Greywater Recycling Plant to put into operation www.montsame.mn

69 girls sexually assaulted in Mongolia in first two months of 2019 www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A total of 69 girls have been sexually assaulted in Mongolia in the first two months of 2019, the Mongolian Women's Federation (MWF) said Monday.

The statement came after reports were recently made public that an 8-year-old girl had been repeatedly raped by her biological father on a grazing ground.

"A total of 69 girls aged 6-17 have been affected by sexual assault across the country in the first two months of this year. The majority of the perpetrators of the sexual violence are people close to the victims, including their fathers, stepfathers, brothers and relatives," Batnasan Oyungerel, president of the MWF, told a press conference.

"The number of these types of crimes is likely to increase if relevant laws are not tightened," Oyungerel said, noting that more than 290 girls have suffered from sexual assault in the country over the past three years.

"This is the number recorded by police. Nobody knows how many other girls are now crying and suffering from sexual assault behind closed doors," she added.

Divorce and lack of adequate parental care are the main factors for girls to be sexually abused, she said, urging an improvement in the country's family laws related to divorce and parental responsibility.

According to Mongolian law, a man convicted of raping a girl under 14 years old will be punished by imprisonment of 12-20 years or a life sentence. In addition, a man who is found guilty of raping a girl aged 14-18 can be sentenced between two and eight years.

5 Killed in Shooting in China's Inner Mongolia www.voanews.com

The first official sponsor of Growth Summit Ulaanbaatar 2019 is Petrovis, Mongolian Business Database's official partner and also partner for inclusive growth for SME's. www.mongolianbusinessdatabase.com

Floating nuclear power plant to light up China www.rt.com

Construction of the first Chinese floating nuclear power plant will begin within 2019, according to Luo Qi, head of the Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) of China.
It will be a marine platform equipped with scaled-down nuclear reactors, which can provide electricity and heat to areas with difficult access, such as remote areas, islands, and offshore oil and gas platforms, Luo told the Global Times.

Mongolia to hold major folk art festival to promote tourism www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will hold a major folk art festival in its southern province of Dundgovi on Aug. 9-11 to attract more tourists by promoting traditional folk art, a local official said on Sunday.

President proposes changes to the revised draft of Law on corporate income tax www.president.mn

President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga forwarded (on March 20) an official letter to Chairman of the State Great Khural G.Zandanshatar regarding a proposal on changes to the revised draft of the Law on Corporate Income Tax which is under consideration of the ongoing extraordinary session of the State Great Khural.

Asiana Airlines Wins Rights to Operate on Korea-Mongolia Route www.newsworld.co.kr

Second-air carrier to employ A330-300 with 290 seats on the route with its affiliate Air Busan allowed to operate Busan-Ulaanbaatar route, which breaks up monopolistic operation of the air route

The Korea-Mongolia route has been exclusively operated between the national flag carriers of the two countries – Korean Air Lines and MIAT Mongolian Airlines – since 1991 when the two countries signed an aviation agreement.

The Aviation Traffic Deliberation Committee of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure said on Feb. 25 that it has approved the rights for Asiana Airlines to operate three weekly flights, breaking up the monopoly on the air routes between Incheon (Seoul) held by Korean Air Lines and MIAT Mongolian Airlines.

The committee gave the rights to Air Busan to operate a flight once a week between Busan and Ulaanbaatar. Asiana Airlines holds a large stake in Air Busan. With Korean Air still maintaining its six weekly flights, the number of flights on the Incheon-Ulaanbaatar increased to 9.

Asiana will utilize its A330-300 planes to serve the new route, a mid-sized passenger plane with 290 seats. An official of the airlines said they appreciate the decision by the committee to break up the monopoly on the air routes enjoyed by its domestic rival air carrier and the Mongolian air carrier for over 30 years, allowing it to operate on the routes.

“We will see that nothing will cause us to operate the flights on the new routes less than perfect.” the airline stated.

The fare for the Incheon-Ulaanbaatar flight rose to as much as 1 million won per passenger as the monopoly on the flight routes dragged on for over 30 years, although a one-way flight on the route took only three hours and 40 minutes.
Jeju Air, T'way Air and Eastar Jet plan to add the new routes to their existing schedules, noting their low fares. They pleaded that they should end the monopolistic control of key routes by the two major carriers.

When Korea and Mongolia signed the aviation treaty in 1991, they agreed to have only Korean Air and MIAT Mongolian Airlines to serve the new route.

Korean Air launched its maiden flight to Mongolia from 1996 and has been operating six weekly flights on the international route with the number of the seats on the flights totaling 1,656.

There were constant pleas for increasing the number of flights on the route as time passed by and number of the passengers rising every year due mainly to the exchanges between the two countries growing every year with the tickets getting harder to buy and the fare rising due to the limited seats.

The number of air passengers between Korea and Mongolia came to around 330,000 last year, rising around 10 percent annually since the air route first opened in 1996. Korea and Mongolia agreed in an aviation meeting held in January to increase the weekly flights to 9 adding three more flights with the number of seats increased to 2,500 to take care of the problems.

Asiana Airlines Inc; formerly Seoul Airlines) is one of South Korea's two major airlines, along with Korean Air. Asiana has its headquarters in Asiana Town building in Seoul.

The airline has its domestic hub at Gimpo International Airport and its international hub at Incheon International Airport (70 kilometres from central Seoul).

As a member of Star Alliance, it operates 14 domestic and 90 international passenger routes, and 27 cargo routes throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania.

In 2004, the airline added Airbus A330s and the Boeing 777-200ERs to its fleet, and expanded its routes into mainland China. Currently it provides international services to 71 cities in 23 countries on 91 routes, and domestic services to 12 cities on 14 routes.

It also provides international cargo services to 29 cities in 14 countries on 28 routes by Asiana Cargo, the airline's freight division.

Development Bank of Mongolia to give soft loans to gold companies www.news.mn

The ‘Mongolia Gold 2019’ conference and exhibition is currently taking place at the Corporate Convention Centre in Ulaanbaatar. The two-day forum, which is meeting place today and tomorrow (22-23 March) has been organised by the Mongolian Gold Producers’ Association and Mongolian Mining Exchange. The event is being supported of the Bank of Mongolia, public sector, gold miners, foreign investors and professional institutions. Nearly 400 delegates are currently participating in the conference.

IFC and partners promote modern livestock technologies in Mongolia to boost productivity www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ On March 21, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, in collaboration with FAO, Mercy Corps, and AmCham Mongolia, launched an initiative to promote modern livestock technologies in Mongolia, thereby boosting the sector’s productivity and competitiveness. The initiative will create a first-of-its-kind platform to bring together beef and dairy business leaders, industry experts, and policymakers, who will share their expertise to bolster the country’s livestock sector.

Livestock has long been a priority sector for Mongolia because of its contribution to inclusive economic growth and export diversification. The adoption of modern technologies will allow herders and farmers reach much higher yields. Artificial insemination, for example, allows local dairy farms to supply high-quality milk all year round, ensuring constant cash flow through longer contracts with processors. Cattle farms have also used such technology for better breed purposes, increasing meat output by three times.

Jean-Pascal Nganou, Acting Country Manager for Mongolia, World Bank said, “The livestock sector offers an opportunity for Mongolia’s economic diversification. At the World Bank Group, we support the creation of a conducive business environment to enable Mongolian farmers and herders to achieve their full potential.”

An inaugural session on ‘Pioneers in Beef and Dairy Development in Mongolia’ was hosted in Ulaanbaatar to mark this partnership.

“The private sector is key to driving innovations on the ground. Sharing experiences around these innovations can be a powerful source of change in support of economic diversification and achievement of sustainable development goals in Mongolia,” said Vinod Ahuja, FAO Representative in Mongolia.

Wendy Guyot, Country Director of Mercy Corps Mongolia observed, “The private sector will drive market-led change in Mongolia’s livestock sector like it has in other countries around the world. This initiative brings together leading businessmen and women to share their knowledge and learning about beef and dairy cattle in Mongolia. The aim is to build a livestock industry that is responsive to growing domestic and export markets.”

Meanwhile, AmCham Mongolia advocates for opening up of export opportunities of Mongolian agricultural products. “The Mongolia Third Neighbor Trade Act is well on its way to be discussed by the U.S. Congress and we take great pride in its advocacy since the beginning. The MTNTA would play a crucial role in Mongolia’s overall economic development, increasing export-led businesses as well as diversifying the nation's economy,” said Oybek Khalilov, President, AmCham.

The World Bank Group has been providing policy advice and technical support to Mongolia to enhance investment policy, restore investor confidence, and build capacity through IFC’s Mongolia Investment Policy and Agriculture Promotion advisory project, since 2014. In April 2017, IFC completed a report with recommendations on how Mongolia’s agriculture sector can draw FDI to enter the global value chain.