On September 1, 2023, a signing ceremony of the cooperation protocol for the implementation of “President sport complex” was held.

E.Zolboo, the Deputy Minister of Construction and Urban Development, signed on behalf of Mongolian party, and Luo Zhaohui, the director of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, signed on behalf of the People's Republic of China.

In the protocol, all issues related to the research, design, construction, management and operation of the "President Sports Complex" project named after the Presidents of the two countries were resolved.

The technical and economic basis of the project, the necessary basic research and design work were carried out by the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development in cooperation with the team of "Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tongji University" of China.

The complex has an area of 58.560 square meters for basketball, volleyball, soccer, swimming, tennis, table tennis, air tennis, squash tennis, boxing, wrestling, rock climbing, fencing, shooting, archery and fitness, yoga, spinning and cycling, a total of 19 types of sports.

The sport complex has an importance that children, youth and citizens can spend their free time properly, and athletes can achieve success in international competitions, Olympics, continental and world competitions.

It is planned to reach 70 percent of public utility works and services to be performed by the private sector this year and 100 percent in 2024. In this context, five works are being transferred to the private sector in stages.

Specifically, cleaning, service and waste transportation of roads and streets’ 95, maintenance and protection of green areas’ 99, lighting, maintenance and repair of public roads’ 100, urban landscaping, construction, sidewalk work’s 94, public toilet services’ 84 percent are transferred to the private sector. Three-year contract was signed with enterprises. As a result, the organizations were able to get investment loans, and the conditions for staff to work stably were made.

"Healthy future" campaign to be organized

In order to reduce maternal and child morbidity and mortality, the Health Department of the Capital city is implementing 20 activities in five areas. For example, it has organized training on comprehensive management of children's diseases and specialization in adolescent health. In addition to organizing events such as discussions based on serious cases of maternal mortality, Youth Cabinets were established in the districts. Preparations are being made for the "Healthy Future" campaign in order to expand training and advertising for teenagers, children and youths to prevent smoking and electronic cigarettes.

MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE OF THE CAPITAL CITY

The city of Ulaanbaatar has received permission from the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Mongolia, and the Financial Regulatory Commission to issue bonds worth up to MNT 500 billion in the domestic market. Specifically, the Law on the Legal Status of the Capital City was revised and approved in 2021, and the city of Ulaanbaatar has the right to issue bonds in the financial market. In this way, Ulaanbaatar is able to follow the standards of major cities in the world and use more efficient means of financing to decide on major infrastructure investments and to work independently financially.

In the process of releasing Ulaanbaatar city bonds to the financial market, the lead underwriter will be “BDSec UtsK” JSC, and the sub-underwriters will be “TDB Securities UTsK” LLC and “Golomt Capital UTsK” LLC. In this context, the Governor's Office of the Capital city signed a cooperation agreement with the leading underwriters and sub-underwriters.

The leading underwriter "BDSec UTsK" JSC is a leading securities company in the industry, which has been continuously operating for 31 years since the beginning of the stock market relations in Mongolia. In 2006, the company became a public company through an IPO on the Mongolian Stock Exchange, and in 2021, it was selected as the "Best Broker" and "Best Investment Bank" of Mongolia. www.bdsec.mn

The sub-underwriter "Golomt Capital UTsK" LLC was founded in 2011, and is one of the market leaders, having performed 40% of all IPO and FPO underwriting services announced in the Mongolian market in the last five years. www.golomtcapital.com

Sub-underwriter “TDB Securities UTsK” LLC served as the domestic advisor for Chinggis Bond, which was issued for the first time in the international market by the Government of Mongolia. Since then, the company has attracted a total of 3.8 billion dollars of investment from foreign markets and has rich experience in international markets. Most recently, they offered US government bonds (Treasury Bill) to investors for the first time in Mongolia. www.tdbsecurities.mn

The leading underwriter, who will provide professional services as an intermediary and guarantor in the public offering of Ulaanbaatar bonds, was selected by the Procurement Department of the Capital city on the order of the Governor’s Office of the Capital city.

MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE OF THE CAPITAL CITY

The IESF World Esports Championship 2023 took place in Iași, Romania between August 26 and September 3, 2023.

A total of 16 teams from around the globe, including Mongolia, Sweden, Ukraine, the United States, and Egypt, converged to battle in the DOTA 2 tournament of the Championships with a prize pool of USD 100 thousand.

The Mongolian team, IHC E-Sports, topped Group B with a perfect 3-0 record, defeating teams from Jordan, Romania, and South Africa. In the Upper Bracket Semifinals, they lost to Kyrgyzstan 2-1, but they bounced back in the Lower Bracket and defeated the United States, Indonesia, and Kyrgyzstan.

The Grand Final was a close-fought battle between Mongolia and Myanmar. Myanmar took the first game, but Mongolia won the next two games and became a World Champion. Winning a major DOTA2 tournament was a historic achievement for Mongolia.

It’s a mid-winter’s day and the temperature in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wanting to keep her family warm in their yurt — a portable, circular dwelling made of a lattice of flexible wood and covered in felt — and disconnected from the city’s gas utility system, a mother burns raw coal.

Smoke soon fills the yurt. With every breath, for more than an hour, the mother and her children ingest the smoke into their lungs.

More than 6,000 miles away, in January 2020, Shamsher Warudkar read an article in the bulletin of the World Health Organization. The article says that approximately 830,00 individuals living in Ulaanbaatar’s Ger Districts — located on the hills and mountains surrounding the city — are disconnected from Ulaanbaatar’s gas utility system. A UNICEF report says the lung function of children born and raised in Ulaanbaatar, where the average winter high temperature is 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit — is only 40% of their rural counterparts.

Warudkar, an aerospace engineering student at Arizona State University, asks Professor Jared Schoepf, director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, what can be done to help.

Three years later, the mother burns more raw coal to heat the family’s yurt. But a small, solar-powered air-filtration system dissipates the smoke in less than 30 minutes.

The children breathe easier, thanks to a team of nine ASU students who saw a problem and invented a solution.

“The students were passionate on making a positive impact for the community members that needed it the most,” Schoepf said. “I’m very proud of them.”

Sun power

The project’s name is Project Koyash, named after the Mongolian god of the sun.

So far, students working on the project have sent 13 of the air-filtration systems to Mongolia, and team leader Bryan Yavari, a senior majoring in neuroscience, has formed a nonprofit corporation called Koyash, whose purpose is to raise funding for the assembly and shipment of as many units as possible.

“The goal is to obtain as much funding as we can because at the end of the day, we have the data to prove the system works,” Yavari said. “We’re working to develop a local supply chain. But that’s for the longer-term future. Right now, people’s lives are at stake, so we have to get as many units there as we can.”

The EPICS program at ASU consists of approximately 550 students whose goal is to design, build and deploy systems to solve engineering-based real-world problems centered around four themes: community development, education, health and sustainability.

“Students work with a community partner to define the problem,” said Schoepf, adding that EPICS teams are currently working on 70 different projects. “Rather than assuming the problem and the best solution for the community, the students complete a needs assessment where they work with the community to define the user needs and engineering design requirements.

“The example I love to use is that if someone said they need something that anyone in their family can use, that’s the user need. The engineering design requirement is, ‘OK, children ages 5 to 10 must be able to learn how to use the solution in under five minutes. Whatever we do must be simple enough that the children can help with the use of the solution for the long-term success of the project.'”

When Yavari, Warudkar and the rest of the team got together in the fall of 2020 (COVID pushed the project back several months), they started brainstorming by breaking the project down into two parts: What is the problem, and what are the user needs — which in this case was electrification and filtration.

Originally, the team investigated alternative fuel sources to reduce the air pollution; however, after talking with the community members, they realized those solutions were too expensive and outside air pollution would still enter their home and be unsafe for the families. Instead, they decided to investigate reducing the air pollution through filtration.

Because electricity isn’t available to families living in the yurts and Ulaanbaatar receives more than 290 days of sun per year on average, powering an air-filtration system with solar panels became the clear choice.

Solar panels outside of a yurt

The filtration system is powered by solar panels, seen here outside of a yurt in Mongolia. Photo courtesy Bryan Yavari

They connected the solar panels to a charge controller — the controller regulates the voltage supplied by the panels to batteries — and then connected the controller to a rechargeable car battery. The battery, through an inverter, was hooked up to a multi-faceted air filter — one side is an activated carbon filter and the other an air ionizer filter.

The system also contained an Arduino the team built — “it’s kind of like the brain of the system,” Yavari said, which regulates the battery percentage, turning the charging from the solar panel off if the battery percentage becomes too high. Therefore, the system will not overheat and will run autonomously.

Warudkar said that “a battery may or may not have been lit on fire at some point in the initial prototyping stages.”

Through testing

The team spent the entire 2020 fall semester testing the power system to see if all the components worked. The next hurdle was replicating the smoke-filled conditions in the yurts.

Fortunately, Warudkar’s sister, who lives in Tempe, has a shed in her backyard. The team covered up the ventilation holes inside the shed, purchased a meat smoker, packed it with coal and for nearly a year conducted tests, filling the shed with smoke in order to determine how the electrical components responded and what filters worked best.

Their system worked, obtaining an air quality index value of four; an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality.

Because most of the parts were purchased off store shelves, the per-unit cost came to only $400. Also, the inverter, battery and Arduino fit inside a weatherproof box that’s just 12 inches high, 8 inches wide and 6 inches deep.

“A lot of the inventions we do consist of taking parts that already exist and integrating them together in a new, unique way,” Schoepf said. “That’s something we push heavily in the class in terms of working with our international partners. The last thing we want to do is create something that’s so drastically complex there’s no way to fix it or do maintenance. This ensures long-term success of the project.”

With the invention validated, Yavari reached out to the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, which operates in the area. The team collaborated with the Mongolian Consulate, a system was sent for testing and, soon after, 12 more were shipped to Mongolia.

“This system is great for the families in Ulaanbaatar,” said Bayar Be, one of Project Koyash’s community partners in Mongolia. “It’s easy to use and effective at filtering the air.”

Yavari is currently collaborating on a research project with pediatricians to determine the impact their solution is having on the children’s lives.

“It makes such a big difference in those children’s developmental stages for the families that are there,” Yavari added. “It can help extend and save lives.”

BY Scott Bordow

Reporter , ASU News

Scott.Bordow@asu.edu

Last year by its Decree No.296, the Government of Mongolia newly approved the Regulation on Mineral Extraction by Micro-Mining. This regulation pursues the two main objectives: increase local employment and give artisanal miners areas damaged by mining activities for use towards further reclamation.

A joint consultation of the parties implementing the regulation on micro-mining was held yesterday in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the extent of implementation of the regulation, the problems faced by the parties implementing the regulation, and solutions thereof within the year since the approval of the regulation.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ecological Police Department, Khentiy, Selenge, Arkhangai, Uvurkhangai, Bayankhongor, Gobi-Altai, Uvs, Dundgobi aimags’ environmental inspectors and soum governors, where small scale mining is active, took part in the meeting, exchanged opinions on the implementation of the regulation and got a common understanding. The participants highlighted the effectiveness of supporting formal task units and improving accountability in the fight against illegal activities. They considered impossible to implement in practice the stipulation in the revised draft of the Law on Minerals to abolish micro-mining as a concept.

The consultation was initiated by the Mongolian Union of Micro Mining and organized in cooperation with the “Building Capacity to Counter Illegal Mining” Project of the Asia Foundation. The proposals from the consultation will be compiled and submitted to the stakeholders as recommendations.

The Energy Week Central Asia and Mongolia 2023 to take place in Astana on Sept. 19-20 will focus on advancing clean and renewable energy initiatives in the regions, reported the conference’s press office.

Transforming into a clean energy hub

The conference highlights the region’s significant potential in solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, and its cooperation with international companies to transform Central Asia into a clean energy hub.

“To achieve this, fostering a robust policy framework that encourages private and foreign investments is paramount,” reads the press statement.

Attracting investments

To encourage renewable energy adoption, transparent regulations, public-private partnerships, and financial incentives such as tax breaks or subsidies are essential for attracting the private sector investments.

Attracting domestic and foreign investment is a key step toward achieving sustainable development and energy security in the region, as Central Asian countries look to diversify their energy sources and reduce their carbon footprint.

Solar and wind energy

The conference will feature detailed discussion on solar photovoltaic technologies to establish grid-connected solar farms, distributed solar installations, and off-grid systems to power remote areas.

With decreasing costs of solar panels and improving efficiency, solar energy can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, and create job opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

Wind energy developments in Central Asia and Mongolia present a valuable opportunity to diversify their energy mix and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Green hydrogen potential

As Central Asian countries are strategically positioned to become major green hydrogen exporters, the region’s green hydrogen potential is highlighted as a key driver of a low-carbon economy.

“Abundant solar and wind resources offer a unique advantage in producing green hydrogen through electrolysis, a process that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity,” reads the statement.

The conference stresses that transitioning towards a greener energy mix, including hydropower, requires technological improvements, environmental considerations, regulatory consistency, and financial support.

To address these issues, the event will bring together high-level officials, state companies and banks from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, global developers, investors, and independent power producers such as Total Eren, ACWA Power, Svevind, EDF, and Voltalia, Singaporean government-owned consultancy Surbana Jurong, the largest renewables cluster of Türkiye ENSiA, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Italian Eni, Clean Energy Asia, Delegation of German Economy in Central Asia, the International Hydropower Association, and other institutions.

As part of the Tavantolgoi-Gashuunsukhait Railway Complex Project, 811 wagons have been fully received at the border of Mongolia.

The innovative wagons manufactured at the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant of Russia have been produced by the most advanced technology with the designated service interval of eight years or one million km. Due to dual wheel bearings and two-cylinder brakes or double brakes, the reliability of the train movement has been enhanced, bringing the exploitation term up to 32 years.

An exploitation of the innovative wagons in the railway transportation sector of the country will not only diminish the frequency of repairs and transportation costs, but will also be highly significant in increasing the export of mining products and currency inflow, reports the Ministry of Road and Transport Development.