The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) successfully concluded the 65th Session of its Governing Body (GBM) with representatives of 19 APO member economies attending in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 24–26 May 2023. This marked the first in-person assembly in three years, symbolizing a promising return to normalcy after the shift to virtual meetings due to the pandemic.

This year’s GBM was generously hosted by the Mongolian Productivity Organization (MPO) and Government of Mongolia, demonstrating their commitment to sharing the productivity vision not only with the region but also beyond and taking a significant step toward the possible expansion of the APO’s reach to Central Asia. Their dedication, both as members and regional influencers, continues to play a crucial role in promoting and improving productivity throughout the Asia-Pacific. Notable guests from Mongolia included the Vice Chief Cabinet Secretary Byambasuren Urgamal and Economic Advisor to the President of Mongolia Davaadalai Batsuuri.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the official handing-over ceremonies under APO flagship programs to mark their launch. The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) of Japan was recently designated as the new Center of Excellence (COE) on Climate-smart Agriculture, showcasing how technology can revolutionize productivity in the agricultural sector, while the latest APO-accredited Certification Body (CB), the Productivity Certification Body of Pakistan (PCBP), is now offering certification to qualified specialists to drive productivity agendas. The handing-over ceremonies and special presentation on the COE created further interest in those flagship programs among APO members.

In line with the monitoring and evaluation framework of the APO Vision 2025, the GBM approved a "pause-and-reflect" exercise to ensure that the APO is on the right track to achieving its goals and objectives, adapting to the changing environment, and continuing to add value to member economies.

The prosperity and growth seen in the region are dependent on the tireless efforts of productivity champions, and the APO recognizes their significant contributions through its productivity award schemes. Established in 1978, with the most recent revisions approved by the GBM in 2021, the APO now offers three categories, Regional Award, Meritorious and Distinguished Award, and the National Award. For more details, visit https://www.apo-tokyo.org/about-the-apo-awards/.

In closing, APO Alternate Director and NPO Head for Malaysia Dato' Abdul Latif Haji Abu Seman expressed profound gratitude for the delegates’ robust discussions and contributions over the course of the meeting. "We will carry forward that spirit of collaboration, lessons learned, and decisions taken to continue working toward our goals," he pledged. He was delighted to extend an official invitation to delegates to Malaysia as the host of the 66th GBM.

The annual GBM continues to be central in strengthening relationships among the diverse APO members and their commitment to the shared mission of enhancing productivity in the Asia-Pacific.

About the APO

The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) is a regional intergovernmental organization dedicated to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region through mutual cooperation. It is nonpolitical, nonprofit, and nondiscriminatory. Established in 1961 with eight founding members, the APO currently comprises 21 member economies: Bangladesh; Cambodia; the ROC; Fiji; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; I.R. Iran; Japan; the ROK; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Mongolia; Nepal; Pakistan; the Philippines; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Thailand; Turkiye; and Vietnam.

The APO is shaping the future of the region by fostering the socioeconomic development of its members through national policy advisory services, acting as a think tank, institutional capacity-building initiatives, and knowledge sharing to increase productivity.

Mongolia was the main source of northern China’s worst sandstorms in five years from January to April, and may have contributed as much as 70% of the dust floating over capital Beijing, China’s environment ministry said on Monday.

Northern China is routinely hit by heavy sandstorms in the spring, with conditions worsened by deforestation and higher regional temperatures. It has tried to shield its major cities by planting extensive new forest known as “shelterbelts.”

But with the number of sandstorms rising again since 2017, the focus has gradually shifted to China’s northern neighbor, Mongolia, where a changing climate together with overgrazing and overmining have caused conditions to deteriorate.

China experienced as many as 12 large-scale sand and dust storms in the first four months of 2023, said Jiang Huohua, vice-head of the monitoring office at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Over that period, 267 Chinese cities in 27 provinces and regions suffered more than 4,800 days of sandstorms, the highest in five years, he said.

“Several large-scale dust processes occurred this spring, and the major sources are mainly the Gobi desert in southern Mongolia and sand sources in our country’s northwest,” he added.

“Expert analysis estimates that Mongolia can contribute up to 70% of the dust concentrations in Beijing and more than 50% of the dust concentrations in northern China and other central and eastern regions,” he said.

Around 77% of Mongolian land is regarded as degraded due to climate change and overgrazing, as per a 2021 assessment cited by the United Nations Development Programme. The country has also seen average temperatures rise by 2.2 degrees Celsius between 1940 and 2015, with rainfall plummeting 7% over the same period, according to a 2021 scientific study.

Mongolia has vowed to plant a billion trees over the 2021-2030 period, but officials in Ulaanbaatar complained earlier this month that the government has yet to provide sufficient funding, the official Montsame news agency reported.

China and Mongolia agreed to strengthen cooperation on preventing and controlling sandstorms during a meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Mongolian counterpart Batmunkh Battsetseg in Beijing this month.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

T'Way Air in the last few weeks filed planned operation for Mongolia during Northern summer 2023 season. The airline’s Seoul Incheon – Ulaanbaatar service already saw the restoration of 3rd weekly flight when seasonal service resumes on 02JUN23, this will be further increased to 4 weekly from 26JUN23.

Airbus A330-300 aircraft operates this seasonal route, scheduled until 29SEP23.

TW421 ICN1115 – 1400UBN 330 5

TW421 ICN1135 – 1400UBN 330 137

TW422 UBN1530 – 1935ICN 330 x246

Ganqimaodu border port, the largest artery in China for importing coal from Mongolia, saw its coal intakes reach 12.09 million tonnes from the start of 2023 to May 25, according to the port's official WeChat account.

The port's efforts in improving import efficiency and capacity have yielded impressive results in terms of customs clearance.

As of May 25, the cumulative import and export cargo volume through the border port reached 12.50 million tonnes, reflecting a substantial year-on-year increase of 251.87%.

Notably, the coal imports alone reached 12.09 million tonnes, accounting for 96.7 of the total. Imports of copper concentrate stood at 338,300 tonnes. Meanwhile, exports stood at 70,900 tonnes.

These figures highlight Ganqimaodu port's ability to surpass expectations by achieving 56.8% of its target task volume (22 million tonnes) well ahead of schedule.

Ganqimaodu has commenced the construction of dedicated AGV lanes for inbound and outbound traffic to facilitate traffic through the port, according to the official account.

(Writing by Emma Yang Editing by Harry Huo)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh at the ministry in Riyadh.

They reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, and discussed regional and international developments of common interest.

Prince Faisal and Batmunkh signed an agreement on political consultations between the Saudi and Mongolian ministries of foreign affairs.

The deal seeks to strengthen cooperation and friendship between the two countries and their people, and promote relations and joint coordination on all levels, with regard to bilateral relations and international issues of joint interest.

Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Harbi, Saudi ambassador to China and non-resident ambassador to Mongolia, and Abdul Rahman Al-Rasi, undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs for multilateral affairs, attended the meeting and signing of the agreement.

Under the auspices of the President of Mongolia, the 23rd Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO) successfully took place in Ulaanbaatar on May 22-28. Yesterday, the results of the APhO were summed up, in which 195 students from 27 countries of the Asia-Pacific region participated.

As part of the contest, participants were asked to solve theory and experiment-based complex questions of Physics.

Results of the APhO 2023:

Honorable Mention: 34 students

Bronze Medals: 23 student

Silver Medals: 17 students

Gold Medals: 33 students

Best Score in Theory: Lang Cheng Chao (China)

Best Score in Experiment: Igor Potapov (Russia)

Overall Winner (best total score): Lang Cheng Chao (China)

At the APhO 2023, all the students from the Chinese and Russian teams won gold medals and Chinese student Lang Cheng Chao obtained the highest score of 33.5 points. The 11th-grader L. Dulguun from the Mongolian team, the host country, won a bronze medal. As for our country, after 14 years, it has once again achieved a bronze medal.

During the closing ceremony of the Olympiad, Malaysia was named as the host country for the 24th Asian Physics Olympiad, and the Olympiad flag was officially handed over to the country.

China's first domestically produced passenger jet has taken off on its maiden commercial flight.

State TV showed the C919 rising into the skies above Shanghai, heading to the capital Beijing early on Sunday.

It was built by the Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (Comac) in the hope of breaking the dominance of Airbus and Boeing's single-aisle jets.

But the 164-seater still relies heavily on Western components, including engines and avionics.

Its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing, with more than 130 passengers, was completed in just under three hours.

The aircraft is scheduled to fly back to the coastal city.

State-backed China Eastern Airline has ordered five planes.

Comac - which plans to produce 150 planes annually in five years' time - says it has already secured more than 1,200 orders for the C919.

Some experts, however, say that most of these orders are believed to be letters of intent from domestic customers.

President Xi Jinping, who sat in the cockpit of a mock-up C919 a few years ago, has described the project as one of China's most innovative achievements.

Sole yokozuna Terunofuji wrapped up the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament with a 14-1 record Sunday by beating ozeki Takakeisho in the final bout of the 15-day meet.

The 31-year-old grand champion had clinched his eighth Emperor's Cup by beating sekiwake Kiribayama a day earlier at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan after coming into the tournament under an injury cloud.

Terunofuji underwent surgery on both knees last October and had missed all or part of the last four tournaments, but he dispelled concerns about his health with a dominant performance in his return to the raised ring.

His only blemish was a surprise loss to No. 6 maegashira Meisei (8-7) on Day 9.

"After the tournament started, I promised myself that I would do my best for all 15 days," said Terunofuji, who won his previous championship here a year ago. "Results aside, I wanted to make sure I stayed determined all the way until the end."

"I had the surgery because I wanted to start a new page. I wanted to come back as soon as possible and show everyone my sumo on the dohyo. So that was going through my mind every day."

The sport's only current ozeki, Takakeisho (8-7) did just enough to shake off demotion-threatened "kadoban" status at the tournament while coming off an injury-affected 3-4-8 record in March.

He made little headway with his opening charging against the Mongolian-born yokozuna, who seized on Takakeisho's subsequent pulling attempt to grab the ozeki and push him out.

The nephew of retired Mongolian great Asashoryu won the battle of grappling technicians with an underarm throw, taking a 7-6 edge in their head-to-head rivalry.

Kiribayama's ascent to sumo's second-highest rank is set to be formalized after he surpassed the standard ozeki promotion benchmark of 33 wins over the course of three tournaments as a komusubi or sekiwake.

"I really treated every individual bout as important," Kiribayama said. "I was more nervous this tournament than usual. I told myself I just needed to stick to my brand of sumo."

Daieisho (10-5) reached the 10-win threshold by overwhelming fellow sekiwake Wakamotoharu.

The winner of a single Emperor's Cup flew out of the blocks to execute a frontal thrust down against Wakamotoharu, who took home his first Technique Prize after finishing 10-5 in his debut at the third-highest rank.

Former ozeki Asanoyama, returning to the top flight following his lengthy suspension for breaking coronavirus safety rules, finished 12-3.

Fighting as a No. 14, he had been in contention for the title until the penultimate day.