Mongolian president vows to deepen energy, infrastructure cooperation with China www.xinhuanet.com

 Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh on Sunday said the Erdeneburen Hydropower Plant in the western Khovd Province is an important outcome of practical cooperation between Mongolia and China.

During an inspection of the construction site, where he received a briefing on the progress of the project, Khurelsukh said Mongolia will take the project as an opportunity to further deepen practical cooperation with China in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

The Mongolian president commended the Chinese side's contract performance and construction management, and thanked the Chinese government for its strong support for the project.

Cao Li, acting chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia, said that China stands ready to work hand in hand with Mongolia to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, consolidate strategic mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and build the hydropower plant into a benchmark high-quality project that precisely aligns the Global Development Initiative with Mongolia's "Vision 2050" development plan.

Constructed by Power Construction Corporation of China, the plant is currently Mongolia's largest national key livelihood hydropower project.

With a total installed capacity of 90 megawatts, the project, once fully operational, is expected to ensure a stable electricity supply to Mongolia's five western provinces and significantly enhance the region's energy self-sufficiency.

It is also expected to improve local agricultural irrigation, promote the development of cultural tourism and fisheries, and contribute to ecological protection and comprehensive environmental management.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)

Amendment to Boost Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi Benefits Confirmed www.montsame.mn

Uchral Nyam-Osor, Prime Minister of Mongolia, announced on September 11, at a joint briefing with Simon Trott, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto, who was visiting Mongolia, that the Oyu Tolgoi Shareholders' Agreement had been changed for the first time in 17 years to increase Mongolia's benefits.

After prolonged negotiations between the Government of Mongolia's working group and the Rio Tinto Group, the two sides reached and finalized an agreement with the investor to increase Mongolia's benefits from the Oyu Tolgoi project and substantially reduce costs. This created the conditions for the first major amendment to the Shareholders' Agreement in 17 years. The parties also agreed to move up the timeline for distributing dividends to the Mongolian side from the Oyu Tolgoi project to 2027.

According to "Chinggis Khaan Sovereign Wealth Fund" LLC, preliminary estimates indicate the negotiations will reduce Oyu Tolgoi LLC's management costs by USD 8.4 billion, or around MNT 30 trillion, while increasing Mongolia's benefits over the mine's total operating life by around USD 4 billion, or MNT 13 trillion.

Oyu Tolgoi LLC said in a statement: "Within the framework of negotiations on Oyu Tolgoi shareholder matters, the Government of Mongolia and Rio Tinto reached an agreement on reducing management service costs and lowering the interest rate on the shareholder loan. Today, the parties formalized these agreements and signed the relevant contracts and documents, confirming their joint commitment to distributing Oyu Tolgoi's dividends to shareholders in 2027. Munkhsukh Sukhbaatar, Chief Executive Officer of Oyu Tolgoi, said, "This progress is not the result of one side's effort alone, but a joint achievement. Today's step became a reality through mutual trust, open dialogue, and solution-focused cooperation."

Deep in debt for flagship airport www.ubpost.mn

Mongolia has yet to pay off even a third of the loan that built Chinggis Khaan International Airport, but that has not stopped officials from already sizing up a second concessional loan from Japan, worth a further 65 billion JPY, to expand and modernise the facility.

The original airport was financed with a 65.6 billion JPY concessional loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), worth an estimated 570 million to 600 million USD at the time it was disbursed. Built by a consortium of Mitsubishi and Chiyoda in Khushig Valley, some 52 kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar, the airport opened its doors in July 2021 and replaced the ageing Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport, whose mountain-ringed runway had long been a headache for pilots and a bottleneck for the country’s growing air traffic. Five years on, the new airport has more than lived up to its billing as a gateway to the world, but it is also, quite literally, living on borrowed time and borrowed money.

Designed to handle 2.3 million passengers a year, the airport is now bursting at the seams. Passenger numbers rose to 2.17 million in 2024, a 25 percent jump from 1.73 million the year before, and traffic on routes to Seoul, Beijing and Istanbul in particular has climbed steadily as Mongolians travel abroad in greater numbers and the country pushes to draw in more visitors from the Middle East and Central Asia. With the terminal already pushing up against its ceiling, expansion has stopped being a nice-to-have and become, in the government’s own words, an urgent priority. However, for all the urgency, the state has been dragging its feet on paper trail. Officials at the Ministry of Road and Transportation have so far given little more than the standard runaround, saying only that the expansion loan is being “studied, calculated and discussed”, without putting a single detailed plan, cost estimate or repayment schedule on the table. Reading between the lines, however, it looks very much as though the ink is all but dry.

That impression was reinforced during an official visit to Mongolia by Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, held from August 29 to September 4 as part of a wider four-nation tour through Central Asia and Europe. Motegi held talks with President U.Khurelsukh before sitting down with his Mongolian counterpart, B.Battsetseg, on September 3 in Ulaanbaatar. Reporting on the meeting, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two sides welcomed progress on Japan’s assistance with the expansion of the airport, describing the project as important for improving the landlocked country’s connectivity. According to one Japanese news outlet, the two ministers “ratified major advancements” on the expansion during that meeting, a sign that Tokyo, at least, considers the matter all but settled. 

The groundwork for that moment had been laid over several months. As far back as June, at the sidelines of the Nikkei Forum in Tokyo, Motegi had already signalled Japan’s intention to cooperate on the airport’s expansion, and Minister B.Battsetseg had welcomed the commitment on the spot. The two countries, who officially style themselves “Special Strategic Partners for Peace and Prosperity,” have also been coordinating at the technical level: the Ministry of Road and Transportation confirmed in late June that both sides were discussing an exchange of notes and a loan agreement with JICA, and then Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene had earlier met with Japanese Ambassador Igawahara Masaru to discuss how the new loan would be used. Finance Minister Z.Mendsaikhan later held his own meeting with Igawahara on the same subject, underlining just how many hands have already touched this file before a single MNT, or JPY, has changed hands. 

Media in both countries have reported that Tokyo has agreed in principle to extend a concessional loan worth roughly 1.5 trillion MNT for the expansion, on terms that would make most borrowers green with envy: an interest rate of just 0.1 to 0.2 percent, spread over a 40-year repayment period. It is a similar playbook to the one Japan used in 2020, when it extended a 25 billion JPY, or roughly 230 million USD, emergency loan to Mongolia for COVID-19 response at an even lower rate of 0.01 percent, underscoring how Tokyo’s soft-loan diplomacy in Mongolia tends to come with strings so loose they are barely felt at signing, even if they still have to be paid back to the last tugrik decades down the line.

Asked directly about the state of negotiations, officials at the Ministry of Road and Transportation Development did not mince their words on where things stand, even if they have been tight-lipped on the specifics. “The two sides have reached an agreement, and the government has approved the draft loan agreement,” the ministry said. “Once Parliament ratifies it, the preparatory work will be finalized. We plan to begin the expansion work by 2027.” In other words, the deal has already cleared the executive branch and is now simply waiting for Parliament to rubber-stamp it, a formality that in Mongolia’s political climate rarely proves much of an obstacle once the government has thrown its full weight behind a project.

What remains conspicuously absent from the public record is any serious accounting of what the first loan actually cost, and costs still, the country’s finances. With barely a third of the original 65.6 billion JPY repaid, the nation is poised to double down on its debt to Japan for the very same asset, banking on rising passenger numbers and tourism revenue to eventually make the arithmetic work. Whether that bet pays off will depend less on the generous terms Tokyo is offering than on Ulaanbaatar’s discipline in spending, and repaying, what it borrows. For now, though, with the government’s mind seemingly made up and Parliament’s approval looking like a foregone conclusion, the debate over the airport’s expansion appears to be less about whether it will happen than about who, eventually, will be left holding the bill.

The idea of enlarging Chinggis Khaan Airport is not, in truth, a new one. The ministry first floated the idea of commissioning a study into expanding and upgrading the airport’s capacity two years ago, and later confirmed that the research and planning work was being carried out jointly with JICA and New Ulaanbaatar International Airport LLC, the company that operates, manages and organizes the facility. After roughly three years of studies and back-and-forth negotiation, a solution now appears to have been reached, one that will require funding on a par with the cost of building the airport in the first place. The need behind the expansion is real enough, but the decision also lays bare the government’s want of strategic foresight and its habit of skimping on preliminary analysis. It is, in short, a textbook case of the old saying that haste makes waste, or that the person who cuts corners ends up doing the job twice.

The whole rationale for building a new airport in Khushig Valley, after all, was to escape the cramped, substandard conditions of Buyant-Ukhaa Airport and bring Mongolia’s main gateway up to international standards. It is more than a little galling, then, that the country appears to have built a smaller, more constrained version of the very problem it set out to solve, and is now footing the bill twice over, first for construction, and now for studies and expansion works to fix what should have been got right the first time. Complaints about the new airport have piled up steadily since it opened: poor ventilation, slow baggage handling, an inability to cope when several flights land in quick succession, brusque and poorly trained staff, and unreliable transport links to and from the city. Most of these grievances trace back to one root cause, namely the airport’s limited capacity and its struggle to absorb passenger volumes, with reports suggesting the facility buckles under the strain of as few as three or four overlapping flights. The post-pandemic rebound in both international and domestic flight frequency, spurred on by the liberalization of the air transport sector, has only piled further pressure onto a facility that was already too small for its own good.

When Chinggis Khaan Airport opened for business, the country’s social and economic footing was still shaky from the pandemic, and officials from the head of state on down were quick to tout it as a lifeline for a tourism sector and an economy that had ground to a near-total halt. At the time, though, experts and industry observers were not shy about pouring cold water on the fanfare, pointing out that a change of name and location did not, by itself, amount to a change in standards, and that despite its polished exterior, the airport’s internal layout and spatial planning fell well short of what a genuine international hub ought to offer. Those criticisms were largely brushed aside by officials at the time. It is telling, then, that the same ministry now openly admits the airport was built to handle just 1.5 million passengers a year, a figure that looks almost quaint given how quickly tourist and passenger numbers have climbed since. To hear officials now argue that expansion has become unavoidable because the airport is creaking under peak summer loads is, frankly, more than a little embarrassing, given that the writing had been on the wall for years. After roughly a decade of dithering, false starts and second thoughts before ground was even broken in Khushig Valley, the failure to plan for exactly this kind of growth points to a project that was, from the outset, handled with a distinctly lackadaisical air.

Whose fault is it, really?

It would be too easy, and not entirely fair, to lay the blame solely at the contractor’s door. The new airport was indeed built by Japanese firms and specialists under a concessional loan from the Japanese government, but Mongolia was never a passive bystander in the process. As the client, the Mongolian side oversaw and took part in every stage of the project, from approving the design to signing off on the plans, and today the airport’s management still rests with that same Japan-Mongolia joint venture. If the whole undertaking was launched without proper costing or forward-looking study, then that failure belongs as much to the client as it does to the builder. In a country with a stronger culture of accountability, tighter oversight and laws that are actually enforced, a shortfall of this scale might well have prompted some very pointed questions about who was responsible. Instead, our own officials have carried on as though they had pulled off some great feat, pretending as if they were building the airport out of their own pockets, which is a distortion of the facts if ever there was one.

A concessional loan, however easy its terms, is not a gift. It is a life debt, one that the country, and by extension every taxpayer, will eventually have to repay with interest. It should be treated accordingly, not as free money that fell out of the sky, but as capital that ought to be steered towards whichever sector of the economy will yield the greatest return. Pouring this much money into expanding and upgrading an airport that is not even 10 years old is, in practical terms, a poor use of resources, an “investment” that looks rather too wasteful under any honest scrutiny. Channelled instead into diversifying the economy over the long run, whether through domestic manufacturing, broader infrastructure, or export channels capable of generating a direct return, the same sum could have made a far more tangible contribution to the country’s development.

That said, with the loan agreement now on the cusp of ratification and both sides having reached terms, the only road left open is to carry the project through with real accountability and rigorous oversight, following the old carpenter’s rule of measuring seven times and cutting once. If the government wants to avoid finding itself, a few years down the line, once again crying that “capacity has run out,” it needs to expand the airport with genuine foresight this time, building in enough headroom to absorb 20 to 30 years of growth rather than just enough to get through the next peak season. Simply making the terminal bigger will not be enough. Service quality, accessibility and cargo logistics all need to be brought up to genuine international standards, and just as importantly, the airport itself needs to be put in a position to generate enough revenue of its own to service the debt it is about to take on, rather than leaving that burden to fall, yet again, on the state.

Lawmakers submit bill to improve transparency in natural resource use www.ubpost.mn

Members of Parliament B.Uyanga, B.Munkhsoyol and B.Jargalan submitted a draft Law on Transparency in the Use of Natural Resources to Parliament Speaker S.Byambatsogt on September 11. The bill aims to establish a unified system for collecting and publicly disclosing information and reports related to the use of Mongolia’s mineral, water, forest, wildlife and plant resources. According to B.Uyanga, the proposed legislation would introduce a centralized digital portal, reporting procedures and a multi-stakeholder oversight mechanism for natural resource use.

She said the bill is intended to safeguard citizens’ right to information and help prevent corruption and conflicts of interest. The lawmakers have also prepared amendments to 17 related laws, including the General Law on State Registration, the Law on State Registration of Legal Entities, the Minerals Law, the Petroleum Law, the Law on Commonly Occurring Minerals and the Nuclear Energy Law.

Under the proposed framework, information and reports would be required to be publicly accessible, accurate, complete, consistent and integrated, while mechanisms would be established to enable public oversight. The bill would also introduce the principle that government agencies should not request information from individuals or legal entities if the same information is already held by the state. The proposed legislation consists of five chapters and 22 articles. One of its key innovations is the establishment of a unified digital portal for natural resource use, which would receive, register, store, process, verify and publish relevant reports and information and facilitate data exchange.

The portal would be connected to databases covering natural resources, licenses and permits, the state registry of legal entities, taxation and other relevant government information. This would allow information to be submitted and verified electronically through a single platform.

The bill also contains specific provisions concerning confidential information and contract transparency. Information on environmental damage, pollution, degradation, accidents and rehabilitation resulting from natural resource use, as well as resource-use fees, taxes, revenues paid into state and local budgets, payments and dividends to state- and locally owned entities, and donations and other forms of support would not be treated as confidential business information. Contracts and agreements related to natural resource use, including any amendments or additions, would also be published in full on the unified portal.

The lawmakers said that, if adopted, the legislation would consolidate natural resource information in a single source and link data on contracts, licenses, payments, taxes, revenues, ultimate beneficial ownership, environmental impacts, rehabilitation, local agreements, donations and other forms of support. They said the proposed law would strengthen citizens’ right to information, public oversight and local participation, while helping prevent corruption and conflicts of interest and promoting responsible investment, good governance and greater public trust in environmental accountability, according to the parliament.

Leather Industry Expands Raw Material Procurement via Commodity Exchange www.montsame.mn

Leather processing factories are currently sourcing 1,793 cattle hides from Dornod aimag, 605 from Sukhbaatar aimag, as well as 4,000 sheepskins from Khuvsgul aimag and 3,000 from Arkhangai aimag, through the Mongolian Agricultural Commodity Exchange.

As an initial step, raw hides and skins are being purchased directly from herders in Khentii, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Arkhangai, and Khuvsgul aimags, given preliminary processing, and then supplied to manufacturers through exchange-based trading, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MFA).

The MFA, Agricultural Commodity Exchange LLC, the Mongolian Leather Industry Association, and leather-processing companies are jointly implementing the “Leather to Wealth” program through a public-private partnership. As part of the initiative, a collection point has been established in Kherlen soum of Khentii aimag to purchase hides and skins and provide initial treatment.

The new collection points allow herders and businesses to deliver animal hides and skins directly, creating an opportunity to supply processing factories without intermediaries.

Under the program, the Agricultural Commodity Exchange is also working with leather-processing factories to advise herders and residents on the causes of damage to hides and skins, ways to prevent such damage, and methods of increasing the value of raw materials. The quality and standards of the hides and skins are inspected and assessed on site.

In the eastern region, approximately 150,000 cattle hides were supplied last year, including 47,000 from Khentii, 57,000 from Dornod, and 51,000 from Sukhbaatar aimags.

24,000 Tonnes of AI-92 Gasoline Imported Nationwide www.montsame.mn

According to the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority, Mongolia imported 24,000 metric tonnes of AI-92 gasoline during the first 11 days of September.

Over those 10 days, this average daily supply of roughly 2,400 metric tonnes was sufficient to meet national demand.

As of September 11, there were 92 rail tank cars containing 5,520 metric tonnes of AI-92 gasoline nationwide. Of this total, 41 railcars carrying 2,460 metric tonnes of AI-92 gasoline have been unloaded into storage facilities.

Foreign Trade Turnover Reaches USD 22.8 Billion www.montsame.mn

Mongolia traded with 155 countries in the first eight months of this year, with total foreign trade turnover reaching USD 22.8 billion.

Of this, exports totaled USD 14.4 billion and imports USD 8.4 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of USD 6 billion, according to the National Statistics Office.

Trade turnover increased by 36.8% (USD 6.1 billion), exports by 57.2% (USD 5.2 billion), and imports by 11.9% (USD 891.2 million) compared with the same period last year, while the trade surplus grew 3.6-fold, or by USD 4.3 billion.

The USD 5.2 billion increase in exports during the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period last year, was driven by growth in exports of copper ore and concentrate (USD 2.8 billion), coal (USD 1.9 billion), unprocessed and semi-processed gold (USD 255.6 million), combed cashmere (USD 97.1 million), tungsten ore and concentrate (USD 53.9 million), and lead ore and concentrate (USD 40.7 million). In contrast, exports of refined copper and copper alloys fell by USD 46.7 million, molybdenum ore and concentrate by USD 22.8 million, horse meat by USD 8.6 million, and sheep and goat meat by USD 6.2 million.

The USD 891.2 million rise in imports was driven by increases in diesel fuel (USD 407.6 million), gasoline (USD 73.4 million), bulldozers and excavators (USD 56.2 million), new tires (USD 48.6 million), and ferrous metal structures and parts (USD 36.6 million). In contrast, imports of passenger cars fell by USD 108.6 million, trucks by USD 47.1 million, and smartphones by USD 16 million.

Mineral products, precious stones, metal jewelry, and textile goods accounted for 97.6% of total exports, while mineral products, machinery and mechanical equipment, electrical appliances, vehicles and their parts, base metals, and articles thereof made up 70.9% of imports. Compared with the same period last year, the price of gold rose by USD 1,438 per ounce, copper ore and concentrate by USD 1,223.5 per tonne, and coal by USD 3.2 per tonne, while the price of iron ore and concentrate fell by USD 1.2 per tonne.

Coal accounted for 40.7% and copper ore and concentrate for 47.1% of goods exported to China, while unprocessed and semi-processed gold made up 99.6% of goods exported to Switzerland.

By country, China accounted for 41% of imports, Russia 27.5%, Japan 9.1%, South Korea 3.9%, the United States 3.1%, and Germany 2.2%, together making up 86.7% of total imports. Petroleum products made up 75.4% of goods imported from Russia, passenger cars accounted for 76.8% of imports from Japan, and trucks made up 5.7% of imports from China. Gasoline imports reached 619.4 thousand tonnes in the first eight months of the year, up 12.1% from the same period last year, while diesel fuel imports reached 1.3 million tonnes, up 5.7%.

Mongolia and France agree to strengthen school lunch program www.qazinform.com

Mongolia’s Education and Science Minister Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren met on September 10 with Jean-Sébastien Conti, Deputy Director-General for Global Affairs at France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, to discuss cooperation on improving school meals, Qazinform News Agency cites MONTSAME.

Both sides exchanged views on enhancing the quality and accessibility of school meal production and services in general education schools.

The initiative aligns with Mongolia’s goal of building “healthy, green, accessible, safe, and smart schools.”

France’s best practices could be introduced to improve the nutritional value of student lunches, develop healthy menus, integrate nutrition education into the school curriculum.

The French delegation expressed readiness to assist Mongolia in strengthening its school lunch program, focusing on both accessibility and quality improvements, according to the Ministry of Education and Science.

As written before, healthy nutrition research center opens in Kazakhstan.

By Zhanna Nurmaganbetova

Mongolia Turns to Untapped Resources for Its Next Phase of Economic Growth www.devdiscourse.com

Mongolia is seeking to build on decades of poverty reduction and rising incomes by directing private investment into cashmere processing, renewable energy and critical minerals. A World Bank Group diagnostic identifies reforms that could attract up to hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and create thousands of jobs, while underscoring the regulatory, infrastructure and governance challenges involved.

Mongolia's economic growth has led it to become an upper-middle-income country in 2024, but it seeks to generate more value from its resources.
The country aims to attract sustained private investment and create better-paid employment beyond traditional extraction industries.
A World Bank Group report highlights cashmere processing, renewable energy, and critical minerals as key sectors for Mongolia's economic transition.
Despite supplying 40% of the world's raw cashmere, only 20% is processed domestically, indicating a need for improved value capture in manufacturing.
Mongolia has reached a point where economic growth alone is no longer enough. After three decades of poverty reduction and a tripling of GDP per capita, the country entered the upper-middle-income group in 2024. Its next challenge is to build an economy that generates more value from its resources, attracts sustained private investment and creates better-paid employment beyond traditional extraction.

A World Bank Group diagnostic identifies three sectors with the potential to support that transition: cashmere processing, renewable energy and critical minerals. Together, they reveal both the scale of Mongolia's opportunity and the institutional weaknesses that continue to prevent the country from capturing more value from its natural advantages.

Mongolia has resources, but captures too little value
Cashmere illustrates the problem most clearly. Mongolia supplies roughly 40 percent of the world's raw cashmere, yet only about 20 percent is processed domestically. Much of the fibre that is processed does not become a finished garment. It is exported in semi-processed form, leaving the higher-value stages of manufacturing, branding and retail to companies elsewhere.

Moving further along the value chain could increase the value of the same raw material by more than 200 percent. The projected gains are not limited to export earnings. Greater domestic processing could support employment in rural areas, strengthen links between herders and manufacturers, and create a broader industrial base around one of Mongolia's best-known products.

The opportunity, however, depends on reforms that address practical barriers rather than simply expanding output. Fibre-quality standards, pricing mechanisms and access to finance all affect whether processors can invest, meet international requirements and compete in finished products. Proposed reforms could attract $150 million in private investment and create up to 5,000 jobs by 2030, but those outcomes remain dependent on implementation.

Mongolia's challenge is not a lack of raw materials, but the ability to organise production, finance, standards and market access so that more of the value remains inside the country.

Renewable energy potential is running ahead of the grid
The same gap between potential and performance appears in energy. Mongolia has estimated technical potential of 700 gigawatts of solar power and 400 gigawatts of wind power, roughly 300 times current domestic electricity consumption. Yet renewable sources account for only about 10 percent of electricity generation.

The disparity suggests that natural resources are not the main obstacle. Investors also need reliable infrastructure and predictable commercial arrangements. The recommended priorities include modernising the grid, making power-purchase agreements bankable and allowing direct contracts between generators and large industrial users.

For developers, a bankable power-purchase agreement provides greater confidence that electricity will be purchased under enforceable terms. For industrial users, direct contracts could create clearer routes to renewable power. Neither measure can succeed without sufficient transmission capacity, transparent regulation and a market structure capable of balancing supply and demand.

Alongside capacity investments already planned by the government, the reforms could catalyse an estimated $230 million in private investment and create around 1,700 jobs. Renewable expansion could also support a lower-emissions growth path, particularly if new generation is connected effectively to industrial demand.

The policy dilemma is straightforward but difficult: Mongolia must expand energy supply while improving reliability and reducing emissions. Renewable potential alone cannot resolve that tension. Grid investment and credible contracts will determine whether the opportunity becomes commercially viable.

Critical minerals offer capital, but raise governance questions
Mongolia's deposits of copper, lithium, rare earth elements and graphite place the country within a wider global effort to secure supplies of minerals used in modern industry and clean-energy technologies. Much of this potential remains unexplored. Less than 15 percent of legally available land is covered by exploration licences, according to the diagnostic.

Limited public geological data and regulatory uncertainty are identified as important reasons for the low level of exploration. Companies are more likely to commit capital when they can assess geological prospects and understand how licences will be awarded, maintained and reviewed. Better information can reduce early-stage risk, while clearer rules can make long-term investment decisions more predictable.

Addressing those barriers could attract between $200 million and $500 million in exploration investment and support 700 to 1,400 new jobs in the medium term. Exploration is not the same as commercial production, however. Investment in geological surveys and early-stage projects may eventually lead to mining activity, but the timing, scale and economic returns cannot be assumed.

Mineral development also brings questions that investment projections do not answer. Communities may seek clarity over land use, environmental safeguards and the distribution of economic benefits. Regulators will need to balance faster exploration with transparent licensing and effective oversight. Investors, meanwhile, will assess whether policy commitments remain stable over the life of a project.

Mongolia's resource wealth can attract capital, but the quality of governance will influence whether that capital produces broad-based gains or reinforces existing vulnerabilities.

The decisive test will be implementation
The proposed reforms share a notable feature: they are presented as near-term actions that would not require major fiscal spending, making the agenda potentially attractive for a government seeking private investment without placing heavy pressure on public finances. It also shifts responsibility toward institutions that must enforce standards, administer licences, manage contracts and coordinate infrastructure.

Policy announcements will therefore be less important than measurable changes in the business environment. Investors will look for evidence that rules are applied consistently, agreements can be enforced and administrative decisions are predictable. Workers and rural communities will want to see whether projected jobs are stable, adequately paid and accessible beyond major urban centres.

The three sectors also require different forms of state support. Cashmere needs stronger domestic processing capacity and finance. Renewable energy requires grid modernisation and commercially credible power arrangements. Critical minerals depend heavily on geological information and regulatory clarity. Treating diversification as a single national programme could obscure these differences and weaken implementation.

Mongolia's broader economic question is whether it can move from exporting resources to building capabilities around them. Success would mean more than higher investment figures. It would involve stronger domestic firms, more productive employment, deeper supply chains and greater resilience to changes in commodity markets.

The next indicators will be concrete: revised cashmere standards, improved financing channels, new renewable-energy contracts, grid developments, expanded geological data and actual exploration commitments. Those steps will show whether Mongolia is beginning to convert its resource advantages into a more diversified private-sector economy, or whether its potential will continue to exceed its capacity to capture it.

First Central Hospital Introduces Robotic Surgery www.montsame.mn

The First Central Hospital of Mongolia has introduced the “Revo-I” robotic surgical system, developed by South Korea’s Meerecompany, with state budget investment as part of projects and programs aimed at adopting advanced technologies in global medicine and providing accessible and quality healthcare services to the public.

Speaking at the launch ceremony,  Ankhtuya P., Director General of the First Central Hospital, said, “A historic moment is taking place in the surgical care and services of the First Central Hospital. We have introduced the ‘Revo-I’ robotic surgical system into our operations. I would like to express my gratitude to the team of the Urology-Andrology Center of the First Central Hospital, which has taken the lead in introducing this system."

“In addition to sending our doctors and specialists to South Korea for training, we have worked closely with the National Cancer Center to train our medical professionals. Going forward, we will focus on expanding the use of this technology, improving public access to the service, incorporating it into the health insurance system, and developing human resources,” she said.

The robotic surgery will enable safer procedures for patients and help overcome the difficulties involved in removing lesions or treating conditions located in hard-to-reach areas. Surgeons control the robot to perform a wide range of surgical procedures, including the dissection of anatomical structures, suturing, cutting, and tissue excision.