On the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a meeting with President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh.

The Head of State noted warm and traditionally friendly relations between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The President emphasized the possibility of expanding bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also noted that in order to give additional impetus to trade and economic cooperation, it is necessary to intensify the work of the Intergovernmental Commission and create a Business Council of Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

At the end of the meeting, the presidents of the two countries discussed the possibility of mutual visits in the near future.

China's coal imports from all origins rose in August, customs data showed on Wednesday, as the world's top consumer of the fuel bought up cheaper overseas supplies after domestic output fell.

Russian coal arrivals reached 9.97 million metric tons, up from July's 8.99 million tons, and 16.7% higher than the same month last year.

Imports from Australia also rose 6% from the prior month to 6.69 million tons, while arrivals from Mongolia, largely of coking coal, surged 20.5% from July to a record 7.16 million tons.

China's total coal imports came to 44.3 million tons last month, data showed earlier, a record volume for a single month, thanks to lower domestic supply that pushed up local prices.

China's coal output has declined in recent months as authorities tightened safety and shut mines for inspections amid a string of deadly accidents.

Domestic coal prices increased through August, with SteelHome assessing the benchmark price for thermal coal with energy content of 5,500 kilocalories (kcal) at the port of Qinhuangdao at 835 yuan ($114.45) per metric ton on Aug. 28, up from 779 yuan per ton in June.

The price for 5,500 kcal coal cargoes at Australia's Newcastle Port, as assessed by commodity price reporting agency Argus, was $85.19 a metric ton in the week to Aug. 18.

China also imported 18.7 million tons of coal from Indonesia, up 18.4% from the prior month.

Mongolia’s economic recovery continued through this year and gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be maintained in the near term, according to Asian Development Outlook (ADO) September 2023, released today. It is anticipated to be driven by robust external demand, recovery in exports, and revived domestic demand, though tempered by persistently high inflation, contractionary monetary policy, and tight domestic financing conditions.

In its Asian Development Outlook (ADO) September 2023, the growth forecast for 2023 is revised up slightly from the projection of 5.4 percent in April to 5.7 percent, but revised down to 5.9 percent for 2024, from the previous forecast of 6.1 percent. GDP growth in 2024 will be driven by mining, with positive spillover into transport and other services, as well as private sector lending.

Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is expected to remain solid, although risks to the outlook are rising, according to the ADB report. The region’s developing economies are forecast to grow 4.7 percent this year, a slight downward revision from a previous projection of 4.8 percent. The growth forecast for next year is maintained at 4.8 percent.

“Although the recovery of Mongolia was uneven in terms of sector contributions, the economy’s near-term growth prospects remain robust,” said ADB Senior Country Economist for Mongolia Edward Faber. “Maintaining price stability, improving employment, and strengthening economic resilience through structural reforms are imperative to make growth more sustainable and inclusive.”

Economic expectation and visibility in Mongolia have improved since the beginning of this year, mainly due to reopening in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), subsequent recovery in exports, significant improvements in the current account balance, rebounding of foreign exchange reserves and lowered risks associated with the external debt repayment.

However, inflation remained high and above the central bank’s target for the past 27 consecutive months despite recent moderations. Inflation is likely to trend downward in the second half of 2023, though average inflation will remain high at 10.5 percent for this year before moderating to 8.6 percent for 2024, revised down slightly from the previous projections in April.

Downside risks to the outlook would arise from any decrease in the PRC’s demand for bulk commodities, a fall in coal and metals prices, new trade restrictions, disruption caused by exacerbated geopolitical tensions, negative spillover from tighter financing conditions, global uncertainty and slowdown, or capital flow reversal.

The "Study Australia" Education Fair was held on 16th of September 2023 at the Shangri-La Hotel. Representatives of Australian educational institutions, universities and colleges participated in this exhibition.

Thousands of people, especially the younger generations, attended the exhibition to meet with representatives of Australian institutions face to face to learn more about their programs, scholarships, and admission opportunities. Katie Smith, Australian Ambassador to Mongolia opened the exhibition.

She said “Australia is also known for being one of the most livable countries in the world. Our relaxed lifestyle, along with the opportunity to enjoy our beautiful nature, offers students a balanced experience.

In addition, we are a multicultural society that respects and celebrates different cultures. Nearly half of all Australian residents were either born overseas or had at least one parent who was born overseas, so diversity underpins the Australian way of life. Prior to the pandemic, the number of Mongolians choosing to study in Australia had been increasing every year, and there were approximately 5,700 Mongolian students studying in Australia’s education institutions by the end of 2019.

While these connections were disrupted during COVID, it is pleasing to see very strong recovery of Mongolian students returning to Australia, particularly in the first six months of this year, with enrolments up 97% on 2022 levels, and even up 24% on 2019 pre-pandemic levels! I am confident we will continue to see more and more Mongolians take up the fantastic opportunity to study and deepen their experience through spending some time in Australia, including – I hope – many of you who are here today”.

We have asked questions to Ambassador Katie Smith about the exhibition and the Australian Awards scholarship.

- What is the aim of Australian Education Fair 2023?

- The Study Australia Education Fair 2023, is all about getting the message out there to young Mongolians about the opportunities to study in Australia, be that tertiary education or English language or technical and vocational education or even high school education. Australia is such a wonderful place for young Mongolians to come and study. We have such a great lifestyle. It's a very livable country. Their student support services are very strong, including for international students. So they will have a very supported experience in Australia. Also, there's amazing opportunities in Australia's, nature and wildlife, and I think they'll really enjoy that opportunity.

We have such strong linkages in education, be that from the scholarships or be that from young Mongolians who've been studying in Australia

- How many universities and colleges are participating in this event?

- So at today's event, there are 22 Australian institutions here. These are technical and vocational education, higher education, and English language colleges. And there's some high schools as well represented. So they've come all the way from Australia just to talk to young Mongolians. And we are so pleased we've had around 4000 young Mongolians show interest. So they'll be coming in today and talking face to face to these universities about the courses they offer, and all the extra support services that they offer as well.

- When I came in here, I saw there was a long line of young generation in the outside. So that means a lot of Mongolian young generations are very interested in Australian education. What is the advantage of the Australian Awards to Mongolian, especially for young generation?

- Well, we’re so proud of our Australia Awards program. This is our 30th anniversary this year. It’s been running for that long. During that time, we’ve had over 700 Mongolians graduate from that program. And they’re just so inspirational, these alumni, because they come back and they really contribute to Mongolia’s development, be that in private sector or public sector or government or civil society, whatever they choose to do, they’re so extremely successful. The scholarships program is really beneficial because the families can go to Australia with the students. So it’s really an experience for the whole family. And we’ve had generations now of Mongolians going under this program. Again, it’s all about the quality of the experience in Australia as well.

Our universities, 90% of them are globally ranked universities, so their reputation is very strong and those support services and that lifestyle is also really strong. This year, I was so pleased to announce an increase in our scholarships program. So next year we’ll be offering 50% increase to 15 scholarships. And hopefully in future years, we can just keep increasing. For me, education is the cornerstone of our relationship, the Australia-Mongolia relationship. We have such strong linkages in education, be that from the scholarships or be that from young Mongolians who've been studying in Australia. We now have over 22,000 Mongolians who've studied in Australia over the past 20 years. So the numbers really are a testament to the strong relationship that we have.

- Thank you so much for your time.

India and Mongolia reviewed the progress of construction of the country's first oil refinery, which is being built with the assistance of New Delhi. The project review was conducted during the three-day visit of Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs Saurabh Kumar to Mongolia, which ended on Thursday.

Kumar held talks with Mongolian Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ankhbayar Nyamdorj and visited Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan, as well as Minister and Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve.

He also visited the Gandan and Pethub monasteries, and toured the Dornogovi province, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes.

The sides discussed further strengthening the India-Mongolia strategic partnership and maintaining high-level interaction, the Ministry added.

The parties exchanged views on cooperation in various sectors, including development partnership, education, information technology, renewable energy, communications, culture, capacity building, hydrocarbons, mining, defense and security.

President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa arrived in New York (USA) on September 19-23 to participate in general discussions at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

The President of Mongolia will take part in the general discussions of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. He will make a speech in which he will express Mongolia's position on current issues of international relations. He also plans to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and heads of state and government of several countries.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Development of Mongolia Khurelbaatar Chimed will participate in the high-level meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals and the high-level discussion on Financing for Development.

Government representatives led by Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh will take part in the main events of the conference.