According to the lead author of the study, Charles E. Stevens, associate professor of management at Lehigh University’s College of Business, this approach means leaving behind the two dominant strategies when dealing with corruption in developing countries: “Play the game,” meaning pay bribes or engage in corrupt activities, or “leave the table” by avoiding investing in places where corruption is widespread.

To reach this conclusion, Stevens and his colleague Aloysius Newenham-Kahindi, associate professor at the University of Victoria, surveyed people that are or have been faced with corruption directly, among them 445 individuals representing industries such as mining, construction, manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications in both developed and developing country firms. They also polled 126 host country government officials and employees; 34 local private-sector employees; 44 local institutional researchers; and 142 members of the general public.

The researchers found that within the last decade, a number of developing country firms, many of them from China, were taking an unexpected engagement strategy that tended to involve greater commitment and greater investment to countries where there was more corruption.

“Many of these firms were following rather interesting and complex strategies – many that involved multiple actors – that were designed at minimizing the ability of host-country actors to request bribes by maximizing their bargaining power or by minimizing the motivation of host-country actors to request bribes by increasing their legitimacy,” Stevens said in a media statement.

According to the scholar, this paper fills an important gap in corruption literature by increasing the understanding of the options and strategies that firms have at their disposal when they invest in countries where corruption is a greater problem.

“We hope that this research allows firms, governments, and the general public to achieve economic prosperity, reduce corruption, and create mutually-beneficial solutions through investment and growth,” Stevens said. “Firms shouldn’t automatically be afraid to invest in countries where risks like corruption are present. Such countries present many challenges, but for firms that go in with a comprehensive plan, are prepared to make a long-term commitment, and find ways to leverage partnerships with governments and other firms, the rewards can be worth the risks.”

Mongolia confirms its 314th case of coronavirus on Oct 5, Director of the National Center for Communicable Diseases Dulmaa Nyamkhuu said.

1,823 people have undergone the laboratory tests for Covid-19 on October 2-4, and one tested positive.

A 19-year old woman who arrived from Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan tested positive.

As of today, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Mongolia has reached 314 (all imported) and total recoveries reached 307.

Seven patients are receiving the treatment.