Nalaikh park to increase domestic building material production 1.78 fold www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Member of the Parliament S.Amarsaikhan, Minister of Construction and Urban Development B.Munkhbaatar, and Ulaanbaatar city government officials worked at Nalaikh Industrial and Technology Park of Building Materials (NITPBM) on September 8.

World Bank Group’s Response to COVID-19 (coronavirus) in Mongolia www.worldbank.org

The World Bank Group, one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, is taking broad, fast action to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response. We are increasing disease surveillance, improving public health interventions, and helping the private sector continue to operate and sustain jobs. Over the next 15 months, we will be deploying up to $160 billion in financial support to help countries protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses, and bolster economic recovery, including $50 billion of new IDA resources in grants or highly concessional terms.

In Mongolia, the Bank has been working closely with the government to address the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the health sector, Mongolia was included in the WBG’s first batch of COVID-19 health emergency support operations. The Mongolia COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness project, with a total financing of US$26.9 million, will help the country meet emergency needs in the face of the pandemic and better prepare for future health crises.
In addition, US$2.2 million has been mobilized under the ongoing E-Health project to purchase the most needed medical diagnostic equipment.
Under the Strengthening Governance in Mongolia Project, funded by the European Union, US$750,000 (€ 680,000) has been reprioritized to enable the government to take more targeted just-in-time measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, such as assessing the potential economic impact of the pandemic, planning and monitoring of fiscal resources, and better tracking the allocation and expenditure on response measures.
Resources under the Employment Support Project have also been reprioritized to support the government’s economic stimulus package in response to COVID-19. This includes US$15 million towards providing social insurance contributions relief for an estimated 120,000 individuals enrolled in the voluntary scheme—including the self-employed, micro-entrepreneurs, and those informally employed—for a period of five months. The microloan program with US$2.6 million financing under the project will also provide temporary interest rate relief for borrowers during the time of crisis.
Mongolia Emergency Relief and Employment Support Project, financed with US$20 million IDA credit, will provide temporary relief to eligible workers and employers in response to the COVID-19 crisis and help provide the country’s jobseekers and micro-entrepreneurs with improved access to labor market opportunities. In particular, US$10 million from the project will be transferred to the Social Insurance Fund to partially compensate the contribution relief for eligible employers and their workers under the mandatory SI scheme.
To minimize the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on children’s health and nutrition, US$5 million has been mobilized under the Education Quality Reform Project. The funding will top up payments to the government’s Child Money Program benefitting approximately 1.19 million children. The transfer will use the existing government system of social assistance for children thus reaching households quickly, with minimal administrative costs.
The World Bank provided US$1 million grant from the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to strengthen Mongolia’s capacity to respond to the COVID-19. The funding will help purchase essential medical and personal protective equipment to public officers at high-risk screening points and health care providers in selected areas.
The East Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Update (April 2020) analyzes the economic impact of COVID-19 on the region and recommends policy actions countries can take to mitigate the impact, with a particular focus on protecting the poor and vulnerable.

GS25 convenience stores to open in Mongolia www.akipress.com

GS Retail is opening its first stores in Mongolia, with 50 locations planned in the country before the end of 2021, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Authorities quash Inner Mongolia protests www.ft.com

Students are returning to school following weeks of fierce demonstrations in Inner Mongolia, after a public manhunt and the threat of parents being fired from their jobs quashed protests against curbs on local-language teaching.

Some of the most widespread mass resistance from ethnic Mongol communities in almost a decade erupted late last month after Beijing moved to use standardised Chinese to teach history, politics and literature in Mongolian-language middle schools.

Tongliao, a city at the eastern end of the resource-rich expanse of grassland, desert and forest that spans much of China’s 2,880-mile border with Mongolia, has been at the centre of the stand-off.

Bu Xiaolin, governor of Inner Mongolia, told teachers on a tour of Tongliao schools last week that adopting the state-written textbooks was a “major political task” that would be beneficial now and into the future.

The policy was formally announced at the end of August, less than a week before the start of term. Mongol parents, teachers and students quickly arranged sit-ins, protests and school boycotts.

Local authorities responded with a propaganda push, a heavy-handed police crackdown and intense pressure on parents to send children back to class.

By September 2, Horqin district police had released wanted lists of 129 protesters suspected of disorderly behaviour. Alongside grainy photos apparently taken by security cameras, a cash reward of Rmb1,000 ($146) was offered and police officers with clipboards checked cars at the toll gates leaving Tongliao.

Protesters in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia demonstrated this month against Beijing’s plan to introduce Mandarin-only classes at schools in the neighbouring Chinese province of Inner Mongolia
In the city of Bayan Nur, a reward of Rmb10,000 led to the arrests of four people accused of using WeChat, the messaging app, to spread “fake news” about the textbooks and organise petitions.

Last weekend, in a region to the west of Tongliao, government workers were told that their children would have to attend school on Monday. If they did not, the parents’ pay would be suspended and they would be put under investigation by the party’s anti-graft authorities, according to an image of the order shared by Inner Mongolian residents.

After the Monday deadline, some locations began to announce punishments for cadres who “failed to rectify behaviour after being admonished”.

The government of Sonid Left Banner of Xilin Gol League, a region north-west of Tongliao on the border with Mongolia, announced that the pay of four officials had been suspended and two others were fired. All six were placed under investigation by the local Discipline Inspection Commission, the body responsible for enforcing loyalty to the party.

In Tongliao, the harsh measures appear to have forced the acceptance from some parents.

Last week, students at the Horqin district Mongol middle school had rushed past teachers to break down the front gate and flee campus, according to a video of the incident that was independently verified by witnesses.

By Monday, the gate was back in place, reinforced by a steel red-and-white anti-riot barricade. A handful of students, mostly flanked by parents, returned under the watch of officers who sat in police cars. The only sign of the protests this week were the police cars on patrol and large quantities of barricade tape.

The students are back in school, [there are] no more complaining parents or students

Ms Tong, teacher
“The students are back in school, [there are] no more complaining parents or students,” said Ms Tong, a teacher who declined to give her full name. “We are officially using the new textbooks.”

Parents who had protested were now reluctant to speak about their earlier complaints. “The problem has been resolved,” one man said in response to the Financial Times, while hurriedly pulling his son towards the school gate.

Some middle school students appeared ambivalent. “Lots of fellow students have not come back, but my parents said we have to go to school,” said one 15-year-old, who was waiting for a friend down the road from the gate.

The police declined to comment.

Under President Xi Jinping, China’s established system of “preferential policies” pledging marginal autonomy for ethnic minorities is being stripped away. Instead, mores assertive policies inspired by thinkers who support a unified, singular and Han-Chinese dominated “state-race” are being adopted in a bid to assimilate ethnic minorities.

But unlike Tibet and Xinjiang, where grievances over perceived discriminatory treatment of ethnic minority communities from Beijing have sparked mass riots, Inner Mongolia has largely avoided violence.

The region has also yet to face blanket surveillance to the same degree as Xinjiang, where new police stations have been built on every block and enforced data collection has become ubiquitous.

But the scale of protests — and the severity of the clampdown — raise the prospect of heightened securitisation. Mongols retain a strong sense of ethnic identity and have consistently resisted Beijing’s efforts to meld them into mainstream Han culture.

One herder in the Jarud banner region of Tongliao said he planned to keep his six-year-old son out of school for as long as he could.

“They shouldn’t have done it like this,” said the herder, who declined to be named. “I have no problem with him learning the Han language, but there should have been a discussion. We will teach him ourselves for now.

100th Mongolia-Russia diplomatic anniversary to be marked next year www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its regular meeting on September 9, the Cabinet put the Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of the 100th Mongolia-Russia diplomatic anniversary celebration working group.

EBRD and donors help car service provider in Mongolia grow www.ebrd.com

Mongolia has responded relatively well to the coronavirus pandemic, keeping the number of infections in the low hundreds. However, this accomplishment came at the cost of a dampened economy due to closed borders and restricted travel and trade.

Among many local businesses feeling the effects of the pandemic is Doctor Auto Chain LLC (DAC), a popular chain of car repair and spare parts shops.

The EBRD and its donors, including the European Union, the EBRD’s Early Transition Countries Fund (Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taipei China and the United Kingdom) and Japan, have been supporting DAC.

Originating as a small producer of car seat covers in 1998, DAC now has eight branches across Mongolia, including in the capital city Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan and Erdenet. In addition to car maintenance, the company offers spare parts and accessories. With few roads and mainly off-road driving beyond major cities, there is a continued need for skilled car repair and maintenance services, making DAC’s business one of the most vital services in the country.

The company has received support through the Bank’s Advice for Small Businesses initiative, helping it to introduce HR management standards, improved financial reporting and a management information system to aid with the development of its franchise business.

DAC also received a US$ 2.7 million loan from local Khan Bank, co-financed by the EBRD. Last year it joined the EBRD’s Blue Ribbon programme designed to provide broad support to high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises.

All this assistance has seen DAC has grow rapidly and triple its turnover in the last eight years and put the company in good stead to weather the coronavirus storm.

“We see a direct relationship between the advisory projects that improved our internal systems and increased profits,” says Ms Azzaya Sodnomdorj, DAC’s CEO.

However, this trajectory wavered due to the uncertainty brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, DAC saw a 20 per cent reduction in customers, causing a negative impact on revenue and cashflow. Other challenges included long-term disruption of its supply chains, a decline in staff morale and delays in building new branches.

Despite these setbacks, DAC capitalised on its strong management systems and business thinking. It implemented a response plan to regroup resources, optimise expenses and postpone some development plans for 2020.

These changes helped the company’s sales recover to their normal level in June and it is now aiming not only to recoup the earlier losses, but also grow by 5 per cent compared to last year. DAC will also move forward with its plans to open two more franchise branches this year and aims to achieve 21 by 2023-2025.

DAC’s ambitious franchising model is based on the best international standards and has been in development since 2018 with the support of the EBRD and the European Union. Its world-class management system can be easily shared with the franchise owners and the ultimate goal is to expand to the Central Asian countries.

“We estimate there is a market for 100 franchise shops once we open our first flagship store in Kazakhstan by 2022,” says Ms Sodnomdorj.

The company’s next step will be to hold an IPO with EBRD’s international business advisory support in two to three years.

Prime Minister checks progress of railway, energy projects www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Between September 3 and 4, Prime Minister of Mongolia U.Khurelsukh paid a working trip to rural areas to check on the progress of large scale development projects of railway and energy industry in Dornogobi and Umnugobi aimags.

At a regular meeting held on September 9, Chair of the Cabinet Secretariat L.Oyun-Erdene presented about the Premier’s working trip to cabinet members. After the presentation, following orders were given to corresponding ministers, agency chairs and local governors.

- To develop a general plan on the Tavantolgoi coal mine surface facilities in line with the development plan on the industry, infrastructure and urban planning based on the same mine.
- To present about the construction, investment and funding of the Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayar railway as well as about issues concerning the establishment of a special purpose company in this regard, its share ownership and required financing to complete the railroad to a cabinet discussion.
- Take necessary measures on building a power plant for energy supply to the mining projects in the southern region
- Develop an economic and legal feasibility on the proper consumption and possibilities of the surface and underground water sources for development projects in the Southern Gobi while maintaining ecological balance and submit the studies to the cabinet meeting
- To conduct inspection on the investment, financing and spending of development projects funded by Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC.

Sainshand-Baruun-Urt railroad
MNT 1.1 billion is required for building 846 km road in routes Sainshand-Baruun-Urt, Baruun-urt-Khoot-Choibalsan, Khuut-Bichigt. Preparations are underway for the construction of the road, a part of the vertical road network to connect Mongolia and China.

Oil refinery
Within the oil refinery project, a town with 549-apartment complex, offices, service centers, on-site cafeteria for employees, school and kindergarten has been under construction since 2019. Oil refinery is expected to be commissioned in summer of 2024.

414.6 km Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayar railroad
A total 94 entities and 6,000 engineers and technical employees are on-duty at the construction site and 2,900 equipment and machinery are being utilized. Launched in May 2019, the construction project for 414.6-km railway connecting Zuunbayan with Tavantolgoi is in full swing. Earthworks of the railway construction are ongoing with 99 percent completion, pipeline construction with 97 percent and other types of civil works, including dams are completed 84 percent. The 54 km upper track structure construction is being done by Ulaanbaatar Railways JSC, and remaining 15.8 km is being built by the General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces. Construction of 2,500-meter-long bridges to be installed at 27 different locations is running with 73 percent completion and energy transmission line construction is about 60 percent complete. The Ulaanbaatar Railways Company is planning to complete the upper track structure construction within November 30 this year.

240 km Tavantolgoi-Gashuunsukhait railroad
With the establishment of the Tavantolgoi-Ganshuunshukhait railroad, the annual railroad transportation capacity is expected to be 30 million tons, which will cost four times less than annual costs of auto road transportation. Lower track structure construction of the railroad is completed at 95 percent while 32 percent of the upper track structure construction is done. 73 km out of the 240 km railroad have been already built.

Transporters’ town
A transporters’ town has been under development in Tsogttsegtsii soum of Umnugobi aimag since July 2018 with a view to tackle issues faced by drivers of coal hauling trucks, such as long-queue and disorder at the Tavantolgoi coal mine. A complex town with a parking garage for 1,000 trucks, a facility to provide amenity and food services to 500 people at the same time, a loading area, fuel station, service station and truck shop are being built in the ‘Transporters’ Town’.

‘Peaceful parking lot’ complex
A parking space for trucks has been under construction since September 2018. It will enable safe and secure parking of trucks and provide all necessary services to cater for the social well-being of over 14,000 drivers, who operate heavy trucks to transport coal between Tavantolgoi mine site and Gashuunsukhait border port. The parking space will hold a capacity to receive 2,500 heavy duty trucks at the same time and will be equipped with complete surveillance and lighting systems. All types of essential services will be provided at the ‘Peaceful parking space’ complex including hospitals, pharmacy, hotels, shower and food manufacturing shops, cafeterias and government services will be available at the complex. The complex construction is set to finish by the end of this year.

Nikola & GM challenge Tesla with world’s ‘most badass’ 900-horsepower electric truck www.rt.com

The electric truck startup Nikola and General Motors (GM) announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership to produce an electric pickup truck dubbed the ‘Badger’. It will use GM’s widely acclaimed Ultium battery technology.
Under the deal, GM will get 11 percent ownership in Nikola, which will produce the electric pickup truck by the end of 2022. GM also gets the right to nominate one board member in exchange for in-kind services. The automaker will supply Nikola’s fuel cells globally, except Europe, for its class 7/8 truck.

China Detains 23 in Crackdown on Inner Mongolia Protests www.time.com

(TAIPEI, Taiwan) — Police in China’s Inner Mongolia region have detained at least 23 people following protests last week against a new policy that replaces Mongolian-language textbooks with Chinese ones in classrooms.

The push to use the new textbooks, which started in other ethnic minority regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet in 2017, has prompted demonstrations and school boycotts by ethnic Mongolians in at least five cities and counties in Inner Mongolia.

The 23 detentions were across eight banners, the regional word for counties, according to an Associated Press tally of nine local police reports over the past several days. The reasons range from “organizing and collecting signatures for a petition” to “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.”

Others were for “flagrantly insulting a deceased former leader of the country” and “sharing videos in a WeChat group to obstruct the implementation of the national textbooks policy.” WeChat is a popular messaging app in China.

The local government is also exerting pressure in other ways. Authorities in Zhenglan banner announced Saturday that they had suspended two members of the ruling Communist Party without pay for failing to carry out the policy.

Police in Chifeng city said Monday they handed over Communist Party members, including two elementary school teachers, to a local party disciplinary committee for investigation.

Information about the situation has become harder to get, said Enghebatu Togochog, the U.S.-based director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, an activist group for Mongolian rights.

“Before these things happened, we were able to get relatively accurate information through WeChat groups,” he said. “Now, it’s almost a communication blackout.”

The government has stepped up positive messaging on the policy, under which more classes will be taught in Mandarin Chinese.

“There are still many young people, middle-aged people and herders who cannot use Mandarin for basic communication,” said a Q&A published by the state-backed Inner Mongolia Daily. “This has become an obstacle to lifting individuals out of poverty, impacting local economic and social development, and an important factor limiting the ethnic unity and harmony in our region.”

Local governments have published videos of happy-looking students in class and playing on school grounds, saying that students have returned to school.

Togochog said many people in rural areas are still not sending their children back to school, based on private messages his group has received. But he was unable to say how many.

A high school student who left school with others last week said a teacher had told them to come back to class, and that classmates said their parents had been threatened over their jobs. The AP is withholding the student’s name for safety reasons.

“I have a feeling I may be in trouble soon, the parents of a lot of students have been caught. I spoke out, telling everyone to persist,” the student said on Sunday via a messaging app. “But I’ll be deleting this app. You won’t be hearing from me anymore.”

Mongolia: crafting essential country-specific tools to tackle NCDs www.who.int

Mongolia has one of the highest mortality rates due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) across the Western Pacific. Home to over three million people, Mongolia is facing a rising tide of NCDs. In 2018, around six in ten deaths were attributed to either cardiovascular disease (CVD, 34.4%) or cancer (24.6%) in 2018.

Smoking prevalence remains high, with more than four in ten adult men being daily smokers, while trends in child and adult obesity have significantly increased over the last two decades, driven in part by the increasing ubiquity of ultra-processed foods and beverages.

Recognising the critical importance of preventing and managing heart disease to health and development, the Government of Mongolia has approved a national ‘Sustainable Development Vision 2030’, setting a goal to reduce CVD mortality to 17.4 per 10,000 people by the end of 2020.

Primary care is an important entry point to reach this goal. In Mongolia, primary health facilities include family, soum and village health centres, designed to respond to the unique geographic conditions of the country.

However, it is widely recognised that existing resources will need more help to improve heart health. Stronger health system action is needed, but is held back by limited resources. As such, accelerating NCD responses that are community-based, patient-centred, long-term and sustainable is vital.

Fixing these challenges: MongPEN to the rescue
To address the devastating impact of NCDs in Mongolia, in June 2019, the Mongolian Government Ministry of Health, supported by WHO and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, launched 'MongPEN'. The name comes from a Mongolian version of WHO’s Package of Essential NCD interventions, commonly known as ‘PEN’. It also features information on improving heart health (from WHO’s ‘HEARTS’ technical package), such as guidance on how to identify patients at high risk of CVD, and making use of an ePrescription service to gather data.

Using MongPEN, the Ministry of Health hopes to strengthen its health system to prevent and manage NCDs, by:

using legislation to tackle risk factors and improve health financing;
improving evidence-based management in primary care; and
strengthening mechanisms for monitoring, surveillance and capacity building.

“I see many benefits of MongPEN in primary health care. First, we have received systematic training on NCD interventions, followed by supportive supervision and refresher training. This has been very empowering.

MongPEN makes our work easier in several ways. It assists with clinical decision-making by providing guidance to conduct risk assessments for cardiovascular disease. It supports us to follow up with our patients with hypertension and diabetes, enabling physicians, nurses and social workers to work as a team. Finally, it empowers both care providers and patients to act on unhealthy lifestyle behaviours.

In short, MongPEN has provided all the necessary tools for us to make a positive change in CVD prevention and management, and to make our community healthier."

Initially piloted in two demonstration sites - Darkhan-uul province, and the Songinokhairkhan district in Ulaanbaatar City - a recent evaluation has found several challenges to using MongPEN more widely. These included a lack of capacity to provide necessary care, inconsistent follow-up that made it hard to understand if conditions were under control, and disparate paper-based health information systems, putting strain on staff and undermining effective data collection.

"In Mongolia, cardiovascular diseases have been the single biggest cause of mortality, accounting for 34.4% of all deaths in 2018. Tertiary health facilities are overwhelmed with heart disease patients, whereas primary health centers lack the capacities - and sometimes simple yet necessary tools - to provide preventive care for conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

With WHO’s full technical support, we launched MongPEN at selected primary health centers in 2019. By implementing this comprehensive package at the primary health care level, we see great potential to reduce morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, and to strengthen the primary health care system in the country."

First, recognising the need to shift away from paper-based records, to a high-quality way to collect data on NCDs, this project sought to procure a new server for Mongolia’s ePrescription system. While a computer may sound an unusual choice, it is absolutely crucial. Building the capacity to collect electronic data on NCDs not only lays the groundwork for improving Mongolia’s health system, but also aims to gather the best quality information to improve patient care.

Second, responding to the challenge of COVID-19 quickly became an urgent concern. Countries globally have had their NCD services disrupted, with health efforts instead pushed towards tackling the pandemic. To maintain NCD services during the pandemic, funding was used to procure additional reagents for glucose and cholesterol testing, and face masks, allowing those on the NCD frontline to deliver essential services to high-risk patients.

Mrs J Jargal, a resident of 10th khoroo, Songinokhairkhan District in Ulaanbaatar city for over twenty years, explains why discussing NCDs has helped her:

"In previous years, I do not recall if our Family Health Centre was proactively identifying people with high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

One day in January, I received a phone call and my husband and I were invited to have our blood pressure and blood sugar checked. After this check, we were advised to reduce body weight, take control of diet, do regular exercise and avoid smoking and drinking.

Back then, my weight was 92 kilos and my blood pressure was 150/110 mm Hg. After a half year of close consultations with my doctor and exercising at home, I have lost 7 kilograms. As prescribed by the doctor, I have also been taking my medicine and my blood pressure is reduced and well under control. As well as feeling a lot better, I have become friends with my doctor at the Family Health Centre!"

The result: delivering training, information and equipment to strengthen CVD management in the context of COVID-19
In just three months, the Mongolian Government Ministry of Health has made considerable progress towards its two goals.

In a short period of time, investments in a server have helped scale up the ability to collect data on NCDs. It is hoped these tools can be scaled up across Mongolia, including possibilities to create automated processes, allowing patient follow-up to be done automatically, rather than risk being missed when only using paper records.

Alongside this investment, further support was provided for wider dissemination of previously translated technical packages for training and education, enabling better resonance with the local community.

Responding rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health was able to procure equipment, medical devices and disposable items for 16 health centres. This equipment was supported by continued supervisory visits by the Ministry to demonstration sites.

And while face-to-face staff gatherings cannot happen just yet, a national workshop for training has also been organised for September 2020, building on momentum generated by the investment.

Despite the uncertainties of COVID-19, this work has supported the Mongolian Government Ministry of Health to not only upskill health centres to treat and manage NCDs now, but also provide the building blocks for a revolutionary new way to collect national NCD data. In the midst of a global pandemic, that is one positive to look forward to.

As Dr T. Munkhsaikhan, the current Minister of Health reflects, there are several opportunities to boost the role of NCDs in primary care across the country:

"It is great to see the “MongPEN” initiative has been implemented at 16 family and soum health centers of Darkhan-Uul province and Songinokhairkhan district of Ulaanbaatar city for over a year. It has already been showing its initial results, such as improved hypertension control rate at primary level and reduction in referral of uncomplicated cases of hypertension and diabetes to the secondary level of health care.

I would like to acknowledge the WHO support and collaboration on piloting this important initiative in Mongolia. We will continuously collaborate with WHO and will scale up MongPEN to all primary health centers in the country step by step".

Across the Global Week for Action on NCDs (7-13 September), we are sharing stories from the field about why acting on NCDs is so important. These stories have emerged from a recent project funded by the Government of Denmark. Today's story was written by Dr Warrick Junsuk Kim, Dr Bolormaa Sukhbaatar, Ms Bernice Castro and Mr Daniel Hunt.