The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a protocol of discussion with the government of Mongolia on a technical cooperation project on tax administration capacity development using big data in Ulaanbaatar on August 15.

Mongolia has a fragile fiscal base as its economy is heavily dependent on external factors such as international resource prices. Ensuring stable budget revenues and strengthening the capacity of tax administration have become urgent issues within the country.

This project will develop a big data-driven risk analysis model to identify issues such as taxpayers at high risk of underreporting, enabling an efficient tax administration process to be implemented.

The project will help improve the efficiency of tax administration in the country by developing Mongolia's big data capabilities and improving the administrative process. It will also contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals on decent work and economic growth, reducing inequalities and partnership to achieve the goals.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry is implementing the vegetable and irrigated agriculture project with funding from the Asian Development Bank in 2020-2026.

7,000 hectares of land will be introduced into irrigated crop rotation through the modernization of 4 irrigation systems of 18 districts of local ownership, research institutions in 8 provinces.

50 billion tugriks have been invested in the construction of irrigation systems capable of irrigating a total of 3,031 hectares in 10 districts of 7 provinces, including Bayan-Olgii, Govi-Altai, Zavkhan, Selenge, Tov, Khovd and Khentii.

More than 3,500 families of farmers will produce an average of 8,000 tons of vegetables and 90,000 tons of livestock feed per year after the creation of engineered irrigation systems.

The number of irrigated crops will increase by 10-12%, which will help protect agricultural production from risks and ensure food stability in the face of climate change, drought and warming.

After promoting sustainable livestock farming and education for two decades, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will discontinue its programme in Mongolia at the end of 2024. This is in line with the new direction of its foreign policy.

The SDC opened its cooperation office in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar in 2004, three years after it had launched its assistance programme in the landlocked Asian country. Switzerland’s assistance aimed to promote sustainable livestock farming and food security.

Nomadic livestock farming is of great cultural, societal and economic significance in Mongolia. Around 110 million hectares or 70% of the country, which is almost 38 times larger than Switzerland, is covered in grassland - and intact grassland is the most important livelihood for the nomads. It is called “Green Gold” in Mongolia.

The heavy use of pastures and the effects of climate change are extremely challenging for Mongolia. The number of livestock, particularly goats, has increased considerably over the last few decades, which is partially due to the rising demand for cashmere wool. However, the heavy use and frequent overuse of the land reduces the biodiversity and leads to the desertification of the land.

Together with the nomads, Mongolian authorities and other partners, the SDC launched the “Green Gold and Animal Health” project in 2004. Based on agreements with local authorities, the nomads have committed to cultivate the land communally and sustainably.

According to indicators, such as the number and type of plants, it was determined which zones should be opened for grazing and which ones should be protected. So far, more than 92,000 nomad families have made a contractual commitment to sustainable rangeland management which now covers half of the entire grazing land.

“Switzerland has played a significant role in rehabilitating more than 20 million hectares of fallow grazing land within 15 years. This is almost five times the size of Switzerland,” says Stefanie Burri, head of the SDC cooperation office and Swiss consul in Mongolia.

At the same time, Switzerland also contributed to reduce desertification. The project, which has now come to an end, has also proved successful in rolling out a digital system for tracking animal products. It aims to provide information on hygiene and food security.

The project also helped set up more than 76 nomadic cooperatives across the country which manufacture and sell products under their own label dubbed “Responsible Nomads”. Burri believes in the success of this concept. The internationally renowned Mongolian rock band “The Hu”, for example, produces its leather merchandise under this brand.

The “Responsible Nomad” label also banks on innovation. Yaks are traditionally used as pack animals in Mongolia which means their hair and leather are considered low quality. However, the project has developed a special type of comb to extract good quality yak wool which can be used for scarves, jumpers or blankets. And a new start-up in the capital Ulaanbaatar produces handmade footballs from yak leather.

In the food security sector, the SDC supported a state-run research project which developed a climate-resistant potato variety. Thanks to this project, Mongolia is now able to meet its own demand for potatoes and does not have to import them from China. The quality of seeds has also been improved which means that more carrots, cabbages and beetroot are now planted.

Democratic reforms and scholarships

The SDC’s budget between 2022 and 2024 stands at CHF 8.2 million which is significantly less than the CHF 46.4 million for the period between 2018 and 2021. The funds are allocated for projects on good governance, climate change and the environment as well as inclusive economic development. The SDC also worked on decentralisation and democratic reforms in Mongolia. For example, it helped push through a new law to increase the financial power of local governments by allocating 40% of the [national] tax revenues to them. Furthermore, Mongolians can now initiate motions and resolutions which are discussed in the local councils.

Since 2017, Switzerland has supported the Secretariat of Mongolia’s parliament (State Great Hural) by providing training and promoting parliamentarian oversight. The Secretariat offers advice during all stages of the legislative process.

“The cooperation between the Secretariat of the Great Hural and the SDC has significantly contributed to the promotion of parliamentary democracy in Mongolia,” says Luvsandorj Ulziisaikhan, Secretary General of Mongolia’s parliament. He points out that the number of citizens participating in the democratic process has grown, and local governance has improved.

The SDC initiated an exchange with regular visits by Mongolian parliamentarians in Switzerland and vice versa. The visits are due to continue beyond 2024.

Switzerland also provided support for vocational training and the establishment of start-up companies. For years, it has worked with the Zorig Foundation (ZF), a Mongolian non-governmental organisation (NGO) which offers scholarships for disadvantaged students. The SDC funded almost half of the 2,900 scholarships, 60% of which were given to women.

“The high employment rate of scholars is a clear sign that investing in talented young people who cannot afford a university degree has a lasting [positive] impact on their careers and livelihoods,” says the foundation’s director Tsolmon Bayar.

Swiss foreign policy’s new direction

The strategy for international cooperation 2021-2024 aims to concentrate more on fragile contexts. For this reason, the SDC decided to end its bilateral development cooperation with 11 of the 46 countries as of the end of 2024. Mongolia is one of these countries.

Critics in Switzerland view this move as a paradigm shift from humanitarian work to a type of development cooperation that is motivated by Swiss foreign policy to influence migration flows.

The human resources in Mongolia are gradually being reduced. The number of SDC employees in Mongolia has dropped from 28 in 2020 to currently 12. The organisation has handed over its projects to the national and local governments as well as to research institutes and universities in the country.

All partners of the projects had been involved in the projects in the past and either contributed financially or provided infrastructure which has paid off: the projects are due to continue even after the SDC has closed its programmes in Mongolia. “It is important to pass laws that provide local authorities with budgets for such projects,” says Burri.

Need for reforms

Switzerland will continue to be represented in Mongolia, albeit more indirectly. It will cooperate with institutions like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and UN agencies such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

“The biggest challenge Mongolia faces is climate change,” says Burri. The desertification of the country is increasingly visible. Half of the 3.5 million people now live in the capital Ulaanbaatar; youth unemployment is high at 19%; and the government is heavily indebted.”

Mongolia still deeply relies on exporting raw materials. Most of the country’s revenues are generated through mining coal, copper, uranium, gold and in the future also rare earths. Mongolia exports gold worth CHF1 billion to Switzerland alone per year.

The government currently promotes the processing of products. Mongolia wants to expand its solar and wind energy infrastructure with the goal to replace coal as an energy source by 2050.

Swiss Mongolian partnership continues

Next year, Switzerland and Mongolia will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Burri thinks that this long partnership has created trust and offers the opportunity for new joint activities. “While one stage comes to an end, new doors open.”

The exhibition of the Rietberg Museum in Zurich is one such example. Together with the Mongolian Ministry of Culture, the museum wants to stage an exhibition on Mongolia’s urbanisation in 2025. And the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) wants to establish a regional hub for training defence attachés in Ulaanbaatar.

Translated by Billi Bierling

Pope Francis is set to visit Mongolia and tour the Buddhist-majority nation's capital at the government's invitation this week, becoming the first pontiff to set foot there.

Here are five things to know about Mongolia:

Landlocked Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China, with which it has close economic ties.

Unlike its massive neighbours, Mongolia is democratically governed, with the US-based advocacy group Freedom House describing the country's political system as "free", albeit saddled with widespread corruption.

Mongolia's head of state is President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, a former prime minister and member of the ruling party elected to his current office in 2021.

Despite their differences, Ulaanbaatar has been careful not to upset the regional powers.

Eighty-six percent of Mongolia's total exports go to China, half of which is coal.

And Mongolia is among a handful of countries that have not explicitly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Traditionally dependent on agriculture, the country has experienced rapid economic growth on the back of a mining boom.

Profits from coal made up a quarter of Mongolia's gross domestic product in 2022.

Mongolia is also a major exporter of copper and iron ore.

Its capital Ulaanbaatar's population has quadrupled since the 1990s, with skyscrapers sprouting up across the sprawling city.

But poverty reduction in the middle-income country has stalled in recent years and economic inequality remains high.

And the women's employment rate has dropped from 72 percent in 1992 to 53 percent, largely due to a lack of childcare options.

The once-Communist nation enshrined its first democratic constitution in 1992, when it emerged from the Soviet orbit after a popular revolution two years earlier.

It is still heavily reliant on Russian fuel, and nostalgia for Soviet times remains strong in some quarters.

But the country has sought to distance itself from its recent past, tearing down statues of Stalin and Lenin and instead turning to celebrations of Genghis Khan, who led history's largest contiguous land empire in the 13th century.

Mongolia's government adopted the Cyrillic alphabet eight decades ago when it was ruled by the Soviet-dominated regime, but now it is also backing the revival of the traditional Hudum script following a surge of interest in the nation's cultural heritage.

The country's landscape is dominated by high-altitude grasslands and populated by just over three million residents spread across an area three times the size of France.

Its people have historically been nomadic, with one-third of the population still living in communities characterised by portable yurt dwellings.

Mongolia's steppes are home to the rare Przewalski's horse, an ancient equine subspecies brought back in recent years from the brink of extinction through breeding programmes at zoos worldwide.

Mongolia has one of the world's smallest Catholic communities, estimated at just 1,500 people.

Buddhism has returned to prominence after it was suppressed under Communist rule, with over half of the population now identifying as Buddhist, according to official figures.

Deep-rooted shamanist practices are also influential in the country, with traditional rituals featuring in major festivals.

If copper mining is any indication, there’s still plenty of work to do to bring down inflation.

Cash costs at mines in Chile, the top-producing copper nation, jumped 29% in the first three months of the year compared with the same period of 2022, according to a report released Monday by government agency Cochilco.

Inflationary pressure is coming from lower ore quality, which means more rock has to be crushed to extract the same amount of metal. Other factors include pricier wages, energy and refinery fees. The cost increases would have been more severe if not for higher receivables from the sale of molybdenum and gold as byproducts.

While some of those factors have changed since the first quarter, two key cost drivers — lower ore grades and disruptions to production and projects — have continued, particularly at state behemoth Codelco.

(By James Attwood)

A new glass greenhouse is set to be constructed in Mongolia and will be completed by the end of September, providing an ideal environment for various crops throughout the year. With an area of 800 square meters, this project aims to improve agricultural practices in the country and enhance food production. The glass greenhouse will be equipped with heating systems to ensure a stable and favorable climate for plant growth, even during the harsh Mongolian winters. This technological feature will enable farmers to grow a wide range of fruits and vegetables, which were previously challenging to cultivate due to the extreme weather conditions.

One of the primary advantages of a glass greenhouse is its ability to harness solar energy efficiently. The transparent glass panels will allow sunlight to penetrate the structure, providing ample natural light for photosynthesis. This, combined with the heating system, will create an optimal environment for plants to thrive, regardless of external weather conditions.

The project is a significant milestone for Mongolia, where agriculture plays a crucial role in the economy. The glass greenhouse is expected to boost crop yields, reduce dependence on imported produce, and create new employment opportunities in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, it will contribute to the country’s efforts to achieve food security and self-sustainability.

Pope Francis is about to leave for Mongolia, a visit he has “longed for,” and one that was already contemplated in the unrealized plans of St. John Paul II, after missionaries revived a Christian community in the early 1990s. The Church that will receive the embrace of the Successor of Peter in the heart of Asia is a Church “small in numbers, but lively in faith and great in charity.” Pope Francis will meet not only the country’s 1,500 Catholics, but all the “noble” and “wise” Mongolian people with their great Buddhist tradition.

Why is the pope going to Mongolia? Why is he devoting five days of his schedule (two days of travel plus three days on the ground) to visiting such a small group of Catholics? Is “geopolitics” involved since it is a trip to a country that borders the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China? In fact, the motivation for the pilgrimage to the peripheries of Asia has no “geopolitical” implications and is certainly not the defining trait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's pontificate.

On Monday, 30 November 1970, Pope St Paul VI made a long journey, reaching as far as the Samoan Islands in the Pacific Ocean. During the celebration of Mass in the village of Leulumoega Tuai, on the northwestern coast of the island of Upolu, he set aside the majestic “we” then used by pontiffs and said, “It is not a desire for travel nor any self-interest whatever that has drawn me to you. I come because we are all brothers and sisters; or, to put it another way, you are my sons and daughters and it is fitting that I, as father of the family that is the Catholic Church, should show each one that he has a right to equal affection. Do you know the meaning of ‘Catholic Church’? It means that the Church is for the entire world, that she is for all, that nowhere is she an alien. Each human being, whatever his or her country, race, age, or education has a place in the Church.”

The Church: a place for everyone. The Church, where the priority is not numbers and where no one is a foreigner, whatever language, culture, people, or nation they belong to. It is the Church “para todos” - for all - that Pope Francis spoke about in Lisbon. Less than a month after WYD, the Bishop of Rome is back on the road, telling his “brothers and sisters in Mongolia” that he is “happy to travel to be among you as a brother of all.”

Mongolia's Catholics - all 1,450 of them - could be squeezed standing into St. Peter's Basilica dozens of times over and their number is smaller than the congregation of a small parish in some small towns.

So why is Pope Francis, 86 and in need of a wheelchair, travelling 8,278 km (5,143 miles) to visit them this week?

Essentially, to paraphrase British climber George Mallory's response in the 1920s as to why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, because the Catholics are there.

"I can't even fathom this," said Arvanai Hashdorj, 19, a university student who attended Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar on Sunday. "So I am very grateful".

Hashdorj told Reuters he had recently returned from the Catholic Church's World Youth Day gathering in Lisbon, where young people from countries with millions of Catholics noted in conversations with him that the pope had not yet visited their countries.

Visiting places where Catholics are a minority is part of Francis' policy of drawing attention to people and problems in what he has called the peripheries of society and of the world.

He still has not visited most of the capitals of Western Europe.

Francis, who will be attending an inter-religious service in Mongolia, said at his weekly noon address on Sunday that he would be visiting "a Church that is small in numbers but vivacious in faith".

Last year, Francis named Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, an Italian, the first cardinal to be based in Mongolia, where he is the Catholic Church's administrator.

"The originality of this trip is related to the originality of the country sparsely populated and with such a small Catholic community," Marengo said last month in Rome.

"This shows how for him (the pope), every single member of the faithful is important," said Marengo, who has been a missionary in Mongolia for more than 20 years.

Mongolia has nine parishes, compared to 25,500 in Italy. The smallest one, hundreds of miles from the capital, has only between 30-40 members.

Still, the visit will show how far it has come since locals watched "these funny foreigners praying," Marengo said.

'GREAT RELIGIOUS TRADITION'

Francis said on Sunday that he felt honoured to visit "a noble and wise people" with a "great religious tradition".

About 60% of Mongolians identify as religious. Among those, 87.1% are Buddhist, 5.4% Muslim, 4.2% Shamanist, 2.2% Christian and 1.1% followers of other religions, according to the U.S. State Department.

There are only two native Mongolian Catholic priests.

"I wanted to show the world that there is a Catholic Church (in Mongolia) and it's beautiful," said one of them, Father Peter Sanjaajav, after saying Mass at the Cathedral the pope will visit on Saturday as part of the Aug. 31-Sept 4 trip.

The country of about 3.3 million people is strategically significant for the Roman Catholic Church because of its proximity to China, where the Vatican is trying to improve the situation of Catholics amid sometimes scratchy relations with the communist government.

Mongolia was part of China until 1921 and still has close ties with Beijing. Diplomats say it could be used as an intermediary with China.

It was not clear if any Catholics from China would be allowed to cross the border to see the pope.

China is by far Mongolia's biggest export market, buying most of its coal, copper and cashmere, and Ulaanbaatar also relies on China's rail network to deliver its goods to third countries.

Mongolia has seen a revival of Tibetan Buddhism since the collapse of the Soviet-backed Communist government in 1990, and the Dalai Lama is regarded as its main spiritual leader.

However, China has repeatedly put pressure on Mongolia not to allow the 88-year old exiled Tibetan leader to visit, branding him a dangerous separatist.

Additional reporting by David Stanway in Singapore; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan