the Mongol Messenger

New Prime Minister S. Bayar has promised to root out systemic corruption, deal with mining investment agreements, strengthen food security and social stability, promote trade and investment and private sector growth

New MPRP leader, S. Bayar has been appointed as Mongolia’s 25th Prime Minister. He won 67 votes, (97.1 percent), from a total cast by 69 Members of Parliament at the Parliamentary plenary meeting on November 22. The only opposition to his election came from two Democratic Party MPs, B. Batbaatar and Z. Enkhbold.

However, two MPs have been critical of the win. MP Z. Enkhbold considered the election of a prime minister from the MPRP Party was not in the best interests of the nation nor its people because of the Party’s changing leadership, while Member of Parliament, B. Batbaatar was critical that the prime minister should be responsible before the State first and responsible for his party as their chairperson, second.

PM: I will form the new cabinet. It is constitutional for our party to form Cabinet unilaterally. Activities will be carried out according to the Constitution and we shall negotiate with the other political parties to form Cabinet. The rest will be clear when Cabinet is formed. We will start our work by curbing price rises.

PM: We will do it within the legal time and the law will not be violated. Aside from negotiating with political parties the Prime Minster must negotiate with the President. On Saturday, the President will leave for Gulf countries.

FIFTA of Mongolia and the Russian ‘All-Russia International Exhibition Centre’ have given the conference the theme: ‘The present situation of the Mongolian-Russian foreign economic cooperation and its prospects’.

A meeting between the Mongolian-Russian intergovernmental commissions on economic, trade and scientific cooperation chairpersons will be held during the forum and views will be exchanged on key obstacles to trade and the economy and further problems. Preparations for the official visit of the Prime Minister to the Russian Federation will be concluded.

The Committee on Defence Parliament of the Czech Republic visited Mongolia November 19 to 20 to discuss cooperation between parliaments and bilateral cooperation in other sectors. The Czech Ambassaor, Jiri Nekvasil welcomed the delegation on their arrival at Chinggis Khan International airport and accompanied the delegates during their visit.

Parliamentary Speaker, D. Lundeejantsan received the delegation consisting of six Members of Parliament, led by Committee for Defence of the Czech Parliament chairperson, Jan Vidim on November 19. The Speaker said Mongolians considered Czech citizens as close friends in Europe and the two countries have a long-lasting relationship. He said that one of the important tasks of Mongolia’s foreign policy was to develop cooperation with the European Union, particularly the Czech Republic.

The Mongolian Ministry of Industry and Trade and Mongolian National Chambers of Commerce and Industry officials, with US Embassy representatives, held an informal mid-year review of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) issues on November 16. The discussion was conducted via digital video teleconference with counterparts in Washington D.C. from the offices of the US Trade Representative (USTR), Department of Commerce (DOC), and Department of labor.

The Constitutional Court has declared that some provisions of the law on Parliamentary elections did not breach the Constitution, in response to complaints received from five citizens.

Five citizens separately sent two complaints that the law on parliamentary elections for holding the election on enlarged constituencies with majority mandates, breached citizen’s rights defined by the Constitution to elect and be elected.

Prime Minister S. Bayar issued a decree to appoint Dr Ravdangiin Bold, chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to provision 14.1 of the Secret Agency law and following negotiations with the President, Former chief, Navaansurengiin Ganbold was released from his duties.

Dr Bold was born in Ulaanbaatar in 1955 and has a PhD in history. He graduated from the Military School of Mongolia and the Military Diplomatic School in Russia. He worked as political officer and holds the title of diplomat of special duties.

From 1977 to 1997 he was employed in 024 Unit of the armed forces, the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the central intelligence office and the strategic research institute of the Defence Ministry and from 1997 to 2003 worked as secretary of the national security council of Mongolia. Before being appointed to the new post, Dr Bold was ambassador of Mongolia in the US.

The Parliamentary Econoimc Standing Committee has approved a resolution that the Mongolbank resolve high-risk problems identified following a working group inspection, on November 21.

Mongolbank has been instructed to resolve problems related to an agreement signed by Mongolbank and Malaysian Stonelay International Company; instructed to terminate a debt repayment problem of USD 10 million of the bankrupt Russian Credit Trust Bank from Eastern Gates Securities Company in the first half of 2008; conclude an agreement with Altandornod Mongolia Company and terminate budget tax payments of the company for 2006 to 2007.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is drafting a state subsidy law on food commodities to stabilize the price environment and protect local producers supplying the domestic market.

Bread prices increased from November 16 by Tgs150 with the price for cut bread increasing from Tgs 470 to Tgs 610 although the round-shaped Atar Orgoo bread remained unchanged. Despite a wholesale price of Tgs 450 to 490, retailers increased their own bread prices with Talh Chiher Company the first to increase its bread prices on cut bread to Tgs 590 to 650.

An important Mongolian economic report places critical issues in the laps of key decision-makers and cautions them not to rest their laurels, ‘on the good times’ being experienced in Mongolia.

It comments on public spending; public investment programmes; fiscal space and borrowing strategies, for the country’s economic future and is a snapshot of the country’s economic status quo.

World Bank lead economist, Sudarshun Goopta, summarized the findings of the 2007, ‘Mongolia Sources of Growth. Country Economic Memorandum’ (CEM) at the Ulaanbaatar World Bank headquarters, October 23rd and said using a state-of-art economic model allowed issues raised to be answered in the report. The model comprised an analytical framework sourcing direct and indirect evidence to expose bottlenecks to sustained and broad-based growth in Mongolia. It accounts for a path to strong economic development to cope with a 2.3 million population predicted by 2030.

Asia Foundation international non-government organization’s results from the fourth semi-annual corruption benchmarking survey showed paying bribes for services in Mongolia was a modest downward trend.

Asia Foundation director, William S. Infante said, “The patterns over the past two years are favorable, with progressive though modest improvement in key areas. The proportion of respondents paying a bride continues to trend lower, and the frequency of bribe paying has also diminished. Expectations are improving, and public commitment and intolerance remain high.”

The survey is a corruption-monitoring tool engaging people and institutions to deter and reduce corruption in Mongolia. It monitors the scope, incidence and impact of corruption at household level, and uses the data to strengthen institutional and public capacity to combat corruption.

This is the key message in the fourth, ‘The Mongolian Human Development Report - 2007’ launched on 21 to 22 November at State House.during and national forum on employment.

Despite recent strong economic growth, income poverty remained high in rural and urban areas, and rising inequalities resulted from the prevalence of poverty and led to ‘Employment and Poverty’ selected as the theme of the report.

A 20-day vocational training workshop to introduce energy saving technology into Mongolia’s building and construction sector, was held in Ulaanbaatar recently. The technology reduces energy consumption for heating buildings and improving comfort in apartments. The Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning, GTZ’s support programme for vocational training, construction and urban development (UDCP) and Magnet LLC, organized the programme from October 25 to November 16. The workshop, ‘Thermal insulation composite system,’ was held at the School of Computer Science and Management in the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST).

A solo exhibition to be held from November 30 until December 6, 2007 in the Union of Mongolia Artists Gallery in Ulaanbaatar, and another in April in 2008 in the UK, will renew the presence of one of Mongolia’s famous artists, Erdene Dash, in Mongolia’s cotemporary and international art scene.

Mr Dash’s art is the essence of his upbringing in Mongolia’s western Bayonkhongor Aimag and the fusion with his urban world in Mongolia’s bustling and growing capital city, Ulaanbaatar. It is his search for meaning in life – and in death.

The Arts Council of Mongolia (ACM) will celebrate its fifth anniversary from December 3 to 7 with a series of launches and events culminating in ACM’s special fifth anniversary celebration on December 7, 2007, at 18:30, in the Khan Bank Theatre.

At the ceremony, ACM will present five prestigious ‘Arts for Development Awards’ to nominees who have made exceptional contributions to the artistic and cultural development of Mongolia over the past five years. Awards will be given for: Artistic Excellence; Business Leadership in the Arts; Leadership in Community Arts; Guardianship of Cultural Heritage; Outstanding World-wide Promotion of Mongolian Arts and Culture.

Mongolia will soon have an accurate database for registration and information of monasteries and churches. The Arts Council of Mongolia (ACM) led a project to photograph and record monasteries throughout Mongolia with support from the Mongolian Presidential Office and the International Society of Mongolian heritage and culture.

ACM deputy chair and Khan Bank CEO, Mr Peter Morrow said, “ACM implemented this project to establish a registration and information fund of Mongolian monasteries and churches. The project was initiated and financed by the US Embassy in Mongolia and Khan Bank. During the project, monasteries photos were taken and saved in digital form and oral histories were collected from local people”.

The eighth Bogd Jebtsundamba Agvanluvsanchoijinnimadanzanbanchug was born as a son of Gonchigtseren, Tibet’s treasurer of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, in 1869. He was announced as a reincarnation of Mongolian Bogd Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, the spiritual leader of Mongolia’s Tibetan Buddhism and officially welcomed as religious leader in Mongolia 1874.

Jebtsundamba VIII was crowned as the Bogd Khan (emperor) and outright religious and political leader of Mongolia, from 1911 to 1921. After the 1921 people’s revolution in, Bogd Khan was allowed to stay on the throne with a restricted monarchy until his death in 1924. He became a symbolic state figure and religious leader. He died at 55 years of age in 1924 due to ill health.

He was spiritual leader in 1911 during the Mongolian national liberation revolution against Manchu Qing Dynasty, who ruled China and Mongolia. He considered himself as lineage of Chinggis Khaan because he was reincarnated from the first Bogd Gegeen Zanabazar, a direct descendant of the Great Chinggis Khaan.

A two-day training seminar organized by the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was held November 20. The seminar was dedicated to train specialists of branch services of the organizing Ministries on developing aimag centers. Reports were delivered by invited Japanese officials on benefits of stable development in aimag capital centers. A meeting with the students majoring in construction in the Mongolian University of Science and Technology was held to supply construction professionals to work in rural areas. Specialists from the Ministry of Finance delivered reports on aimag infrastructure and government investments.

Female Mongolian politicians will be included in training, ‘Strategies of election campaign work- in localities,’ in the US. The training has been organized in a program established by the Union of Mongolian Democratic Women and the American Republican Women. Within this program, nine females have already completed other training, ‘Technology in elections campaigns,’ in the US. The delegation will train in the city of Seattle and it is anticipated they will meet US Senator C. Welly.

A working group established under the ordinance of the Governor of Selenge aimag has conducted an inspection of entities handling chemical substances. The inspection included 16 entities and organizations such as a meat processing factory, food and pharmaceutical enterprises, laboratories and a hospital and gold mine. No breaches were found during the inspection.

A survey to measure surface and subsoil water in Selenge aimag by professional institutions has concluded. 3,695 wells were registered on the aimag’s scale. 603 rivers, 217 springs, 17 mineral waters reserves and 47 lakes were registered. Due to drought and detrimental human activities, 110 rivers, springs and lakes have dried up. The Kharaa, Eroo, Orkhon, Tunkhel, Zelter, Bugant, and Sharyn rivers have decreased in depth.

A public discussion on ‘Law on customs and law on customs tariffs and duties,’ was organized by the General Customs Office in cooperation with USAID and the project, ‘Economic policy reform and competitiveness.’ Mongolia passed a law on customs in 1996 and since then, the law has not been amended despite various changes emerging in international customs and foreign trade and economic life. Lawyers who worked on the project reported on obligations of importers and exporters, customs tariffs, control and declarations and the cooperation between customs and those engaged in foreign trade.

Extermination of field mice will cover 650,00 hectares, an increase by 62.5 per cent compared to 2007, in 2008. Tgs one billion is budgeted for the activity. According to research conducted by scientific institutes, trends of field mice spread has increased in the western and central regions, including Zavkhan, Gobi-Altai, Bayankhongor, Khovsgol, Arkhangai, and Bulgan aimags from the beginning of the year. It will be of crucial importance to conduct extermination on at least 500 to 700,000 hectares a year. Field mice cover 40 million hectares of territories of 17 aimags.

Organizations for the care of the disabled agreed to cooperate to implement a recommendation issued on the ‘Rights of the disabled’ at a national forum. More than 10 organizations including the Ministries of Defence, Health, Social Welfare and Labor, the State Professional Inspection Agency and the Governor’s Office of Ulaanbaatar, plan to cooperate closely in refining and remodeling streets and public places for access for the disabled. A plan will be processed and the construction standard /BD31-101-04/ will be reconsidered.

A national forum, ‘The year of increasing job vacancies-2007,’ opened November 21 under the patronage of the President of Mongolia. A Mongolian report on human development was presented issued by the UNDP on ‘Employment and poverty in Mongolia.’ 33,000 unemployed were registered in employment service, and most of them were 15 to 35year old youth. Every fifth young person aged 15 to 29 was unemployed. Reasons were lack of jobs, low salaries, jobs not suitable for youth with higher education and a decrease in numbers of students of vocational training and production centers.

The representative office of the World Wildlife Fund in Mongolia started implementing a project, ‘Protection the Mongolian saiga from October 1. In Altai city and soums of Togrog, Sharga, Darvi and of Chandmani of Khovd province, Fund employees organized meetings to present ‘Unen daily report’ results of the project, the structure of the project’s team and directions of cooperation. The three-year project aims to eliminate illegal hunting for saiga and trade of their horns, to improve pastures, to increase the ecological education of citizens and raise citizen’s participation in protecting the animals. The Saiga tatarica is only found in Mongolia and last year, about 2,500 saigas were counted.

Mongolia’s Agricultural Bank is the first Mongolian bank to be officially entitled to open a representative office in Seoul, the Republic of Korea. An official opening ceremony was held on November 23. The bank will offer its services to Mongolian citizens residing in the Republic of Korea and intends to support foreign investments and trade through close cooperation with businesspeople of the Republic of Korea.

The World Health Organization marks the last week of November as the ‘World Day to Commemorate Road Traffic Victims’. The Traffic Policy Department will carry out a range of activities.

As of September 2007, 809 traffic accidents were registered, and 251 people died. 158 occurred on regional roads, the remaining in settled areas. The Traffic Policy Department has also delivered a proposal on amending the law on administrative responsibility.

During draft 2008 state budget discussions by Parliament, a proposal submitted by the National Audit Office on renewal of stability agreements with the Chin Hua Mac and Nariin Sukhait mining companies for 2008 were raised. The stability contracts exempt the companies from taxes of Tgs 6.6 billion each year. If the contracts are renewed, budget revenue will increase by this sum. Stability contracts concluded with Boroo Gold and Tsairt Minerals companies in 1997 and 1998 were renewed in August 2007. Over Tgs 60 billion will be derived as tax revenue from these companies in 2007. Next year, this figure is expected to increase to Tgs 83.1 billion.

A project will be carried out in the State Professional Control Agency to erect a building for its central laboratory and to improve technical capacity of the lab with a non-refundable aid from the Government of China. The project document has been signed State Professional Control Agency head, D. Batbaatar and by research team head, Zao Ming. Mr Zao Ming has been working in Ulaanbaatar for 21 days to launch the project. According to the team’s calculations, over 65 million Yuans are required for the project. The new building will be erected on the territory of the Khan-Uul district of Ulaanbaatar.

The Liberal International World Federation held its executive committee’s meeting in Hamburg city of Germany on November 16 and 17 to mark its 60th anniversary. For the first time, Mongolia was represented by the Civil Will Party. The Civil Will Party joined the Federation as a full member affiliating Mongolia with three major international political networks.

The 62nd session of the JCI, Worldwide Federation of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs was hosted in Antalya city, Turkey in the mid of November. 3400 delegates from over 100 countries attended the six-day meeting. At the session, JCI Mongolia 2007 President, P. Batsaikhan was honored as the Best National JCI President. The Ulaanbaatar JC held a partnership ceremony with the Osaka JC to sign a cooperation agreement.

In Seoul, the Republic of Korea, the Asian People’s Friendship Society in collaboration with its branch in that country will hold a ‘Together for Development’ international forum. The meeting is expected to be attended by 120 Mongolian rural businessmen and 200 Korean businessmen engaged in the agricultural sector. The forum will raise issues concerning the attraction of domestic and foreign investments in Mongolia’s rural economies and the development of Mongolian soums into model settlement areas. The aim of the forum is to establish international cooperation. The Asian People’s Friendship Society sees its major task to support development of poor people. It implements a program on decentralization of populations, the creation of jobs in rural areas, and the development of tourism.

Representatives of the Union of Mongolian Family Doctors participated in the 18th World Conference of Family Doctors in Singapore. More than 2000 delegates attended the conference, ‘Genome and family medicine’ from 93 countries. Meetings and discussions were organized on many themes such as latest achievements, importance of the human genome in medical practice, medical aid, service trends and humans and science. Specialist for family hospitals of the Department of Health, D. Gantsetseg said reports from of Mongolia on the themes ‘Citizens’ assessment of family hospitals of the capital city,’ and ‘Influences of the vulnerability on health’ attracted attention of the participants.

Under a UNFPA Country Support Program, a total of USD 18,000 was budgeted for work in 2007 in Khovd aimag. 80 per cent has been acquitted. The social health branch council of the province and members of the reproductive health program met to discuss measures to be taken next year. 2008 it is planned to develop a reproductive health complex into a model center, to render mobile medical aid in all soums, to establish a information and advertisement center for support of young family development and to advertise a room for health education of students.

World Visions rural development program, ‘international organization’ in Khovd aimag has presented gers to 16 homeless families under the slogan ‘Let’s present gers to homeless children under hard conditions’. Homeless children of Buyant, Erdeneburen, Myangad, and Jargalant soums received gers.

The Minerals and Oil Authority and the Swiss International development Agency organized a zone consultation, ‘Development of private minerals mining activities into micro mines.’ Representatives of extractors of gold by manual methods from Ovorkhangai, Bayankhongor, Gobi-Altai, and Omnogobi aimags attended the consultation to review the current state of gold miners. An appeal was released on sustainable micro mines. In Bayankhongor aimag, a project with this purpose has been implemented experimentally since 2005. The main stage of the project will be carried out between 2007 and 2010.

A cooperation memorandum of understanding has been signed between the administration of Zavkhan aimag and World Vision international organization. Measures the document reflects will be implemented within five years to come, and at least USD nine million will be required. Support will be rendered to sustainable development of the province and to ensure the well being of its inhabitants. Kh. Bayarlkhaga, deputy governor of the aimag and Alex Snauri, World Vision Resident Representative in Mongolia, signed the document.

In Darkhan-Uul aimag, a trade fair, ‘Ulaanbaatar Darkhan Partnership-2007,’ will be conducted by Guch PR Agency on December 7-10 to advertise activities of business organizations, strengthen business partnerships and select the best products and services. Producers of food products and consumer goods from Ulaanbaatar city and Darkhan-Uul, Bulgan, Orkhon, and Selenge aimags, cell phone operators, and banking and financial organizations are expected to attend. The trade far will be hosted every year to develop business ties between regions.

The diagnostic and medical treatment center of the western region in Khovd aimag has been provided with tomography medical equipment, the first of its kind in rural areas. It cost more than Tgs 2 billion and was presented to the aimag free-of-charge. Doctors and engineers have been trained in Ulaanbaatar to operate the equipment. A cooperation agreement was signed between the diagnostic center and the Polio Clinic of Taiwan’s, Taigun city.