Mongolia named as one of the places to go in 2020 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The New York Times made a list of 52 places to go in 2020. Mongolia has been named in the 47th of the list and it mentioned reasons for travel, landscape features and ongoing measures to boost tourism. It wrote:

Mongolia has Come a Long Way – What is Needed to Consolidate These Gains? www.worldbank.org

Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific UB Post
Sustained economic recovery requires sound economic management and improvements in the investment climate to diversify the economy.

When I last visited Mongolia in 2016, the country was on the brink of a deep economic crisis, with a large fiscal deficit and unsustainably high debt. The changes since then have been remarkable. Thanks to the government’s efforts under the Economic Recovery Program, supported by international partners, Mongolia’s economy has recovered strongly. Since 2017, economic growth has averaged 6.5 percent, the government turned a fiscal deficit of 15.3 percent of GDP in 2016 to a surplus of 2.6 percent last year and debt levels have come down, although they remain too high.

The World Bank has supported this progress with two budget support operations, aiming to close budget loopholes, improve the targeting of social spending and strengthen the investment climate to stimulate private sector job creation. Our colleagues at the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency have also contributed through engagements in the financial and mining sectors. Mongolia’s upcoming graduation from the International Development Association—the arm of the World Bank Group that provides concessional finance to low-income countries—is a sign of confidence in Mongolia’s development trajectory and reaffirms its middle-income country status.

As impressive as these gains are, there is still work to be done. In the face of an increasingly volatile and uncertain international outlook, Mongolia needs to remain vigilant to avoid policy reversals and ensure broad public support for necessary reforms. Three key risks stand out.

First, poverty remains stubbornly high. Preliminary calculations by the statistical agency suggest that urban poverty rates in particular have stagnated. While herders and rural workers have benefited from high meat prices, the robust economic performance of mining and manufacturing has not translated into sufficient income opportunities for the majority of the urban population. Creating more and better jobs remains an urgent priority.

Second, to create lasting improvements in people’s livelihoods ultimately will require improving governance and building stronger institutions. This is key to further improve confidence among private investors and to deliver better quality public services.

Lastly, weaknesses in the financial sector and the country’s external balances remain the Achilles’ heel of Mongolia’s economic stability.

What can policy makers do to address these risks and break the boom-and-bust cycle?

The government needs to maintain its course on reforms. It needs to focus on actions to create more private sector jobs and higher income opportunities while resisting pressures to go back to the practice of fiscal hand-outs. A transparent and predictable investment climate is key.

Poor and vulnerable households will need to be protected and supported. Social protection systems could be further strengthened, and social transfers better targeted. Looming fiscal liabilities in the country’s pension system need to be addressed. Bolder reforms are required.

Financial sector risks need to be urgently addressed. A successful recapitalization of the banking sector as agreed with the International Monetary Fund would provide critical financial resilience in case of negative external shocks. In the face of global uncertainty, Mongolia can ill-afford to let this issue linger. Addressing anti-money laundering issues to get Mongolia off the Grey List of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will ensure continued access to international bank lending.

Finally, the Bank of Mongolia can allow greater flexibility of the exchange rate and limit the volume of its interventions. It is now, when the economy is still performing relatively strongly, that it is the easiest to get savers and investors used to greater exchange rate volatility.

The international community is ready to support Mongolia in addressing these challenges, building on the gains achieved over the past three years. Since 1991, the World Bank has been a steadfast partner for Mongolia, providing over US$1billion in development financing to the country. We have invested in building infrastructure, strengthening education and health systems, and improving governance. We are proud of the progress made to date and look forward to further strengthening our partnership with Mongolia as a middle-income country with aspirations to improve living standards for all its citizens.

Mongolia has come a long way. Let’s consolidate these gains togethe

Late, but not last: Mongolia steps toward digital transformation www.zgm.mn

American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia (AmCham) held its monthly meeting yesterday and touched upon digital transformation opportunities, highlighting recent developments Mongolian IT companies. Mongolian tech companies have already started penetrating Asian markets as New Media LLC, LendMN non-banking financial institute and iHotel were listed on the Top 100 startups of Asia.

Copper concentrate export drops by 11 percent yoy www.zgm.mn

The export of mineral products increased by 5.1 percent in 2019. However, the export of copper concentrate, the main export product, fell by 11 percent and amounted to USD 1.79 billion, according to the Customs General Administration (GCA). Its volume decreased slightly to 1.4 million tons compared to 2018.The average gold concentrate of Oyu Tolgoi LLC, the largest exporter of copper and gold, declined in 2019, with its revenue reaching USD 944.6 million in the first three quarters of the year. This is an increase of 13.3 percent year-on-year, according to Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ) report. Zinc exports reached 134,700 tons in 2019, increasing nine percent from the previous year, but decreased by four percent in monetary volume and amounted to USD 189 million, said the GCA. Currently, Zinc Mineral LLC and Chinese-invested Shin Shin LLC export zinc. Since the zinc prices rose in the first quarter of 2019, it lowered 18 percent compared to its peak in April, encouraging a decrease in zinc export earnings.

Mongolia – a key to regional connectivity www.news.mn

Back in June 2016, Mongolia, Russia, and China signed an agreement to implement an Economic Corridor comprising 32 projects, 13 of which are in the sphere of infrastructure. Related to this is the proposed Economic Corridor, which is one of the six routes in China’s Belt and Road initiative; it is also in alignment with Mongolia’s Development Programme, and the Eurasian Economic Union, which is driven by Moscow.

China’s booming new Silk Road trade hits $1.34 TRILLION www.rt.com

China’s trade with countries participating in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been expanding and totaled 9.27 trillion yuan ($1.34 trillion) in 2019, customs data shows.
It has outpaced the country’s aggregate trade growth by 7.4 percentage points, according to the data.

Government sets out to boost agricultural exports www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At its meeting of today, Cabinet resolved to announce 2020 as a year to increase exports.

Mongolia exports 36.4 mln tons of coal in 2019 www.xinhuanet.com

Mongolia exported a total of 36.4 million tons of coal in 2019, according to data released by the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) on Tuesday.

UK in Mongolia 2019: a year of achievement in strengthening and advancing our bilateral relations www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. The British Embassy Ulaanbaatar reviews the year of 2019, highlighting success in UK-Mongolia bilateral relations with a number of impactful visits, including by the Mining, Energy and Education Ministers to London and UK Asia Minister to Mongolia, along with numerous projects and events. A press release of the embassy reads,

"Our top priorities in 2019 were deepening our trade/investment and political relationship and supporting democracy and economic development in Mongolia, particularly in education, anti-money laundering, media freedom, combating climate change, illegal wildlife trading and conservation. As a sign of our long-term commitment to Mongolia, we also moved into brand new Embassy offices in the Shangri-La complex, right at the heart of Ulaanbaatar!

We kicked off the year by organising the memorable GREAT train journey on the famous Trans-Mongolian route to celebrate the culmination of our 55th anniversary year in Mongolia and to highlight business and historic links.

We organised a number of trade-related visits, including a visit to Mongolia by our Trade Commissioner, along with trade missions to the UK to promote UK/Mongolia trade. We also supported and promoted UK investments in Mongolia, in particular Rio Tinto’s investment in the strategically important Oyu Tolgoi project.

In July, the British Embassy funded attendance by three Mongolian investigative journalists at the first global “Media Freedom” conference jointly organised by the British and Canadian governments in London. Global leaders, representatives from the media industry, journalists and civil society gathered there for two days. Media freedom is fundamental to democracy, as highlighted by one of the Mongolian participants, CH.Bolortuya, editor-in-chief of Ikon.mn, who reported that the conference helped everyone to understand media freedom is not only about journalists, but also a human right relevant to everyone.

In order to support Mongolia’s work to meet its Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations, we organised a study visit to the UK by experts from the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central Bank of Mongolia, Financial Regulatory Commission, General Intelligence Agency and Ulaanbaatar City Prosecutors Office. These officials met UK counterparts from the National Crime Agency, Bank of England, Treasury and Foreign Office among others, where they learnt about the UK’s experience implementing FATF recommendations, regulating the financial sector, tightening financial supervision and implementing and enforcing sanctions. We will continue this support in 2020 to enable Mongolia’s removal from the FATF grey list as soon as practicable.

The British Embassy has worked closely with Mongolia over many years to help tackle the illegal wildlife trade, the impacts of climate change and to support conservation. This support continued in 2019. The government of Mongolia’s “Wildlife Trade and Disease Expert Meeting” on 23-24 September, a commitment made by Mongolia at the 2018 London Wildlife Summit, was part sponsored by the UK. The UK’s Head of International Species Conservation attended and acted as rapporteur. The meeting convened North-East Asian experts who agreed to establish an ongoing sub-regional dialogue on transboundary wildlife conservation and management. The Zoological Society of London also launched its ‘Mongolia’s Silent Steppe II Report: Mongolia’s Wildlife Crisis-Ten Years Later’’ in the margins of the conference with support from the Embassy.

On climate change, we supported the launch of the Mongolian Ministry of Environment’s ambitious new greenhouse emissions reduction target (Nationally Determined Contribution) in November. The Ministry presented plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities and sustainable development to over 300 stakeholders including high-level decision makers, representatives from government, the private sector, international partners, academia and the media. Climate change is an immediate and critical challenge. The UK plays a leading international role to address this issue and will drive urgent coordinated action as the host of 2020’s most important gathering on climate change: COP 26 in Glasgow in November.

The UK’s third “Inspire Me” education festival took place in September at the White Rock centre in Ulaanbaatar. Over 2000 visitors to the festival were introduced to various British educational institutes and universities who promoted their world-class education programmes. We also hosted an education-focused visit to the UK by members of the Education Standing Committee of the Great Khural to further promote our links in this important sector of co-operation.

In October, Mrs. Heather Wheeler, UK Minister for Asia, made her first official visit to Mongolia. The Minister met ministers and senior officials from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Environment, Education and Mining and held wide-ranging discussions. Minister Wheeler also opened our new Embassy office.

With the UK leaving the European Union at the end of January and seeking to expand relationships all around the world, we will also increase our co-operation with Mongolia. We will have many more visits and events to look forward to in 2020, starting with attendance at the Education World Forum in London by Mr.Baatarbileg, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports in January. We plan to have more senior level visits in both directions this year.

Also in January, we will launch an air pollution awareness campaign jointly organised with the UK Alumni Association. This will focus on the importance - especially for children - of wearing anti-pollution masks. Masks will also be distributed to school children who are living in the most polluted areas of the city.

We would like to thank all of our Mongolian partners and government organisations for making 2019 a successful year and we are looking forward to working with you all in 2020 to further strengthen the UK-Mongolia relationship."

British Embassy Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia joins the ADDIS Tax Initiative www.addistaxinitiative.net

The Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) is pleased to welcome the newest ATI member Mongolia and acknowledge their commitment to increasing domestic revenue mobilisation (DRM) towards sustainable development. The Addis Tax Initiative continues to grow, now including 25 partner countries, 20 development partners and 16 supporting organisations.