Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa met with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe yesterday and held discussion on free-trade agreement. At the end of the meeting, sides released a joint statement, in which the sides officially announced to implement a Master Plan on Creating Value-Chain via Sustainable Development of Agriculture.

Key highlights of the statement:

Mongolian Government is now obliged to finalize the negotiation of concession agreement on a new airport in Khushigiyn Valley within January 2019 and inaugurating the airport within next year. In turn, the Japanese Government expressed on continuing the support on consortium activities.

Acknowledging the massive potential in Mongolia, sides expressed to intensify public and private cooperation in tourism.

The PMs agreed on supporting technical cooperation in cashmere production, building the capacity of cashmere companies and intensifying the promotion of Mongolian cashmere in Japanese market.

On the sidelines of his official visit to Japan, Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa met with the Chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Hiroyuki Ishige yesterday and attended the 9th Mongolia-Japan Public and Private Sector Joint Committee meeting, during which the PM announced to establish Trade Representative Office in Tokyo.

During the meeting, sides exchanged views on the progress of implementation of Mongolia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. Mr. Hiroyuki Ishige expressed his delight with the improvement of bilateral trade turnover and business relations and stressed that Japanese firms face difficulties in doing business in Mongolia and asked the Prime Minister to pay attention to it.

PM Khurelsukh said that Mongolian government is giving great importance to the protection of investors’ interest and working to establish Trade Representative Office in Tokyo in order to provide foreign investors with comprehensive investment on information and increase opportunities for their business development. Prime Minister expressed willingness to cooperate closely with JETRO on implementation and efficiency improvement of the Economic Partnership Agreement, which took effect in June 2016, and announced that a One-Stop Service will be available for investors starting from January 1, 2019. At the 9th Mongolia-Japan Government and Business Sector Joint Committee meeting, Director General of the National Development Agency Bayarsaikhan Banzragch presented the current state of economy, development policy planning, internal and external environment for investments, tax and non-tax support, advantages, opportunities and statistics, and introduced the Government activities to support FDI in detail.

PM addressed, “Mongolian Government is paying special attention in maintaining economic stability, improving the legal environment for doing business. Mongolia is successfully overcoming the economic difficulty that it faced in recent years. As a result of several measures on protecting investors’ interest and restoring their confidence, FDI in Mongolia significantly grew since 2017. For instance, the FDI jumped by around 30 percent yoy as of the third quarter of this year.”

He then asked about the difficulties in doing business in Mongolia. In response, Kazuhiro Osonoe, CEO of Takarajima Japan LLC, highlighted Mongolians’ credence as a major risk factor. Mr. Kazuhiro Osonoe suggested, “Accountability is crucial for Mongolia to attract investment. Japan has the technology, knowhow and assets, while Mongolia has the opportunity.”

Published Date:2018-12-14