In May, the Cabinet made a decision to launch National Email Service within this year. In accordance with the decision, works are underway to issue email addresses to the citizens, reported L.Enkh-Amgalan, the Acting Minister of Digital Development and Communications, during the press conference to present the decisions made at the Cabinet meeting.

In specific, the Ministry started issuing email addresses to citizens over the age of 16 through the E-Mongolia platform. Launching the email service will allow citizens to directly engage with civil servants and is believed to eliminate bureaucracy and save time and money. For example, important notifications will be delivered to the citizens to remind, for instance, the expiration date of the passport, driver’s license, national ID card, etc., and other important information. Moreover, citizens will be able to freely file complaints and receive necessary information with the help of the email service.

“As of today, 680 government services have been digitalized and added to the E-Mongolia platform and now we are working to integrate the services of local administration units to the platform”, said the Acting Minister.

According to the ‘Household and Personal Information, Communication and Information Technology Usage Survey’ conducted by the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications and the National Statistics Office of Mongolia in 2021, 43.8 percent of the survey’s participants had sufficient digital literacy skills.

As part of the concerted effort to increase and mobilize resources from the private sector for Mongolia’s progress towards achieving the SDGs, development partners, including UNDP, partnered with Mongolia’s financial sector authorities and released “The ESG and Sustainability Reporting Guidance for Mongolian Companies” for listed companies, prospective issuers, and other interested companies.

The Guidance provides an overview of global sustainability reporting frameworks and trends, followed by an eight-step outline of how listed companies and other issuers can build the capacity to report on sustainability. Also included in the document are lists of indicators that companies can select from to fulfill their sustainability disclosure requirements.

“By introducing this ESG disclosure and sustainability reporting guidance in line with international standards, we hope to harness good ESG management and disclosure market practice and help issuers and other financial institutions in creating long-term value that benefits Mongolian financial market as a whole. We also believe that the public, investors, and stakeholders will benefit from improved transparency and disclosure practices” says Mr. Bayarsaikhan Dembereldash, Chair of the Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC).

The Guidance also outlines how ESG reporting could benefit the companies; especially, in terms of meeting international investors’ demands and accessing a more diverse range of longer terms financing while complying with the regulators’ requirements and further strengthening their brand reputation internally and externally.

“The Government of Mongolia is taking important initiatives to revive the local economy and transform it in-line with sustainable development principles. As a main driver to thrive economies, businesses and private sector entities must commit to sustainable corporate practices, including improving its transparency and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the UN in Mongolia strongly encourages the Government of Mongolia to demonstrate its leadership in implementing the Integrated National Financing Framework and strategy with its reporting mechanism to catalyze transformative change and accelerate implementation of the SDGs for inclusive and sustainable development for all, which is envisaged in Mongolia’s Vision 2050,” said Mr. Tapan Mishra, UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia.

Efforts to integrate sustainability in financial analysis and investments globally are often hindered by a lack of quality ESG reporting data. This is also the case in Mongolia where, according to the analysis of a recent study carried out by the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association (MSFA), only 13% of companies listed on the stock exchange publicly disclose their environmental indicators.

UNDP Mongolia’s Resident Representative Ms. Elaine Conkievich emphasized the importance of the Sustainability Reporting Guidance and stated, “The adoption of ESG and sustainability reporting standards provides the private sector with the possibility to unlock a variety of opportunities and access potential investment opportunities while integrating sustainability factors into their business decisions and thus contributing towards achieving the SDGs.”

“The Sustainability Reporting Guidance for Mongolian Companies” was developed through a partnership between the FRC, MSE, MSFA, International Finance Corporation, UNDP-hosted Financial Centres for Sustainability Network, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Resident Coordinators’ Office in Mongolia, with support from the Global Environment Facility and UN Joint SDG Fund.

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UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet. Learn more at mn.undp.org or follow at @UNDPMongolia.

For further inquiries:

Delgernaran Tumurtogoo | National Project Coordinator | UN Joint Programme on “Rolling Out an Integrated Approach to the SDG financing in Mongolia” | UNDP Mongolia | delgernaran.tumurtogoo@undp.org

Chief of Cabinet Secretariat Ts.Nyamdorj presented the progress of the implementation of the Government Action Plan for 2020-2024 and the Development Plan of Mongolia for 2022 to the Cabinet members.

As of the first half of this year, the implementation of the Government Action Plan for 2020-2024 is at 48.9 percent. During the cabinet meeting, the relevant officials were instructed to bring the objectives and measures that are delayed depending on the management and organization to the target level at the end of this year, and to study and solve the possibilities and conditions for the implementation of the ones that are delayed due to finance and investment by attracting foreign loans, aid, and private sector investment in addition to the state budget. Moreover, the Prime Minister instructed to have draft laws to be submitted to the State Great Khural in 2022 discussed at the Cabinet meetings within this year.

The Development Plan of Mongolia for 2022 is completely aligned with the general guidelines for the country’s development in 2021-2025 and the action plan for 2020-2024. The plan has been approved with 300 projects and measures with 6 groups and 23 goals, and as of the first half of this year, 47.6 percent of the implementation has been achieved. The members of the government and the heads of relevant agencies were instructed to clearly reflect the amount of funds spent on the performance of that year's work, the fulfillment of the criteria, and the results in the report on the implementation of projects and measures.

By the preliminary results, in the first 7 months of 2022, the gross industrial output reached MNT 10.6 trillion, decreased by MNT 244.3 billion (2.3%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to MNT 509.3 billion (6.7%) decrease in mining and quarrying production gross output. Also, the manufacturing production output increased by MNT 202.5 billion (8.8%), the electricity, thermal energy and water supply production output increased by MNT 44.9 billion (5.7%) and the water supply, and sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities production output increased by MNT 17.7 billion (19.6%) from the previous year.

In July 2022, the gross industrial output reached MNT 2.0 trillion, increased by MNT 40.4 billion (2.0%) from the previous month. In July 2022, the sales of industrial products reached MNT 2.8 trillion, increased by MNT 377.4 billion (15.3%) from the previous month.

By the preliminary results of the first 7 months of 2022, the mining and quarrying gross output reached MNT 7.1 trillion, decreased by MNT 509.3 billion (6.7%) from the same period of previous year. This decrease was mainly due to decreases in mining of coal and lignite by 428.0 billion (20.6%) and extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 403.8 billion (73.7%) from same period of the previous year. By the preliminary results of the first 7 months of 2022, the mining and quarrying sector, extraction of zinc concentrate and silver concentrate increased by 36.9-85.0 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. In the mining and quarrying sector, the extraction of iron ore, gold, brown coal, copper concentrate, fluorspar, hard coal and crude oil decreased by 2.5–87.9 percent.

In the manufacturing sector, production of spirit, cement, pure water, soft drink, juice, alcoholic beverage, cashmere products, lime and combed cashmere increased by 5.6-81.0 percent compared to the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, productions of copper cathode (99%), milk, cigarettes, coal briquette, wheat flour, face covering, metal steel, meat, sanitizer and concentrated coal decreased by 2.6–96.6 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first 7 months of 2022, the sales of industrial products reached MNT 14.3 trillion, decreased by MNT 104.1 billion (0.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year. This decrease mainly resulted from MNT 392.3 billion (3.7%) decrease in sales of mining and quarrying products.

The sales of mining and quarrying products decreased by MNT 392.3 billion (3.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year. This decrease mainly resulted from MNT 351.4 billion (68.3%) decrease in sales of crude petroleum products, MNT 192.1 billion (2.7%) decrease in sales of mining of metal ores products and MNT 137.5 billion (63.8%) decrease in sales of other mining and quarrying products, respectively.

By the preliminary results of the first 7 months of 2022, the total sales of industrial products, MNT 8.3 trillion was export, of which 7.9 trillion was export of mining and quarrying output. The mining and quarrying products structure shows that 66.2 percent was metal ores, 31.2 percent was coal and lignite, 2.1 percent was extraction of crude petroleum and 0.5 percent was other mining. In July 2022, the seasonally adjusted industrial production index was 146.0 (2015=100), decreased by 4.7 percentage point from the same period of the previous year.

Source: National Statistics Office of Mongolia

Russia has offered countries belonging to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to join its financial messaging system (SPFS), the Russian equivalent of SWIFT. Moscow wants to boost the volume of settlements in national currencies, the country's Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said on Tuesday.

“In order to ensure uninterrupted cooperation between our banks, we suggest that members of the organization join the Russian financial messaging system,” Reshetnikov said in his video address to participants at the SCO forum in Uzbekistan.

Reshetnikov noted that SCO countries need to continue to promote full compatibility of national payment systems and boost the volume of mutual settlements in national currencies.

“We already see positive results, for example, a quarter of the trade turnover between Russia and China is settled in rubles and yuan,” Reshetnikov said.

The SCO currently comprises eight member states: China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, while its partners and associates also include Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka. The organization’s work focuses mainly on security issues, but it also deals with regional development tasks.

Russia has been actively promoting its domestic financial messaging system ever since being cut off from SWIFT as part of Western sanctions imposed on the country over the conflict in Ukraine. Both facilitate financial transactions between banks, but Russia’s SPFS was used only in Russia up until this year, while SWIFT is an internationally adopted system.