Renewable energy cooperation discussed with UK www.montsame.mn

Mongolia reports no coronavirus cases for 3 days in a row www.akipress.com

Mongolia reported no coronavirus cases for 3 days in a row.

Project for metallurgical complex to be supported www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. The development of heavy industry and production of value-added products are prioritized in the Government's Action Plan for 2020-2024. In this context, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry G. Yondon got acquainted with production and sales of mining outputs and operations at Tumurtolgoi and Tumurtei mines of ‘Darkhan Metallurgical Plant’ JSC last week.

Tumurtolgoi mine was initially estimated to have a reserve of 25 million tons in 1963, but it will be reduced to 11.9 million tons according to the exploration in 2017. Although the

reserve is lowered, additional exploration is planned to be carried out, said authorities of the company. Due to the high sulfur content of the ore extracted from the mine, the technology needs to be improved. For about Tumurtei deposit, it has a reserve of 229 million tons and is capable of extracting 5 million tons a year. It commissioned a dry magnetic concentrator plant in 2014. In the last six years, the two mines have stripped 28 million cubic meters of soil and extracted 11 million tons of ore. The Darkhan Metallurgical Plant has produced 10,000 tons of cast and 1 million tons of steel balls.

The company is implementing a ‘Project to build a mining and metallurgical complex’. According to the plan, the project was scheduled to be completed in 2019. However, the goal of processing iron ore to produce final products has been abandoned and it has turned into a company that exports without deep processing, warned the Minister.

Within the framework of the project to build the complex, it has spent a total of MNT630 billion on construction. For instance, dry magnetic concentrator plant have been commissioned at the two mines alongside the opening of a wet concentrator plant with a capacity of processing one million tons of iron ore at Tumurtei. Moreover, loading and unloading terminals with each capacity of 2 million tons were built and 95 km paved road has been put into operation in Darkhan-Uul and Selenge aimags within the concession agreements.

N. Enkhchuluun, Deputy Director of Operations/Steel Production, DMP said that the government should control the scrap metal market, which is a raw material for the steel industry, and this is one of the things needed to further develop ‘Mining and metallurgical complex’.

“Annually, about 70,000 tons of scrap metal is generated in the domestic market. Although the scrap metal is abundant, small Chinese-invested steel mills buy a ton of scrap metal at higher price, which inflates the price of the market. It becomes a main reason for reducing the competitiveness of the industry and increasing the cost of production.”

The Minister expressed his agreement with an issue that small steel mills that produce substandard reinforcement should be controlled. He said, “But whoever produces low-cost and high-quality products has to be promoted according to the nature of market” and gave assignments DMP authorities to fulfill their obligations under the concession.

ADB-UN Dialogue to strengthen joint efforts to support Mongolian People www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations Country Team initiated a dialogue on 4 September to discuss how they can work together to strengthen their development support to the people of Mongolia. The discussion focused on the COVID-19 response, the Government Action Plan and other potential areas for partnership.

World Bank to grant financing of USD 21 million to Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Today, September 7, Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar and World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia Andrei Mikhnev signed two financing agreements of USD 21 million.

Local govt in Inner Mongolia clarifies new education policy won't phase out Mongolian language teaching, preferential policies www.globaltimes.cn

Local governments in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have clarified their new education policies on teaching classes in Putonghua and the Mongolian language in ethnically populated regions after parents and students raised concerns after hearing rumors that teaching in their ethnic language may be phased out.

The local government of Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia issued a detailed explanation on Sunday, guaranteeing that the new regulation doesn't signal a cancellation of classes taught in the Mongolian language, nor does it mean the end of preferable policies aimed at helping ethnic minority students get into college.

The explanation was issued after the Inner Mongolia government, which released new education regulations last month saying that students entering grade one in ethnic primary and middle schools, will use unified national textbooks for Chinese language and literature and the course would be taught in the national common spoken and written language.

In the past students started taking the course in the second grade. Mongolian language remains the medium of instruction in other subjects from the first grade.

The new regulation raised concerns from some parents, who were misled by rumors that the new regulation would replace the Mongolian language with the Putonghua, the national common spoken and written language, and that the new policy would make it harder for ethnic minority students to get into college.

"Unified national textbooks in Chinese language and literature are for eligible students in the first year of primary and middle schools in the Mongolian language teaching schools. Other subjects will be still taught in the Mongolian language and bilingual education in these schools is not scrapped. Neither the central government, nor the regional government have indicated the teaching in Mongolian language is to be cancelled," according to the statement from Xilingol League government.

Meanwhile, the courses on Ethics and Law and History will be taught in Putonghua for first grade students and ethnic schools in 2021 and 2022, respectively, it said.

The Xilingol League government said that three subjects: Chinese language and literature, Ethics and Law and History, are closely related to ideology and cultural heritance, and directly related to the kind of person the country wants and is capable of cultivating, so their consistency must be guaranteed.

The country has made important plans to compile, examine and use textbooks on those three subjects, said the statement, noting other subjects will still be taught in the Mongolian language.

It also said that favorable college entrance policies for ethnic minority students remain unchanged, dismissing parents' concerns that once teaching in Putonghua is introduced ethnic minority students will have to compete with their Han peers which may put them at a disadvantage in exams.

Students from ethnic minorities in China enjoy favorable policies in the national college entrance exams, and can be admitted to colleges around the country with lower scores than Han students.

China's work in implementing bilingual education of Putonghua and an ethnic language in ethnically populated regions in recent years has been smooth and effective in cultivating bilingual talent. The twists happened in Inner Mongolia as the new regulation on bringing courses taught in Putonghua has not been fully explained to parents, and disinformation has misled the public.

The concerns of parents in Inner Mongolia attracted the attention of anti-China forces and overseas separatists. Some Western media also gave rolling coverage of the incident, hyping the Chinese government's "replacing the Mongolian language with Putonghua" without touching on the truth.

Police in Bayannur, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, announced on Sunday that they have punished six people for fabricating rumors to mislead the public and instigate them to stir trouble in an attempt to hinder the use of national compiled textbooks in schools or prevent students from attending classes.

According to the statement published by the official WeChat account of the city's public security bureau on Sunday, a villager surnamed Ao was found to have published false information and seditious words that disrupted public order on WeChat group chats. He was detained for five days on Friday after confessing to his mistakes.

On Sunday, local police detained a person surnamed E who published abusive and threatening information in the WeChat group of local students' parents in an attempt to prevent students from registering for classes. He was detained for 15 days for preventing the use of national compiled teaching materials and seriously disturbing the social order, and committing acts that caused a bad social impact.

Four other people in Linhe district of the city were also put under criminal coercive measures on Sunday for preventing the use of textbooks and hindering students from attending classes. They were also accused of instigating local residents to gather for a joint signing campaign to disturb normal teaching activities.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press conference on Thursday that recent reports on what happened in the Inner Mongolia region are political hype.

"The common language of a country is a symbol of its sovereignty, and it is every citizen's right and responsibility to learn and use it. Other countries do the same," Hua said.

The Chinese government, in accordance with relevant laws, promotes the use of the national common spoken and written language in ethnic minority areas, upholds the principle of equality in the spoken and written languages of all ethnic groups, and guarantees according to law the freedom of all ethnic groups, including the Mongolian ethnicity, to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, Hua said.

In recent years, the National Textbook Committee has organized experts to compile textbooks in Chinese language and literature, politics and history, which have been used in all primary and secondary schools nationwide since 2017.

Starting this year, six provinces and autonomous regions, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, have also started using these textbooks. The unified textbooks of the three subjects will not affect the setting of courses of other subjects in schools teaching ethnic languages.

The class hours, textbooks, and teaching language of the Mongolian language and literature class will remain unchanged, and the current bilingual education system will not be changed, Hua said.

Samsung Elec wins $6.6 billion Verizon order for network equipment www.reuters.com

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) said on Monday it had won a $6.64 billion order to provide wireless communication solutions to Verizon (VZ.N) in the United States, a major win for the South Korean firm in the next-generation 5G network market.

Mongolia to learn Swiss experience of tourism www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. On September 3, Minister of Environment and Tourism D.Sarangerel met with Head of Cooperation, Swiss Cooperation and Consular Agency in Mongolia Ph.D Stefanie Burri and discussed the present state of cooperation between the two countries and opportunities for further expansion to a new level.

SEC to examine Rio Tinto whistleblower claims over Oyu Tolgoi www.reuters.com

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining claims from a whistleblower that Rio Tinto was aware of problems at its underground copper mine extension project of Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia months before the miner confirmed the project would face delays and higher costs, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Ex-World Bank head Robert Zoellick: ‘The world could look like 1900 again’ www.bbc.com

The former head of the World Bank has warned the world could look like it did in 1900 if countries don’t work together to tackle the current crisis.