Western region wool processing plant to be built in Zavkhan aimag www.montsame.mn

Zavkhan /MONTSAME/ The Western region wool processing plant will be established in Aldarkhaan soum of Zavkhan aimag with MNT 20.1 billion financing.

Gold X names Friedland chairman, stock jumps www.mining.com

Gold X Mining (TSXV: GLDX) announced Monday that Ivanhoe Mines founder Robert Friedland has joined the company’s board as non-executive chairman.

Mongolian organic honey to become a new export product www.montsame.mn

Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ch.Ulaan became familiarized with bee farming in Batsumber soum of Tuv aimag.

Mongolia To Hold Election Under Coronavirus Cloud www.barrons.com (AFP news)

Mongolians will elect a new parliament Wednesday under the cloud of the coronavirus, with controversy over candidates flouting lockdown rules and thousands of people stranded overseas unable to vote.

Mongolia, a landlocked country of three million people wedged between China and Russia, has taken some of the world's toughest and most enduring measures to contain the virus.

In March it became one of the first countries to close its borders, while schools and universities that were even more quickly shuttered will remain closed until September.

But 2,000 polling stations have been set up for Wednesday's vote, which will elect the parliament though not the most powerful presidential post.

Fuelling anger over seemingly different rules for politics and other aspects of life, the country's two main parties have broken bans on gatherings of above 30 people by holding big campaign rallies.

They have also flouted bans on door-to-door campaigning and ignored other social distancing rules.

"People are much more worried about COVID-19 than unemployment or poverty," said Bold Sambuu, a senior adviser at Zorig Foundation, a democracy advocacy group.

About 600 candidates are contesting the 76 seats in the single-chamber parliament.

The ruling Mongolian People's Party (MPP) appears best placed to take advantage of the unprecedented circumstances, partly because the strict measures have kept a lid on infections.

There have only been about 200 reported cases in Mongolia -- most imported from Russia -- and no confirmed coronavirus fatalities.

Another of its strict measures has been forcing returnees to spend five weeks in quarantine, including three in a government-run facility.

But about 8,000 Mongolians have been stranded abroad by the virus.

With no provisions made for them to vote overseas, many are seething and some are demanding the elections be delayed.

The government had arranged limited charter flights to bring home some citizens from abroad.

But it did not undertake a large-scale repatriation, saying there was not enough room in the quarantine facilities.

Only pregnant women, seniors, minors and people with serious illnesses have been allowed to board the rare charter flights, and passengers are required to pay.

"We all cried when Prime Minister (Ukhnaa) Khurelsukh announced that he doesn’t know when Mongolia will re-open its borders," said Dolgorsuren, a woman who was able to return to Mongolia in March and has become an advocate for other mothers of children still stranded abroad.

"No tourists will come during this summer. The government should use empty tour camps and other doctors to check our temperatures and blood pressure."

Further infuriating those stuck overseas was the case of local rock band The Hu, whose members were able to get a chartered flight from Australia.

They secured the flight and returned home even though they did not fit any of the conditions, raising suspicion that the selection system is corrupt.

Adding to concerns about graft in the young democracy -- Mongolia ended decades as a Soviet satellite in 1990 -- the MPP paid off debts of 230,000 pensioners in February.

Another 200,000 pensioners who did not have loans were promised vouchers for one million tugrik ($355) if the MPP were re-elected -- a move condemned by the IMF as a breach of its bailout agreement.

Mongolia’s humanitarian assistance handed over to the United States www.montsame.mn

H.E. Mr. Yondon Otgonbayar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the United States, officially handed over the 60 thousand personal protective equipment (PPE) to Mr. Mike O’Hare, Regional Administrator of the FEMA’s Region 10, on June 21, 2020.

The PPEs are the donation of the people and Government of Mongolia to the people and Government of the United States, which is delivered as part of the “Far Is No Distance For Friends” humanitarian act. The representatives from FEMA, Port of Seattle as well as Embassy of Mongolia in Washington DC and Mongolian Consulate-General in San Francisco were present at the hand-over event.

During the hand-over event, Ambassador Otgonbayar highlighted that the people and Government of the United States have been helping Mongolia during the difficult times of transition and natural disasters. He then underscored that today the people and Government of Mongolia are donating these PPEs as a show of solidarity to help the people and the Government of the United States to combat the coronavirus. Ambassador expressed his confidence that American people will overcome the coronavirus pandemic and wished good luck.

The PPEs will be distributed by the FEMA to the states of Arizona and Nevada.

In the Declaration on Strategic Partnership between Mongolia and the U.S., declared by the President of Mongolia H.E. Mr. Kh. Battulga and the US President Donald Trump in 2019; and a Roadmap for Expanded Economic Partnership between Mongolia and the U.S., announced by the Prime Minister of Mongolia, H.E. Mr. U.Khurelsukh, and the US Vice President Mike Pence in 2018, the two sides agreed to increase the opportunities for economic cooperation, expand the relations across all areas of cooperation, including political, economic, cultural, educational and humanitarian, as well as people-to-people ties; recognized the importance of transport development and aim to improve the competitiveness of their respective transportation sectors in more open markets.

The Boeing’s B-767 airplane, named after Chinggis Khaan, is making a first-ever direct flight between Mongolia and the United States while bringing the PPEs. On the way back, the airplane will carry onboard Mongolian citizens stranded in the U.S. and dinosaur fossils. Ambassador stressed that these two-way flights are turning the new page of aviation cooperation between Mongolia and the United States and setting the new milestone in the bilateral relations.

The Government of Mongolia and the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington DC express deep appreciation to U.S. institutions, including the Department of State (DOS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Port of Seattle for their major assistance in successfully bringing the PPEs, repatriating Mongolian citizens and delivering the dinosaur fossils back to Mongolia.

Embassy of Mongolia to the United States

Mongolia reports 7 new cases of COVID-19 www.xinhuanet.com

June 22 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported seven new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the national count to 213, the country's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) said Monday.

Putin not ruling out run for another term www.nhk.or.jp

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he does not rule out the possibility of seeking another term in office, if voters approve proposed constitutional reforms that would allow him to do so.

Why the HU has cancelled online concert? www.news.mn

Mongolian rock sensation the HU has cancelled an online concert for collecting donations to support the National Emergency Commission of Mongolia in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert was scheduled for June 23 at the White Rock Centre. However, the Democratic Party had expressed concern that the concert, scheduled right before parliamentary election which would affect voting and become an advertisement for ruling Mongolian People’s Party.

Mongolia reports 2 new COVID-19 cases www.xinhuanet.com

June 21 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported two new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the national count to 206, the country's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) said Sunday.

Mongolia’s first direct flight to U.S. departs, carrying PPE assistance worth USD 1 million www.montsame.mn

On June 20, Saturday, a charter flight from Frankfurt, Germany landed in Ulaanbaatar with 256 passengers onboard. After discharging its passengers, the same plane took off to Seoul, South Korea and brought 265 Mongolians, who had travelled from eight Southeast Asian countries, last night on June 21.

All returnees on the latest two flights were directly taken to compulsory-isolation facilities to spend 3 weeks there and further will have to self-isolate themselves at home for 14 days as a precautionary measure. Some returnees showing suspicious symptoms are being observed under separate isolation at the National Research Center for Communicable Diseases for.

All preparations to accommodate more than 500 people at the same time had been ensured, confirms D.Nyamkhuu, Director of the National Research Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD).

Since there are reportedly around 10 thousand Mongolians in foreign countries wishing to return home immediately, only those with reasonable excuses, such as people with disabilities, older people, students, people with health concerns, people with small children or pregnant women, etc, are being given seats on the repatriation flights.

The next repatriation flight of June – a special diplomatic flight operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines, national flag carrier, to the USA departed from the Chinggis Khaan Ulaanbaatar Airport today morning, June 21. The flight is delivering a donation of 60,000 hospital gowns, worth USD 1 million, to help the US Federal Emergency Management Agency fight coronavirus.

The plane, which marks the first ever direct passenger flight of Mongolia to the USA, is scheduled to return to Ulaanbaatar on June 24, bringing more than 250 Mongolians from Seattle city.

As of Mongolia’s COVID-19 cases, in the past 24 hours, two more people were tested to have the novel coronavirus and seven more people have been recovered, bringing the COVID-19 total cases in Mongolia to 206. Out of them, 108 patients have already recovered.

In particular, a freight vehicle driver, who arrived from Russia across the Altanbulag border checkpoint and an 80-year old man who flew in on the the charter flight from Frankfurt have been tested positive after the NCCD carried out COVID-19 tests on 314 people yesterday, June 20, including random tests on 13 people who were being treated at district clinics for other illnesses to check if there is any community transmission.