During its regular session on March 15, 2023, the Cabinet made the following decisions:

Five “W” Operations to Combat Corruption to be Intensified

The Government of Mongolia has declared 2023 as the “Year to Combat Corruption" and started the five “W” operations to combat corruption. According to Mr. Nyambaatar, the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs and the Chair of the Working Group of the “Wasp” Operation, within the framework of the “Wasp” operation, overseas fugitives will be brought back to the jury according to the international agreements and Mongolian laws, ensuring the streamlined process of investigation.

Within the scope of the “Whistleblowing” Operation, a bill on protecting whistleblowers who are reporting corruption and misconduct for public interests will be discussed at the spring session of the State Great Khural and required measures to reduce bureaucracy in public services and protect legitimate interests of individuals and private sectors will be taken. In pursuant to the No. 20 Ordinance of the Prime Minister, a working group, led by Deputy Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Solongoo, for the “Whistleblowing” operation was set up. The members of the working group work at the Government’s “11-11” center every Friday and meet with citizens. Minister of Mongolia and Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Cabinet Mr. Amarbayasgalan was mandated to organize the “Wiping-out” and “Wealth” operations and Minister of Digital Development and Communication Mr. Uchral was tasked to be responsible for the “Wide-open” operation.

Moreover, the Prime Minister mandated the working groups in charge of five “W” operations to intensify their activities and present the results at the Cabinet meeting every month.

Certificate of Honor of the Government will be awarded to the team members who participated in humanitarian relief and search and rescue operations in Turkey.

The Cabinet decided to award the “Search and Rescue team”, led by Deputy Chief of the National Emergency Management Agency, Brigadier-General Mr. Uuganbayar, and the “Medical team” of the Ministry of Defense, led by Colonel Mr. Sukh-Ochir with the Certificate of Honor of the Government, recognizing their demonstration of skill, bravery, resilience, compassion, and humanity of Mongolians and honorably fulfilling their duties and responsibilities.

During the extraordinary session of the Government dated February 7, it was decided to send humanitarian aid to the people of the Republic of Turkey and the Syrian Arab Republic, who were affected by the deadly earthquake. On February 8 or 68 hours after the earthquake, the Mongolian search and rescue team of 41 members, including 24 rescuers from the NEMA and 11 officers from Mongolian armed forces, and some media representatives, landed in Hatay province, Turkey, and started participating in the rescue operations.

In 10 days, the rescue team rescued 8 people from under the rubble of the building and took them to the health care facility, and the bodies of 19 people were handed over to the relevant authorities. With the help of their two search dogs, named Balu and Marta, they also located 45 bodies of people who lost their lives in the earthquake. The medical group, based on the local hospital, provided medical care to 649 people. In addition, five tons of meat, one ton of candles, 1000 blankets, and 20 complete Mongolian gers were sent to Turkey. The gers were built and handed over to the Turkish side with other humanitarian aid.

Mongolia will take a decision on which part of its territory will be used to construct the Russia-China gas pipeline once its neighbours reach an agreement on costs, the country's prime minister said.

Russian energy company Gazprom (GAZP.MM) is planning to build the 2,600 km Power-of-Siberia 2 gas pipeline to supply 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China by 2030.

Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene told Reuters on Tuesday that talks between its two big neighbours had been put on the back burner due to the Ukraine war, but there was a likelihood of them coming back to the negotiating table.

After Russia and China decide on the pricing, Mongolia will decide on how they can use its territory to transport the gas, Oyun-Erdene said.

Nearly 80% of Mongolia's total exports go to China, but the mineral-rich country is working to expand trade and mining relationships beyond China and Russia and hopes to become a bridge between Europe and Asia.

"We're discussing cooperation in the rare earth elements sector; having discussions with German and French sites on copper production, and enhancing our private sector partnership with the Republic of Korea and Japan," Oyun-Erdene said.

On Monday, the country started its long-delayed underground production at the Oyu Tolgoi project, in which it has a 34% stake, with Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) owning the rest.

Oyun-Erdene said the Mongolian government was not looking to raise its stake in Oyu Tolgoi and was satisfied with the partnership.

Oyu Tolgoi is slated to eventually produce more than 500,000 tonnes of copper a year and help Mongolia become one of the largest producers of the metal in the world.

With mining accounting for a quarter of the country's GDP and around 93% of its exports, Mongolia is implementing reforms to safeguard its economy from volatility in commodities markets, the prime minister said.

The government will start a sovereign wealth fund to cushion itself against raw material price volatility, diversify its economy and invest more in building infrastructure and logistics.

"These measures will greatly contribute to balance our economy and address the issue of volatility," Oyun-Erdene said.

Reporting by Mrinalika Roy and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Mongolian Parliament to uphold the presidential veto of a dangerous social media bill, during the plenary vote scheduled for 17 March, and to take their time to prepare a well-thought-out version based on the recommendations from the Forum on Information & Democracy.

On Friday, 17 March 2023, the Mongolian parliament (The State Great Khural) is scheduled to vote on a veto, applied by President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa in January, a decision welcomed by RSF. The bill, which could be still adopted if veto is overridden by receiving two-thirds of the lawmakers votes, would give political authorities the ability to make arbitrary and politically motivated decisions, giving the authorities the power to censor any online content they dislike.

"Granting the government a right to censor the Internet without due process threatens the public’s right to information and may one day lead to silencing journalists. We call on legislators to ensure that this bill is once and for all rejected, and to take their time to prepare a well-thought-out version of it based on the recommendations made by the Forum on Information & Democracy.

Cédric Alviani

RSF East Asia Bureau Director

The Forum on Information and Democracy recommendations

In November 2020, the Forum on Information and Democracy published the report “​​How to end infodemics”, based on more than 100 contributions from international experts, offering 250 recommendations to respond to the information chaos on online platforms and social media. It proposes, among others, strengthening the governance of the national regulator, reinforcing the regulator’s independence from the executive branch and accountability to the legislative branch of government and clarifying the appointment process of the national regulator with a clear vetting process.

The Forum published also three other reports and sets of recommendations for public regulation: in 2023, report “Pluralism of news and information in curation and indexing algorithms” containing suggestions for States and digital platforms on the pluralism of curation and indexing algorithms; in 2022 report on “Accountability regimes for social networks and users” proposing ways to harmonise moderation policies on platforms, enabling them to protect both freedom of expression and access to information; in 2021 the report “A New Deal for Journalism”, calling on governments and influential actors to improve the policy, funding, and enabling environment for independent professional journalism, by guaranteeing up to 0.1% of GDP a year in support of journalism.

Launched in 2019 and endorsed by 50 countries, the International Partnership on Information and Democracy aims at implementing democratic safeguards in the information and communication space. Based on principles drafted by a Commission composed of Nobel laureates, journalists and experts on new technologies, it provides appropriate responses to the information chaos threatening democracy, peace and the achievement of the sustainable development objectives (SDGs).

Mongolia ranked 90th out of 180 in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

SINGAPORE, March 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MineSec has boosted Mongol iD's capabilities as a leading fintech firm among Mongolia's market players by helping launch a software point of sale (SoftPOS) for the latter. Through the SoftPOS solution, MineSec has enabled Mongol iD to conduct businesses directly through mobile card payments without the need of additional software.

SoftPOS converts smart devices into a secure payment terminal as opposed to traditional POS systems. This revolutionary payment technology enables scalability while minimising terminal and maintenance costs. Mongol iD is seeing opportunities to expand their business using SoftPOS technology. This is in line with a new regulatory push from the Bank of Mongolia which mandates all issued cards to possess contactless capabilities.

Mongol iD will utilise the SoftPOS solution from MineSec for the newly released MinuChat. The unified solution offers merchants various services such as account statement; transfers and payments; as well as credit and loan applications; and invoicing and subscription payments. MinuChat also includes other advanced technology features that can ease business models such as chatbot services for merchants and map-based solutions that can help navigation including delivery and merchant information.

"With the support of MineSec, we are pleased to be the pioneering fintech company in Mongolia to launch a unified merchant solution with embedded SoftPOS functionality to drive local businesses' digital transformation and enable flexible fintech solution adoption," Khaliunbat.M, Chairman, of Mongol iD, said.

"We believe that SoftPOS can bring financial inclusivity and reduce the limitations of conservative financial services. MineSec is a strategic partner and their SoftPOS technology will play a key role in helping us bring all kinds of services into the palm of our customers," he added.

MineSec's white-label SoftPOS solution meets international standards set by payment schemes like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, UnionPay and JCB, enabling customers to scale confidently and competitively amid the international market's unique evolving needs.

"Amid the rising demand for convenient and secure payment acceptance methods, many payment service providers are pressured to provide new value-added services to their merchant networks. We enable businesses like Mongol iD to leapfrog their own SoftPOS solution development with our SoftPOS Software Development Kit (SDK). This, in return, shortens the development process and allows effective solution deployment to Mongol iD's merchant clients," said Angus Chiu, CEO, of MineSec.

Moving forward, Mongol iD is looking to tap on MineSec's technology to launch SoftPOS on iOS devices in the future.

About MineSec

MineSec is a Singapore-based fintech firm that strives to drive innovation in secure and seamless contactless payment solutions globally. Its white-label SoftPOS solution provides ease of integration and customisation for various business needs.

Electronics giant Samsung says it plans to invest around 300tn won ($230.8bn; £189.6bn) over 20 years in the South Korean government's push to develop a mega semiconductor hub in the country.

This will be put towards building five chip factories, the firm told the BBC.

Samsung is the world's biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs.

Under the official plan, companies in high-tech industries will be offered incentives like expanded tax breaks and infrastructure support.

"The mega cluster will be the key base of our semiconductor ecosystem," South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement on Wednesday.

It said it planned to secure around 550tn won in private-sector investment and "leap forward as a leading country in the middle of fierce global competition over advanced industries".

South Korea's move comes as "major players are ramping up efforts to boost onshore manufacturing in the semiconductor sector," Paul Triolo from the global advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group told the BBC.

"It wants to emulate to some degree Taiwan's clustering effect, where the trifecta of science parks... form a massive cluster that has attracted numerous other companies, both upstream and downstream in the supply chain," he said.

Semiconductors, which power everything from mobile phones to military hardware, are at the centre of a bitter dispute between the US and China.

In October, Washington announced that it would require licences for companies exporting chips to China using US tools or software, no matter where they are made in the world.

Last week, the Netherlands said it also planned to put restrictions on its "most advanced" microchip technology exports to protect national security.

Around the same time, South Korea's trade ministry raised concerns over the US policy on semiconductors.

The ministry said the Chips Act "could deepen business uncertainties, violate companies' management and technology rights as well as make the United States less attractive as an investment option".

China has frequently called the US a "tech hegemony" in response to export controls imposed by Washington.

South Korea is home to other major microprocessor manufacturers such as SK Hynix.

Local Education Group (LEG) High Level Consultation Meeting was held on March 14 in Ulaanbaatar.

At the meeting, the Government’s policy and short-term goals on the education and science sector were presented to the attendees and discussions were evolved around the topics such as cooperation opportunities and roles of the stakeholders. The meeting is significant in terms of establishing cooperation and partnership mechanism between the member countries. This mechanism will allow the realization of international projects and programs in line with the policy of education and science. Moreover, by establishing this mechanism, member organizations of the group will be able to hold meetings quarterly to identify the challenges and discuss solutions and possible technical assistance to solve these challenges.

Over 100 representatives from donors, international development organizations, and civil society organizations attended the consultation meeting.

During the meeting, Minister of Education and Science Mr. Enkh-Amgalan provided clarifications on the following issues.

Concerning the expected results from the consultative meeting, he said,

- “For many years, the governments of Japan and Germany, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank have been providing discounted loans for our education sector, and the amounts of projects, implemented in the education and vocational training sector have reached USD 760 million and USD 300 million, respectively. In total, we have received financing of over USD 1 billion. As a result, now education loans and grants are accounting for 10-15 percent of our total debt. However, the results and effectiveness of these loans and grants are still in question. The attendees of this consultative meeting are offering their suggestions on ways to improve the effectiveness of loans and grants, such as avoiding the overlap of loans and encouraging result-based financing methods. For instance, many projects are implemented for supporting disabled people, but they often fail to achieve results due to a lack of coordination. We also discussed other issues with donor and financing organizations, including the possibility to reduce the interest rate and prolong the term of loans. Another main issue was to cooperate with the financing organizations in eliminating the quality gap in educational services in urban and rural areas. To that extent, we have presented our cooperation proposals to the donors and financing organizations. Currently, we are cooperating with Germany on vocational training, with Japan on numerous projects, including school expansion projects, a 1000 Engineers Project, and a Japan-Mongolia Hospital Project, and with KOICA on the school lunch program. There are many more projects are expected to be implemented in the education sector.”

- Will it be possible for our country to get our education loans written off?

For the past 30 years, Mongolia has received over USD 1 billion as loans and grants in the education sector from donors and financing organizations. Most of them have been paid, and now the remaining amount on such loans is about USD 170 million. During this meeting, we also discussed the possibilities of each scenario in writing off the loans, reducing their interests, or extending their terms.

Moreover, the World Bank has launched an initiative to tackle education financing challenges for developing countries. In this regard, the Government of Germany swapped the debt for education programs in Indonesia.

- Professionals who studied abroad with international loans are criticized for not returning to their home country. What is the position of the Ministry of Education and Culture on this matter?

- Mostly, bachelor’s degree students are criticized for such reasons. So, we have started to establish an agreement with the students to bind parties to perform their obligations. Moreover, our universities are offering a 2+2 program for their students, allowing them to complete their last two years in a foreign university. The “President’s Scholar–2100" scholarship program initiated by President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh has been successfully implemented since 2021, awarding the best students from each of the 330 soums and capital city's 171 khoroos to study at the world’s best universities. There are other types of scholarships and loans for bachelor’s degree students. Yet, we need to expand the scope of scholarships and loans to include master’s and doctor’s degree students.

BEIJING (AP) — Mongolia plans to channel revenue from rising copper exports into an economic development fund as part of changes to reap more benefit from its mineral riches and root out corruption, the North Asian nation’s prime minister said in an interview Tuesday following the opening of a major expansion of its biggest mine.

Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene attended a ceremony 1,300 meters (4,300 feet) below ground to mark the start of underground production Monday at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. He was joined by executives of Rio Tinto, the Australian mining giant that owns a 66% stake in the mine. The government owns the rest.

The multibillion-dollar expansion of Oyu Tolgoi is the latest effort to generate prosperity from Mongolia's copper, coal, gold and other minerals following three decades of complaints about economic malaise and corruption.

Oyun-Erdene, who took office in 2021, represents a younger generation following leaders who grew up under the Soviet-allied former communist government. At 42, the politician with the burly build of an American college football player has a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and experience working abroad.

“We are working hard to eliminate the old culture and introduce a new mindset,” the prime minister said by video link from Ulan Bator, the Mongolian capital.

Mongolia gets more than 90% of its export revenue from minerals and is benefiting from the surge in global sales of electric cars that use more than a mile (1,500 meters) of copper wire in their motors.

Oyun-Erdene said his government plans to invest copper revenue in public health, education and developing technology, tourism and other new industries. He said his government will propose a law to create a sovereign wealth fund during the parliament session that begins Wednesday.

“We do believe this will be a historic moment for the livelihoods and standard of living of the people of Mongolia,” Oyun-Erdene said. He said his government wants to make “the wealth and natural resources of Mongolia beneficial and equally distributed to all the people of Mongolia.”

Mongolia’s economic growth is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to accelerate this year to 5% from last year’s 2.5%. But households have struggled with inflation that spiked to 14% last year. Economic output per person is about $4,500, barely one-third of neighboring China’s level.

Government plans call for more than doubling average economic output for Mongolia’s 3.2 million people to $10,000 by 2030.

The planned fund includes a pool of money for housing, education and health, a separate fund for development projects and a “stabilization fund” to cushion against changes in commodity prices, according to Oyun. That is similar to sovereign wealth funds operated by Chile, another big copper exporter, and oil producers to invest natural resource revenues.

Other planned investments to “enhance our economic independence” include two hydroelectric power plants to reduce Mongolia’s need for electricity from its giant neighbors, China and Russia, according to Oyun-Erdene.

To extract more value from its copper, Mongolia announced an agreement this week with Rio Tinto to look at building a smelter.

Oyu Tolgoi, about 550 kilometers (350 miles) south of Ulan Bator, started digging copper from an open pit in 2012 before developing the underground mine that its operators say is more valuable. The mine, with a workforce of 20,000, says it has paid $4 billion in taxes and other fees to the government.

Production is forecast to rise to 500,000 tons per year, or enough to equip 6 million electric vehicles. Its operators say that would make Oyu Tolgoi the world’s fourth-largest copper mine.

“People of Mongolia will benefit greatly from this project,” Oyun-Erdene, wearing a green helmet with a mining lamp, said Monday at a ceremony with Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm.

The mine faces complaints it uses too much scarce water in its desert setting and has displaced traditional nomadic herders. Activists say Rio Tinto and the government failed to carry out a 2017 agreement to compensate them.

The mine’s operator responds that it recycles most of its water and has paid the provincial government some $40.5 million for what it draws from local sources. The company says it has repaired herder wells and installed solar panels to power pumps at 40 of them.

“We are having talks with Oyu Tolgoi on how to improve the environment and especially how we can address the issue of environmental degradation,” Oyun-Erdene said.

He acknowledged complaints about corruption in the government-dominated mining industry, saying his administration has declared this an “anti-corruption year” and is carrying out a five-part plan based on advice from Transparency International, a global anti-graft watchdog.

Mongolia ranked 116th among countries last year in Transparency International’s “corruption perceptions index,” based on a survey of businesspeople and experts. That was down from No. 94 in 2012.

In December, thousands of people protested in freezing weather in Ulan Bator after Oyun-Erdene's government announced an investigation into officials accused of profiting from the improper diversion of coal exports in 2013-19.

The government aims to make mining more transparent and to reduce political influence by turning state-owned enterprises into companies with publicly traded shares. Oyun-Erdene said.

“Some parliament members are involved in mining and own companies. This is a real challenge,” Oyun-Erdene said. “We have to make the private interests of parliament members and public officials separate from the public interests of Mongolia.”

By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Mongolia Dmitry Gorelik met with Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Development of Mongolia Chimed Khuralbaatar on 14 March, BelTA learned from the Belarusian diplomatic mission in Mongolia.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues related to bilateral trade and economic cooperation. They also discussed the oncoming regular meetings of the joint Belarusian-Mongolian commission on trade and economic cooperation and the joint Belarusian-Mongolian commission on scientific and technical cooperation in Minsk in 2023.

The parties agreed on the need to intensify the bilateral dialogue between the ministries, as well as the early implementation of new joint projects in the delivery of municipal, agricultural and other equipment produced in Belarus.

MONTSAME Mongolian National News Agency interviewed Ms. Elaine Conkievich who was appointed as a Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Mongolia on November 9, 2019.

Good morning! Thank you for your interview with the Mongol Messenger today. Before we start, could you please introduce yourself and your background to our readers?

Thank you. It is my pleasure. My name is Elaine Conkievich and I have been working as UNDP Resident Representative in Mongolia for over three years. Before that, I used to work as the UN Women representative in Central Asia, based in Kazakhstan for the last five years. Overall, I have been working for nearly 30 years in international development in the fields of governance, human rights, rule of law, gender mainstreaming, democratic institution building, conflict resolution, and preventive diplomacy working in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, and now Mongolia.

Can you please tell us about how UNDP works in Mongolia and the organization’s history in Mongolia a little bit?

Gladly. UNDP has been working in Mongolia for over five decades. Formally, our agreement with the Government of Mongolia was signed in 1976, but our work in the country started even before that.

Today, we are very proud to have become a trusted and long-term partner of the Government and people of Mongolia. UNDP has provided vital development support to Mongolia, including the transition to democracy and the market economy in the 1990s. Since then, we have continued to work with Mongolia on governance, climate change, natural resource management, and for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

We have helped establish critical nationwide institutions in Mongolia, including the National Emergency Management Agency, the National Human Rights Commission, and the Independent Authority Against Corruption as well as the major private sector entities, including Gobi Cashmere and Xac Bank.

We have also provided support for major legislative reforms in Mongolia. For example, the Law on administrative and territorial units and their government, the LATUG Law, and the Law on Genetic Resources were also adopted with UNDP support and the ongoing civil service reform.

UNDP's work in Mongolia is guided by our Country Programme Document, which is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and Mongolia’s national sustainable and long-term development priorities, namely the Vision 2050, and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Mongolia.

What is the Country Programme Document? Could you please tell us more about it, such as how it is developed and who contributes to it?

The Country Programme Document is a modality under which UNDP works. It is developed and adopted every five years through a consultative process with the Government of Mongolia, civil society organizations, and other partners, including development partners, international financial institutions, and bilateral institutions. It guides UNDP's activities in a country and is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it remains relevant and responsive to the changing development needs and priorities of the country.

We are starting the implementation of the new Country Programme Document for 2023-2027 this year, which was signed off last September at the UNDP Executive Board following endorsement by the Government of Mongolia.

Thank you. So, what are some of the key results and achievements of UNDP from your previous Country programme document in 2017-2022?

UNDP’s previous Country Programme Document for Mongolia focused on two key areas, including inclusive and sustainable development and strengthened voice, participation, and accountable governance.

One of our major achievements is the development of the Integrated National Financing Framework and Strategy and tools with support from the UN Joint SDG Fund, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator, in partnership with sister UN agencies. It has been endorsed by the National Committee on Sustainable Development and implementation will begin with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Economy and Development.

In connection with this, we have been and continue to work on the institutionalization of results-based budgeting, with a special focus on the employment sector, supported by the European Union helping line ministries to link their long-term development plans and budgeting with the outputs for those plans as a way to accelerate progress for the sustainable development goals.

On climate change and biodiversity fronts, we have supported the resiliency of local communities and aimags through multiple interventions such as conducting the first feasibility assessments for climate risk and vulnerability, protection and conservation of Mongolia’s biodiversity and ecosystem by supporting the implementation of the Natural Resource Use Fee law, and sustainable livelihoods of local communities thanks to funding from the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environmental Facility.

For governance, our support focused on building competencies and capacities of the local citizen’s representative khurals in the aimags across Mongolia, with the support of Switzerland, emphasizing the decentralization and Mongolia’s civil service with the support of Canada, especially in human resources, to ensure recruitment and retention follow the merit-based principle and to increase the number of senior female civil servants which increased from 8.6 percent to 21 percent by last year.

We have also focused our support on key cross-cutting areas, including gender equality and digitalization. Our main priority for gender equality has been and continues to be supporting women in public decision-making with the support of KOICA.

Innovation and digitalization have been another focus, with UNDP Mongolia's Accelerator Lab finding new solutions to complex development problems, such as digital literacy for vulnerable groups and waste management systems. During Covid-19, we also helped to digitize social workers and improve their capacity easing the provision of effective social services with the support of the Government of Japan.

What are the main priorities of UNDP in the next five years and what are your expected results?

In the next five years, UNDP will be supporting the Government of Mongolia in three main priority areas: first, diversified, inclusive, and green economy, second, risk-informed climate adaptation and sustainable management of natural ecosystems, and third, women’s empowerment, inclusive and accountable governance, and progress towards achievement of the SDGs.

As you know, the Sustainable Development Goals are through 2030, and this year we are right midway now between 2015 and 2030.

So, it’s very important for us that our support in the next five years will help the Government of Mongolia to accelerate its progress towards SDGs.

As we look to take on complex development challenges leveraging innovation and new solutions, we are changing our approach where we have separate projects that are independently working to developing what we call a portfolio approach, which is bringing together synergies across different aspects of the work that we're doing and leveraging them in an integrated fashion to bring more complex results and thus accelerating results for Mongolia.

In connection with your next five years' priority, will UNDP’s work support the Billion Tree nationwide campaign initiated by the President of Mongolia?

Absolutely. We already began supporting by developing a feasibility study for the Ministry of Environment and Tourism with regard to the Billion Tree Initiative in 2021. And beyond that, our programmes that we are implementing in the area of climate change, biodiversity, natural resource management, also the financing for sustainable development are geared towards supporting combating desertification, supporting reforestation, and overall efforts of the Government of Mongolia to fulfill its commitment made at the previous COP in regard to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7 percent.

What do you see as the main challenges that Mongolia is facing, and how will UNDP support us in addressing them?

Mongolia faces many development challenges, including economic diversification and job creation, as the economy remains heavily dependent on extractive industries. Attention to infrastructure development and transitioning urban centers to sustainable cities including focusing on a just energy transition, to support its growing economy through inclusive development that is benefiting both women and men, would be important. Additionally, poverty reduction is a significant concern, as a large portion of the population lives in rural areas with limited economic opportunities and the poverty rate has been hovering around 27-28 percent for several years. Environmental degradation and climate change impacts including increased natural disasters and foreign debt burden are also pressing issues as well as corruption, which hinders economic growth and erodes public trust.

Furthermore, increasing inequalities and the importance of achieving gender equality, especially at the decision-making level, is a major challenge that Mongolia needs to address given over 50 percent of the population are women.

UNDP will continue to support the Government of Mongolia in key development areas, including digitalization and innovation through our Accelerator Lab to address the complex development challenges that Mongolia is facing. Furthermore, we will continue to support the improvement of public financial management through results-based budgeting with a particular focus on the labor and employment sectors so that more women, youth, and people with disabilities can find and be engaged in long-term formal employment. We hope to continue our work to strengthen the civil service, including by increasing the number of senior female civil servants. In addition, advocating for and supporting women’s participation in public decision-making is key to engaging women in the development and implementation of policies and legislation.

We will continue to work with the private sector by supporting businesses to have good human rights practices.

Also, importantly, UNDP will continue to support climate change adaptation and resilience building of herder communities, protection of ecosystems, and the beautiful natural resources of Mongolia. And underpinning all of this is our continued support of sustainable financing to increase the amount of financial resources from the public and private sectors for effective use towards Mongolia's development.

What are the areas that Mongolians should take more advantage of to accelerate its development and achieve SDGs by 2030?

In addition to increasing women's role and participation across different sectors at all decision-making levels, leveraging innovation and digitalization, and mobilizing more financing for sustainable development, one of the key areas that Mongolia should focus on, and advance is the energy transition. This is an area where Mongolia has large untapped potential for renewable energy, that is solar and wind which would not only be beneficial to the environment but important for the people of Mongolia by improving their health and economic situation through the development of this sector. So, very much the way of the future is not only for the provision of energy, but an energy transition is just, which means that it benefits the women and men of Mongolia, leaving no one behind through economic diversification, new jobs, and new skills as well as improving the environment, contributing to better health outcomes.

Focusing on the human angle of the energy transition is quite important. In this regard, we are currently working on developing a flagship report, a National Human Development Report, exactly on the importance and significance of Just Energy Transition for Mongolia as we see, looking into the future, that this is a key to unlocking a more prosperous and sustainable future for the people of Mongolia.

Thank you.