ADB Opens Mongolian Togrog-Linked Bond Market www.adb.org

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (3 June 2020) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised 21 billion Mongolian togrog (MNT), about $7.5 million, in a groundbreaking issue of the first offshore MNT-linked nomad bonds. The issue sets a new benchmark in the international bond market for frontier currencies.

Coal export falls by 2.4 times www.montsame.mn

According to the first five months of 2020, Mongolia’s total export has decreased by 40 percent or USD1.4 billion compared with the same period of the previous year.

Cashmere and COVID: Mongolian sales fall by 70 percent www.news.mn

Mongolia, a leading supplier for global cashmere, has seen demand for its luxury fibers plummet during the coronavirus pandemic. Sales fell near 70 percent as Chinese traders and Western shoppers have been isolated and businesses and factories closed.

Blasts at ancient Aboriginal site expose widening ESG frontline www.mining.com

BoP deficit reaches USD 665.4 million www.zgm.mn

The foreign direct investment totaled USD 491.4 million, decreased by more than 20 percent year on year. The Bank of Mongolia (BoM) emphasized that the Oyu Tolgoi project made up more than 90 percent of the foreign direct investment as of the first quarter of the year.

15,000 people tested for COVID-19 nationwide www.montsame.mn

Since January, more than 15.3 thousand people have been tested in virology laboratories for COVID-19 nationwide. Medical service is being carried out normally and there are 1792 people are under observation in isolation facilities and 3,843 people are under home isolation as of today, reported Ya.Buyanjargal, Head of the Department of Medical Assistance at the Ministry of Health, at today's daily briefing of the Ministry of Health.

Mandakh University steps up online learning in Mongolia www.ebrd.com

EBRD and EU support prepared university for remote teaching during coronavirus pandemic

With many schools and universities around the world temporarily having to close their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, public and private learning institutions immediately looked for solutions to continue education programmes and academic curricula.

Parents of young pupils suddenly had to refresh their grammar and algebra knowledge, with various degrees of success, but for higher education students, it was all about access to online teaching.

In Mongolia, the private Mandakh University wasted no time in launching its courses online shortly after the government ordered the closure of educational facilities. The university was well equipped to move its operations online thanks to a recent business advice project undertaken with the help of the EBRD and funding from the European Union (EU).

One of the oldest private universities in the country, it comprises several faculties including Economics and Business, Accounting, Engineering and Information Technology, and enrols up to 3,000 students every year. With its main campus in the capital Ulaanbaatar and a branch campus in the Darkhan-Uul province, the university’s research papers contribute to international publications and conferences. Mandakh’s motto is a policy to nurture prosperity: “Wealth is created through knowledge.”

With the ambition of achieving the best international standards, the university first started working with the EBRD a few years ago.

Through the Bank’s Advice for Small Businesses programme, a consultant, who was funded partly by the EU and partly by the university, helped Mandakh introduce new management procedures and obtain ISO certification for its quality management system, which allows for better monitoring and continuous improvement of its processes.

This brought with it several achievements, including a major move to new state-of-the-art premises, with modern classrooms and offices, a gym, a canteen and a library; the expansion of IT, engineering and MBA programmes; and increased cooperation with foreign universities.

Upgrading learning methodologies is of great importance to Mandakh University, so the next project, again with the support of the EBRD and the EU, focused on introducing digital technology into all areas, from management to teaching. This could not have been more timely: when the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the physical closure of the campus, Mandakh University was ready to swiftly and effectively move all its courses online.

The university immediately developed a plan to improve remote teaching services and students’ access to research work. Faculty members received instructions on how to organise their lessons, which are conducted via video class, while graduate students have been advised on how to prepare for final exams and maintain regular contact with their supervisors and teachers to keep up with their studies.

The director, Nanjid Gombojav, is proud of the university’s accomplishments: “During the implementation of the project, we conducted research on school operations and management. The advice from the consultants and the improvements following this are now paying off.”

“The objective of the European Union in Mongolia is to support youth employment. In this crisis period, we are focusing our projects’ to meet long-term impact of Covid-19. Stakeholders in our projects such as Mandakh University are developing e-learning materials that will also be made available to youth in remote areas. This is an imperative tool for education to reach the youth of Mongolia today and in the future,” says Pierre-Yves Lucas, Cooperation Team Leader, European Union Delegation to Mongolia.

“The EBRD has a strong focus on small and medium-sized enterprises in Mongolia, especially during these challenging times. SMEs have a certain capacity to adapt to new situations, which makes them potentially more resilient, given the right support. That’s exactly what the EBRD and the EU provide,” says Baigalmaa Sanjjav, EBRD Principal Manager, SME Finance and Development in Mongolia.

The pandemic didn’t even stop the annual English Skills Competition from taking place in April, which saw 380 students pit their knowledge online in five skills: linguistics, vocabulary, reading, translation and Q&A. Congratulations to the top winners: B. Nomindar, Z. Namuun-Erdene, B. Temuulen, N. Oyuntungalag and B.Usukhbayar! We hope you are reading this!

RSF calls for media reform to tackle corruption www.rsf.org

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Mongolian political parties and the candidates to the coming legislative election to voice their commitment to support newsroom independence as the best way to tackle corruption.
With legislative elections in Mongolia approaching on June 24th, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has asked candidates and political parties to commit to improving media freedom in the country as a way to combat endemic corruption.

Is it for real? How Vietnam and Mongolia kept their COVID-19 death toll at zero www.timesnownews.com

While Vietnam has a population of about 9.8 crore, Mongolia is a country of just 33 lakh people. But both Asian countries are a good case study of how to handle a health crisis with limited resources.

One of the puzzling aspects of COVID-19 is how some countries have seen their infection count and death toll soar while others have almost entirely escaped the worst effects of the pandemic.

Epidemiologists and other experts are struggling to find a neat theory that explains the exact reason why the pandemic behaves differently in different countries.

We have heard a lot about the South Korea model and how it managed to keep its mortality figures relatively low despite being among the first to report infections outside of mainland China.

Greece is another success story and it’s all the more credible as the country’s economy has major structural weaknesses and it is popular with tourists. In fact, many Greeks are wondering why the UK – a much richer country – has stumbled so badly in its coronavirus response.

While many theories are being propounded about how South Korea and Greece have handled the crisis well, perhaps less attention has been focussed on Vietnam and Mongolia – which have done very well in managing the pandemic though they are neither rich countries nor do they have particularly robust health care systems.

While Vietnam has reported 328 confirmed cases and zero deaths, Mongolia has reported 185 confirmed cases and no fatalities.

Vietnam and Mongolia are, of course, two very different countries and societies. While Vietnam has a population of 9.8 crore, Mongolia is a country of only 33 lakh people. Yet both Asian countries are a good case study of how to handle a crisis with limited resources.

Let’s take a closer look at how they took they took the pandemic head-on.

Vietnam
Early action: Vietnam did not wait for WHO guidelines to kick in. As soon as cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in China, Vietnam put in place a system of screening passengers coming from Wuhan (the Chinese city which was the origin and the first epicentre of the outbreak) for temperature. This was in the first half of January. Vietnam declared a “national pandemic” on February 1 though it had only six confirmed cases by then. The very next day all flights between China and Vietnam were suspended. By mid-February all schools and colleges were shut.

Rigorous contact tracing: All contacts of Vietnamese nationals coming home from abroad who tested positive were meticulously traced and placed under a strict 14-day quarantine. Contract tracing was a massive effort involving all levels of government and tens of thousands of health workers. Even indirect contacts were traced.

Communication: The Vietnamese government went all out in taking the message to the people – by all possible mediums including TV, radio, newspapers, internet and mobile phones. A pop song promoted by the government that endorsed hand-washing went viral

Mongolia
Pre-emptive measures: After the WHO recommended on January 22 that countries should begin considering measures to contain coronavirus, Mongolia got into action and put its State Emergency Commission along with health ministry in dual charge of the response to the outbreak. Remarkably, the closing of schools started as early as January 25.

Strong steps in February: While most of the world was going on with business as usual in February – thinking that the upheaval caused in Wuhan was too remote from their shores – Mongolia cancelled its national holiday Tsagaan Sar, banned all travel between capital Ulaanbaatar and other provinces, stopped all international travel and closed its borders with its two large neighbours Russia and China.

Best practices: The steps which the WHO has repeatedly stressed on – wearing masks, washing hands and contact tracing -- were adopted enthusiastically in Mongolia, and early in the outbreak.

The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way represent those of Times Network.

AmCham Mongolia urges for Mongolia’s bold Digital Transformation during the pandemic www.montsame.mn

The American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia (AmCham Mongolia) organized its May Webinar as part of the Webinar Series initiative and discussed Digital transformation during pandemic: Where is Mongolia? The panelists were George Chen, Head of Public Policy at Facebook Inc; Ganhuyag Hutagt, CEO and founder of Ard Financial Group; Bayarsaikhan Volodya, COO of And Global Pte Ltd and Founder and CEO of TomYo EdTech; and Uyanga Khurelbaatar, Director of Digital and Technology Solution Division at Wagner Asia.

Over 60 attendees participated in the online discussion, including representatives of AmCham member companies, and domestic and international businesses, discussing global digital transformation trends and how its shaping businesses in Mongolia and steps needed to be taken to embrace Digital transformation.

In her opening remarks, AmCham Board Director B. Gerelmaa noted that digital transformation means two things for companies: embracing innovative strategies using cloud platforms, mobile apps, and social media to connect products and services to customers; and the change of the nature of business using digital technology.

George Chen, Facebook highlighted as a forerunner in digital transformation that Facebook has become more than a social platform that connects individuals. It developed into a platform that connects global consumers to products and services. As digital transformation is happening in 2 layers, the first layer is the way you work, which is being transformed so that the use of digital technologies to connect is becoming the norm. The second layer is how you run businesses in times of social distancing, starting from food delivery services to the use of e-commerce. Facebook is encouraging institutions to make use of Facebook features to teach classes online, developing policy guidebooks for SMEs, and working to help consumers address misinformation.

Mr. V. Bayarsaikhan noted that digital technology is a way to make services more accessible and easy to use. Most importantly, it is essential to leverage technology to make health and education more affordable, which is why he developed TomYo EdTech that compiles global courses into one platform, which Mongolian youth can take advantage of without traveling and at a reasonable price.

Ms. Kh. Uyanga emphasized that Digital transformation has already started from the moment we had access to the internet. It is not a question of Are we ready for this transformation? We are already ready, and COVID-19 is only accelerating the process that was already happening. However, taking business operations fully digital takes time; at least at Wagner Asia, a global mining company, it is happening in several phases from getting the platforms ready to ensure the potential logistics and security issues are addressed.

Finally, Mr. Ch. Gankhuyag, CEO and founder of Ard Financial Group, has urged the government to prepare the infrastructure and policy frameworks to enable businesses to start the digital transformation process and use this tide created by the global pandemic to effect change in Mongolia.

Following the discussion, the panelists took part in a Q&A session and answered the virtual audience’s questions.

Source: AmCham Mongolia