Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On February 5, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Munkhjin and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Mongolia Philip Malone exchanged notes on Mongolia’s accession to the Enhanced Framework of the UK’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), which is equivalent to the European Union's GSP+.

Mongolia's inclusion in the UK GSP is of great significance in increasing bilateral trade, reducing the country's dependence on mining, diversifying exports, promoting value-added production, and improving product competitiveness.

Ulaanbaatar, January 28, 2021 – Mongolia’s new Civil Service Law is an important step toward building a stronger civil service that is merit-based and politically neutral, but further reforms are needed, according to a new World Bank report.

The report, Towards a High Performing Civil Service: Reform Progress and Challenges, calls on the country to strengthen the stability, oversight, and management of its civil service to help achieve development objectives. It highlights the latest Civil Service Law, which re-establishes the principles of meritocracy and a career-based model, as a major step toward building a better-performing and ethical civil service.

“With stronger legal foundations in place, Mongolia is now better placed to move forward to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its civil service. This will require determined leadership to make important strategic and technical decisions to curb politicization and reassert professionalism in the civil service,” said Andrei Mikhnev, World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia.

Mongolia’s annual attrition rate in the civil service increased from around 9% in the 2009-2012 period to more than 22% in 2019. Frequent changes of government, together with high staff turnover due to the lack of a meritocratic system, has negatively affected the civil service’s overall capacity to deliver public goods and services efficiently.

The recent revision of the legal framework, with a heavy emphasis on the prevention and reversal of politicization, will be a crucial step in addressing these challenges, according to the report. Once the foundations of merit-based principles are firmer, some flexibility can be reintroduced in the medium to long-term, so the civil service cadre will be able to respond effectively to the demands of politically appointed ministers to the extent appropriate, while being both professionally competent and sufficiently impartial to serve successive governments of different political complexion.

The report notes that the the hybrid role of the Civil Service Council (CSC) as both a supervisor and an implementer could create a conflict of interest, and calls for a review of the institutional mechanisms for managing and supervising the civil service at all levels.

“Once the principle of a merit-based career civil service has been re-established in Mongolia, the Civil Service Council can work in cooperation with the executive government to delegate personnel management responsibilities to ministries, departments, agencies, and local authorities. This will allow the CSC to transition to a more conventional oversight body,” said Alma Kanani, World Bank Governance Practice Manager for East Asia and the Pacific.

The report emphasizes that the professional status of the civil service must be protected through the reinvigorated entrance examination, which allows access only to those, who meet strict professional requirements and in return are obliged to deliver a high standard of service to the public. The successful implementation of the new performance planning system as well as training for civil servants are key to this professionalization.

The report also notes that the number of civil servants has grown by 34% over the past decade (2009-2019). While the associated wage bill is not particularly high relative to international comparators, it is the fastest growing and largest component of recurrent government expenditures. The report argues that increasing staff is not the solution to meeting the demand for services given the country’s geographic characteristics. Instead, more effective management of existing staff through envisioned reforms would be essential to improving productivity and providing better service delivery.

There has been a long-standing need for reform of the pay and grading structure in the civil service, the report notes. The highly fragmented nature of the payroll has prevented the government from obtaining and analyzing data necessary for the reform. Recent and ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Finance to introduce an Integrated Payroll System are to be commended as a major step in addressing the challenge toward establishing a new human resource management information system that uses comprehensive and consistent personnel data.

The report also highlights the need for the civil service to have appropriate incentives for recruiting, retaining, and motivating skilled staff, in particular, through the principle of equal pay for equal work. This will require simplifying the pay system by merging allowances into basic pay, simplifying the grading structure, and benchmarking pay.

Taken together, the recommended actions for the civil service reform constitute a large program of change, the report acknowledges. The enactment of the new Civil Service Law has already committed the Mongolian government to much of this agenda, but further reforms and their effective implementation would be critical to success. In this regard, the World Bank will continue its support to the government towards strengthening its civil service and public sector performance and accountability for increased people’s trust in the government.

Despite pressure from the UK’s climate change advisors, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office says it will not intervene in Cumbria County Council’s decision to approve the country’s first new deep coal mine in 30 years.

The government interrupted the development of West Cumbria Mining’s Woodhouse Colliery project in north-west England in October while it decided whether to call in the application or hand the decision back to local authorities.

Cumbria’s council announced in January it had received confirmation that the decision to allow the coal mine would not be reversed.

Since first proposed, the project has faced steep opposition from environmental groups urging the government to intervene and block it. They claim the new coal mine would emit 8 million tonnes of carbon annually, undermining the country’s pledge to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.

As the UK prepares to host the COP26 climate summit in November, considered the most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015, the chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has called planning minister Robert Jenrick to reconsider the project’s approval.

CCC’s chair Lord Deben said in a letter to Jenrick that while it was not the council’s role to act as a regulator or a planning authority, he would urge the minister to consider further the UK’s policy towards all new coal developments.

“The Johnson administration’s difficult position echoes a bigger conundrum,” writes Bloomberg‘s columnist Akshat Rathi. “Many countries are trying to balance their desire to contribute to the global fight against climate change against domestic pressures to exploit their own natural resources.”

“Net-zero” goal questioned

The planned mine is expected to produce as much as 3.1 million tonnes of metallurgical coal a year until 2049, one year before the country must have net zero emissions. While the UK will use some of that coal in its steel industry, 85% of it is marked for export to Europe.

In that period, the mine will provide 500 jobs, but the CCC also expects it to add about 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of emissions each year.

“Of course, job creation is absolutely vital to communities but we must look forward to the jobs of 21st century, not back to those in declining industries,” Greenpeace UK’s policy director Doug Parr said in a statement.

“If we want to avoid dangerous climate change, giving the go-ahead to a new coal mine takes us in completely the wrong direction,” Friends of the Earth said in a separate statement.

A study by the center-right think tank Bright Blue, published in October, shows that most in the UK are skeptical about achieving the net-zero target by 2050.

England’s last operating deep coal mine, Kellingley, closed in 2015, and the Bradley coal mine closed last year, after almost 200 years in operation.

The British Columbia Council for International Education and the Metropolitan Education Department of Mongolia have announced a new partnership that will promote exchange between students and educators in Canada and Mongolia.

Callan first began her media career in China with the expat magazine City Weekend. After travelling around Australia and New Zealand, she went on to launch an NGO-focused magazine in Somaliland and later worked as a freelance editor for China Daily. She has also lectured at Frantz Fanon University and Tianjin Polytechnic on academic English and cross-cultural communication. Get in touch with Callan at callan@thepienews.com

"This MOU... create[s] opportunities for students, teachers, and instructors"

The MOU, which was signed at a virtual ceremony on January 27, was a first between the two groups and will “help facilitate the cultural and academic exchange of BC, Canadian, and Mongolian educational institutions, students, and educators, and strengthen the internationalisation efforts of BCCIE and MED”.

“With a vision to provide equitable and fair access to quality education for all and to prepare educated human resources, the government of Mongolia attaches great importance to its foreign relations with our partner countries,” said Gantulga Jigjidsuren, head of the Metropolitan Education Department of Mongolia, which oversees early childhood to K-12 education in Ulaanbaatar.

“The government of Mongolia attaches great importance to its foreign relations with our partner countries”

“The signing of this MOU cements the foundation for mutual cooperation to explore and create opportunities for students, teachers, and instructors and I believe it marks the beginning of an effective collaboration that enriches the education relations of our two countries.”

Mongolia’s education system has seen investment from and cooperation with many countries over the last few years, including Japan, China and Russia.

While a high proportion of university-aged citizens go on to higher education, graduate unemployment remains an issue.

For Mongolian international students, popular destinations include South Korea, Japan, the US, Australia and Turkey. The vast majority of its incoming students come from China, including from Inner Mongolia.

“Mongolia is a great and important country, a major trading partner of Canada especially in mining, and importantly an emerging market for BC’s education system,” said Randall Martin, executive director of BCCIE.

“Our agreement with MED represents another step towards advancing study abroad opportunities for students and teachers in BC and Mongolia and signifies the commitment both share in fostering global citizenship.”

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Regarding with the decision to impose strict quarantine in the capital city on February 11-23, Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan presented the types of businesses and services that are allowed to run their operations normally during this period. These services include:

Electric heating, water supply, decontamination and sewerage activities

Healthcare organizations, pharmacies, medical equipment distribution organizations

Gas and fuel supply

Food production, trade, distribution, supermarkets, hypermarkets, minimarkets, grocery stores, wholesale trade, reserve meat and livestock fodder trade

Sterilization, disinfection and cleaning services

Loading and transport services

Online banking services, ATM

Refined coal factories, supply, distribution and sales points

Post office, communications, media

Funeral services

Repairs and other services

Special purpose agencies

Higher legislative body

Public and local self-governing organizations / 15 percent of the staff will work at workplace under time restriction/

State-owned organizations of particular and strategic importance /Ulaanbaatar Railways, Chinggis Khaan airport/

Livestock hay and fodder distribution and transportation

Outdoor maintenance service

Special duty vehicles for production and distribution

Furthermore, public transport will serve for limited number of passengers between 08 am and 18 pm. Traffic movement in and out of the capital city will also be restricted and only vehicles for providing health, emergency, special duty services and funeral services will be allowed.

In addition, “One door-one testing” measure will be implemented during the period of the strict quarantine. 280 medical teams will work to perform diagnosis and testing on 420 thousand households in 10 days. 38 PCR machines will be used alongside establishing 73 testing points in the capital city. It is planned to operate over 90 mobile points if necessary.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On January 29, 2021, the last day of its autumn session, State Great Khural of Mongolia approved a bill on Supporting the Oil Refinery.

The bill is aimed at ensuring realization of the construction project of an oil refinery underway with the loan agreement between the government of Mongolia and the Exim Bank of India within its scheduled date, intensify the project implementation, define the Mongolian government’s support to the project and create the legal framework.

The bill was co-developed by the Ministries of Justice and Home Affairs, Finance and Mining and Heavy Industry, Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority and Mongolian Oil Refinery state owned company.

The approved law creates legal foundation for actions and activities related to the oil refinery under construction in Dornogobi aimag as well as its facilities and infrastructures, including the usage of international norms, standards and regulations, control, facilitation and approval of the oil refinery’s blueprint and designs and commissioning of the factory and the establishment of a product sharing agreement on the oil field and ensuring of stable supply of raw products, reports the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Bogd Bank, the youngest bank in Mongolia’s banking industry, has announced that it would launch an initial public offering and list 20 percent of its shares on the Mongolian Stock Exchange to raise funds from public.

In compliance with recent amendments to the Banking Law of Mongolia, approved on January 28, 2021, which obliges some commercial banks to become available for public trading prior to June 30, 2022, and all commercial banks to reduce its ownership concentration before December 31, 2023, the Bogd Bank now becomes the first bank to trade its shares on the stock exchange and transition from private to public.

Established in 2014, the Bogd Bank is owned by Bodi Capital LLC (91,32 percent) and Bogd Capital Investment (8.68 percent). Saruul Ganbaatar, CEO and Board Director at the Bogd Bank, said “The stock market launch of the Bogd Bank is expected to bring about increased transparency and improve the corporate governance of the bank, enabling the bank to fulfill its goal to grow into the best bank in the modern era.”

The total assets held by the Bogd Bank, which has more than 45,000 customers, were increased by around 5 times, from MNT 44.2 billion in 2015 up to MNT 248.8 billion in 2019, and its net operating profit was estimated at MNT 2.9 billion as of 2019.

Ard Securities LLC, a subsidiary of Ard Financial Group - a diversified financial services holding company, will serve as a primary underwriter to lead the Bogd Bank’s IPO process. With 23-year of history in the banking industry by holding broker, dealer, underwriter, investment consultant and forex trade licenses, Ard Securities offers variety of services including securities trading, monitoring of portfolio performance and trading activities, etc.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At 11 a.m., today, the Ministry of Health provided updates on the coronavirus situation in Mongolia.

According to the Health Ministry, 31 people were detected with coronavirus after testing 16,960 people nationwide on February 3. The newly detected cases were all registered in Ulaanbaatar city and two new infection clusters have been reported in the capital city.

Specifically, an employee of “Mongol Shir” Company tested positive for coronavirus on the night of February 1 and brought to the National Center for Communicable Diseases. Afterwards, 18 people were diagnosed with coronavirus when 72 employees of the company were tested. Moreover, two infection cases were confirmed at “Amgalan” maternity hospital of the capital city during a surveillance testing at high-risk sites performed by the National Center for Public Health. One of the two cases is a staff of the maternity hospital and another one is a pregnant woman.

As of today, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mongolia have reached 1,890. Of whom 1,398 have made recovery and 479 are under treatment. Six people have recovered in the last 24 hours and discharged from hospital. Thus, 74 percent of the total reported cases or 1,398 people have recovered.

Since coming into power in 2017, President Khaltmaa Battulga has plunged Mongolia’s democracy into a downward spiral of authoritarianism, abuses of anti-corruption law, and politically motivated persecutions of the president’s opponents, argues a new white paper published by Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Partners LLP.

The report, titled “Poisoned Oasis: The Political Persecution of Chimed Saikhanbileg and the Future of Democracy in Mongolia,” has been released in English and Mongolian and is being distributed to a wide audience and stakeholders as well as the general public.

Mr. Amsterdam, who was retained to represent Mr. Saikhanbileg one year ago, says that the purpose of the white paper is not only to prove that the 2018 arrest and subsequent charges against Ch.Saikhanbileg were entirely without merit, but also show how this case highlights the attempt to destroy judicial independence taking place under the Kh.Battulga regime.

“This is a classic example of a despot trying to convert anti-corruption laws into political weapons to take down his opponents,” says Amsterdam. “But in fact what ends up happening is that the president’s credibility collapses and Mongolia’s country risk shoots through the roof. And now he must deal with the consequences.”

The Ch.Saikhanbileg case is far from an isolated example, says Amsterdam. Mongolia’s Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khürelsükh recently resigned and called for Battulga’s impeachment, citing the use of the anti-corruption authority to jail innocent people. He was joined by the former Justice Minister Khishgee Nyambaatar, who revealed the president had repeatedly pressured him to repeal laws protecting judicial independence.

“With this white paper we are bringing attention to the judicial corruption behind the false charges against the former Prime Minister Ch.Saikhanbileg and others. We are now calling on US members of congress and leadership of relevant federal agencies to take action and respond to the worrying backsliding under President Kh.Battulga,” says Amsterdam.

The full white paper can be downloaded in English and Mongolian at https://saikhanbileg.com. More information about Amsterdam & Partners LLP can be found at https://amsterdamandpartners.com.

Dairy is a staple in the diets of Mongolian people, who rely on the milk from all seven livestock species in their country—cows, sheep, goats, horses, yak, reindeer, and camels. Up until recently, the sale of milk products was not a prominent source of income for local herders—there was almost no local market for dairy products, and their remote locations made it difficult to sell milk to other villages before it spoiled. Raising and selling their livestock for various other purposes, including for meat, wool, and hair, however, is a main livelihood for many Mongolians. The more livestock they sell, the more income they generate.

But these animals need land to graze on, and larger livestock herds means herders have to move further into snow leopard habitat to find enough land to graze them. This leads to livestock outcompeting the snow leopard’s native prey species, which can then result in human-wildlife conflict when snow leopards prey on livestock instead. These events can result in significant financial losses for herders.

But there’s good news. Local communities can play an important role in preventing such conflict and improving their livelihoods while also helping to further snow leopard conservation.

In his home village in Bayan-ulgii province, Serik T. was looking for a way to support and improve the livelihoods of his community. He recognized a particularly undermarketed product: yak milk. After graduating from university, Serik returned to his village where he helped create a small-scale locally run dairy initiative. He was nominated to lead the newly established Jasil Alhap cooperative in his village that now, along with another local cooperative, supports the community’s first two dairy plants.

This project provides another livelihood option for the community and a local place for herders to directly sell their livestock milk. Both the local government and the cooperative invested in the project, contributing around 70 percent of the total cost needed to conduct the pilot (approximately $124,000 USD), and WWF-Mongolia funded the remainder by providing dairy processing equipment and training for dairy plant staff.

In September 2019, the two dairy plants began producing five products, including butter and yogurt, under the brand name “Guyemkhen”, meaning “baby snow leopard.” More than 950 gallons of milk were collected between the two plants in just the first two months production. Today, Guyemkhen is the selected vendor for 43 grocery shops in the village, as well as provincial centers and schools—a significant distribution achievement for small manufacturers.

A group of people wearing blue or pink aprons and hair nets stand in a row smiling at the camera behind a row of metal milk jugs

Members of the cooperative gather for a photo, with Serik on the far right.

This project has provided an alternative way for herders to earn a living beyond their existing livestock husbandry, thus protecting community livelihoods. It also promotes the conservation of snow leopards and their habitat by reducing the need for herders to increase their livestock numbers to make money, and reducing instances of human-wildlife conflict in the process. Now that the herders are able to directly sell the milk through the cooperative, they can keep fewer livestock for income and require less land for grazing. In addition, the project has increased public awareness and positive attitudes around the importance of snow leopard conservation, both within and beyond local communities, through sustainable livelihoods support.

Within the first six months of launch, the Guyemkhen line of dairy was awarded “Best Product” during the autumn fair by the Bayan-Ulgii province government. Both cooperatives donate 10% of their total income to conservation initiatives—particularly those that work to conserve snow leopards and their habitats—in their respective regions. With all this success, they have no plans to slow down and aim to increase the range of products they offer, including traditional curds and bite-sized frozen yogurt, in the future.