Hemmed in between China, the world’s most populous country, and Russia, its largest, is landlocked Mongolia—a former socialist “people’s republic” that’s visited by only 20,000 Americans per year.

And except for its most famous native son, Genghis Khan, who in 1206 founded the Mongol Empire—the largest contiguous land empire in history—Mongolia is still relatively unknown to the outside world.

Batbayar Ulziidelger really wants to change that.

The jovial, 49-year-old diplomat, Mongolia’s ambassador to the United States since November 2021, was formerly an advisor to the prime minister on foreign policy. Before that, he spent 20 years in the private sector as director, founder and CEO of various tourism, technology and consulting companies.

Among other things, Ulziidelger helped develop the “Travel Responsibly” national campaign. He also assisted in formulating “Vision 2050,” Mongolia’s long-term development policy.

Born in the eastern city of Choibalsan and raised in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, Ulziidelger earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1994, another bachelor’s in computer engineering from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in 1998, and an MBA from that same university in 2000.

“Mongolia is a democratic country, one of the only democracies in Central Asia. Historically, the Mongol Empire was one of the biggest in the world,” he said, adding that among his people’s ancient innovations were three types of passports—including a golden one conferring diplomatic immunity.

In 1987, Mongolia established diplomatic ties with the United States. In July 2021, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman paid a three-day visit to Ulaanbaatar, marking the most senior visit of its kind since then-Secretary of State John Kerry spent six hours there in 2016.

Huge territory, few people

Covering 1.56 million square km, Mongolia ranks 18th in size worldwide, slightly smaller than Iran and a bit larger than Peru. Yet it has only 3.3 million inhabitants—about the same as Connecticut-sized Puerto Rico. That gives the predominantly Buddhist country a density of only 2 people per square km, making it the most sparsely inhabited sovereign jurisdiction on Earth.

Even today, between 500,000 and 600,000 Mongolians are nomads, living off the grassy steppes and moving from place to place exactly as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

Mongolian Ambassador Batbayar Ulziidelger holds up a painting “The Earth,” which depicts the poem, Blue Eye of the Cosmos, by B. Yavuukhulan. It is written in traditional vertical Mongolian script. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

“Mongolian hospitality is one of the most precious things in the world. We invite guests as our own family,” Ulziidelger told the Washington Diplomat in a recent interview at his embassy in Georgetown. On the wall behind his desk is the national emblem of Mongolia. It depicts a blue circle symbolizing the sky, in the middle of which is a gold wind horse, with sun, moon and fire symbols derived from Buddhist and Mongolian folklore.

“We have a huge territory, so if you’re lost in the middle of nowhere and you come to a family, this family must invite you,” he explained. “That’s why we don’t lock our doors.”

This passionate traveler has already visited 101 countries—but none of them, he says, compares to his own.

“Once you land in Mongolia, you feel the freedom. The breeze almost kisses you,” he said. “Whenever I return home, I say, ‘God blessed me to be born Mongolian.’”

In 1997, the future ambassador walked from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad in southern Mongolia, a solo journey of 700 km backpacking through the Gobi Desert. The trip took three weeks.

A peaceful democratic revolution

Nearly 20 years later, Ulziidelger—a karate enthusiast and father of two who speaks fluent English, Japanese and Russian—received Mongolia’s Order of the Polar Star. And in 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named him Mongolia’s cultural envoy.

“Mongolia is a paradise of adventure and outdoor tourism. That’s why people who trek, hunt and go horseback riding love it,” he said. “You can go to a five-star hotel and relax with your family on the beach, but this is not tourism,” said Ulziideldger, who’s even started a Facebook group for Mongolians who enjoy traveling; it has 766,000 followers.

These days, however, the ambassador is thinking not so much about adventure travel, but more on the impact Russia’s devastating war with Ukraine may ultimately have on his own country.

A socialist republic until 1990, Mongolia shares a 3,450-km border with Russia to the north, and a 4,630-km border with China to the south. Both of its neighbors are nuclear powers with aggressive ambitions whose relations with the United States have worsened dramatically in recent years.

Mongolia adopted the Cyrillic alphabet in the 1950s, due to Soviet influence. In addition, thousands of Mongolian youths have studied not only in Moscow but also at Ukrainian universities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv.

“In 1989, a lot of people came out to protest perestroika,” the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system promoted by the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ulziidelger said. “I was also demonstrating, going out into the streets with my friends. My parents were worried. At that time, I had a dream that people would decide their futures for themselves, that they could work and earn money.”

“Windows,” an intricate work by Mongolian painter Tsolmon, hangs in the Mongolian Embassy in Washington. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

But unlike many former Soviet republics, “Mongolia had no shooting, killing or violence. We shifted very humbly and gently.”

Keeping a delicate balance between China and Russia

After the Soviet Union’s collapse, Mongolia witnessed a peaceful democratic revolution in January 1990 that led to the introduction of a multiparty system and market economy. The former Marxist-Leninist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party gave way to the current Mongolian People’s Party, a new constitution in 1992, and no more “People’s Republic of Mongolia,” but just simply Mongolia.

“After 1990, everything changed,” Ulziidelger said. “A lot of people started to study abroad, mainly in the United States, Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, France and Sweden.”

These days, he said, close to 180,000 Mongolians live abroad, most of them in South Korea. About 40,000 have emigrated to the United States, where the biggest communities are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and suburban Washington, DC. There’s even talk of direct flights between Ulaanbaatar and US cities such as Los Angeles or Seattle.

Fred Walker, Hologic’s vice-president of worldwide marketing, talks with Mongolian Ambassador Batbayar Ulziidelger at a recent event sponsored by the Washington Diplomat. (Photo by Ursula McNamara)

US-Mongolian trade currently stands at $260 million a year, with more than 30% of Mongolia’s revenues derived from mining—copper, gold, silver and iron ore. Among the country’s more far-reaching goals: boost trade with China to $10 billion a year, while planting one billion trees across Mongolia by 2030, in a dramatic effort to reduce desertification and slow climate change.

To this day, Mongolia is heavily dependent on imports from Russia, particularly oil. Not wishing to upset its huge northern neighbor, it was therefore no surprise that Mongolia abstained—along with 34 other countries—when the UN General Assembly voted 141-5 to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on March 2.

Yet that doesn’t mean Mongolia rejects Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity, Ulziidelger said.

“To be honest, we’re deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine, and saddened at the loss of many precious lives,” he said. “That’s why it’s extremely important that all parties urgently facilitate a ceasefire and de-escalate tensions through negotiations and diplomacy. Otherwise, this escalation of tension will have other unforeseen consequences, seriously affecting peace and stability—not only in Europe but the world.”

Vast Mongolia, squeezed between China and Russia, treads carefully | Washington Diplomat (washdiplomat.com)

The Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Institute for Strategic Studies organized the seventh Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security international conference from June 23 to 24. Mongolia’s hosting of such a timely event manifests the country’s successful foreign policy mechanisms.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue has served as a non-traditional mediation platform where representatives from Northeast Asian countries can discuss security issues impacting the region. Despite the two-year COVID-related hiatus, Mongolia was able to gather more international participants for the resumed dialogue than in previous years.

Since the late 1960s, Mongolia’s foreign policy began to pursue a more active role in global affairs. Mongolia’s relentless efforts to gain membership in the United Nations were a prelude to many of its later foreign policy mechanisms.

The Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security platform was initially inspired by the Helsinki Accords of 1975 – the culmination of two years of negotiations under the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (eventually institutionalized into the today’s Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE). The objective of the conference, hosted by Finland, was to reduce tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western bloc. Borrowing from the idea that a country can be a mediation platform became part of Mongolia’s foreign policy strategy to engage its Northeast Asian partners and establish a trust through the practice of diplomacy and mutual respect.

In 2011, the parliament of Mongolia renewed and modernized the country’s Foreign Policy Concept, which enabled Ulaanbaatar to expand its participation in Northeast Asia and East Asian affairs at large. In 2013, the then-president of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, became the first head of state to visit Pyongyang after Kim Jong Un assumed power. Elbegdorj announced the establishment of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue at the seventh Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies in Ulaanbaatar.

During the first Ulaanbaatar Dialogue in 2014, Grayvoronskiy V. Viktorovich from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences noted Mongolia’s initiation to be more active in regional diplomacy. He also noted, “There are many other regional and permanent international institutions, conferences, meetings, and dialogues… the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue needs to find its niche among the other international institutions and meetings.”

Given Mongolia’s unique geopolitical position and its normal diplomatic relations with all the countries in Northeast Asia, Mongolia itself provides the “niche.” For example, when it comes to the perennial issue of the denuclearization of North Korea, Mongolia’s status as a non-nuclear weapons state gives it a unique discursive role. Other countries in the region either are nuclear powers (China and Russia) or have little to no diplomatic contact with North Korea (South Korea and Japan).

Moreover, Mongolia has previously made some efforts to mediate between Japan and North Korea on Pyongyang’s previous abductions of Japanese nationals. Former Japanese Foreign Minister Kono Taro sought to utilize Mongolia’s diplomatic relations with North Korea as a channel to negotiate with Pyongyang. To the countries in the region and the international community, Mongolia’s diplomatic relationship with North Korea presents an opportunity for promoting peace and dialogue.

At the same time, North Korea is not the only security issue in Northeast Asia. Some of the regional relationships, such as Japan-China, Japan-South Korea, and China-South Korea, have deep-rooted historical grievances and hostilities, which limits what Ulaanbaatar can do.

According to the Foreign Ministry of Mongolia, the seventh Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security convened representatives from 20 countries and 30 international organizations, and 150 people participated (some attended virtually due to COVID-19). This year’s conference included five panels: “Regional Security Challenges and Opportunities,” “Multilateral Cooperation in Northeast Asia,” “Post-Covid Regional Economic Cooperation,” “The Future of Peaceful Northeast Asia,” and “Energy in Transition.”

The foreign minister of Mongolia, Battsetseg Batmunkh stated, “In comparison to the previous six years, this year’s conference gathered more diverse participants. In other words, Mongolia is becoming more influential in promoting security dialogue and communication in our region. Moreover, it is important that not only Northeast Asia countries, but European and Western countries have begun to actively participate in the dialogue.”

This year, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Slovenia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all joined the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security has created a platform where country representatives, academics, and field experts find a working mechanism for solving traditional and non-traditional issues. These dialogues and mechanisms will then be considered to help navigate policymakers to make better decisions.

From a security standpoint, in Northeast Asia – a region without a collective defense system – the individual policies of China, Russia, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea, are often divided into blocs, especially amid growing China-U.S. tensions. Nevertheless, Mongolia, despite its small-state status, remains a trustworthy partner with all the Northeast Asian countries. The idea of Mongolia as an active, independent player in the realm of international relations requires perpetual nourishment, whether at the bilateral or multilateral level. The Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Northeast Asian Security is one of these foreign policy mechanisms Mongolia must continue.

GUEST AUTHOR

Bolor Lkhaajav

Bolor Lkhaajav is a researcher specializing in Mongolia, China, Russia, Japan, East Asia, and the Americas. She holds an M.A. in Asia-Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia (AmCham Mongolia) successfully hosted Doorknock 2022 on June 21-23, 2022, with foreign and domestic investors, organized in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar. The delegation met with representatives of the Government of Mongolia and top government agencies to exchange opinions and notes.

AmCham’s Doorknock is an annual event for Mongolian delegations to meet with policymakers to discuss investment, exchange opinions, and engage in dialogue. This year, the Doorknock was held in Mongolia instead of the United States for the first time. Over the course of three days, the delegation visited several key government bodies and officials, including the Office of the President, the Prime Minister's Cabinet, the Office of the Speaker of Parliament, Members of Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Road and Transportation Development, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, as well as representatives of the Judicial General Council.

The meetings addressed vital issues facing the private sector, such as restoring and increasing investor confidence, improving the business environment, boosting the economy, eradicating bureaucracy, and legislative changes that need urgent attention to facilitate reforms. Every appointment was positively received and attended by representatives of AmCham member companies, including Badrakh Energy, Cummins, Melville & Erdenedalai LLP, MSM, Monpolymet, Rio Tinto, and the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia.

A summarized list of reformative actions, titled ‘3 Pillars for Positive Change’, was introduced and delivered, outlining the following key issues:

I. Re-aligning toward a free-market economy driven by private-sector entrepreneurs and enterprises

II. Reforming the business and investment environment

III. Prioritizing greater commerce and trade integration with the U.S. and third neighbors

The government agencies that met with the Doorknock delegation welcomed the document and its attention to priority issues.

AmCham is committed to continuing its dialogue with all stakeholders to improve the investment climate in Mongolia.

Source: amcham.mn

Mongolia's National Traumatology and Orthopedics Research Center on Tuesday warned the public to beware of venomous snakes.

The warning came after many cases of snake bites had been reported in the capital Ulan Bator and other areas of the country.

Currently, four children bitten by venomous snakes are hospitalized, according to the center.

In addition, reports of shield-nose snake sightings in residential areas across the country are on the rise, especially in the capital city, the center said.

Last year, at least two deaths were registered in the country because of snake bites.

Hanoi (VNA) – Agriculture holds a great potential to help developing cooperation between Vietnam and Mongolia, Mongolian Ambassador to Vietnam Jigjee Sereejav has said.

The diplomat made the comment at a recent meeting with Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam in Hanoi to discuss the promotion of the bilateral trade of farm produce.

Agreeing with his guest, Nam expressed his belief in the nations achieving their 100-million-USD trade goal soon, particularly via strengthening farming collaboration in the time to come.

Transport between the sides presents a difficulty which should be tackled to facilitate regular interactions between their enterprises, Nam said.

The official noted that he wants to know more about strong agricultural hubs of Mongolia.

The ambassador said the countries can team up to implement a project on rice cultivation, suggesting that Vietnam’s northern varieties are likely to suit Mongolia’s weather and soil conditions.

He also proposed a joint project on goat farming in Vietnam and a potential cooperation for the sides in leather processing for garment-textile.

The Vietnam-Mongolia trade hit 80.2 million USD in 2021 and 25.9 million USD in the first four months of this year.

The United States is pleased to announce that the U.S. donation of 302,400 pediatric doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Mongolia. These doses were delivered through COVAX and came directly from the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

This donation brings the total number of COVID vaccine doses donated by the United States to Mongolia to more than 1.4 million. The United States remains committed to supporting the people of Mongolia as they move forward from this devastating pandemic. These donations through COVAX are part of that effort.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided over $8.1 million in support to Mongolia. This assistance is providing life-saving medicine, testing kits, urgent medical equipment and supplies, oxygen therapy, and personal protective equipment. USAID also provided 50 high-quality ventilators in December 2020 and training for health workers throughout the country on how to manage critically ill patients. USAID supports risk communication campaigns, infection prevention and control efforts in health facility and school settings, and vaccine distribution assistance.

In addition, the United States has provided critical medical equipment for more than 570 medical facilities and helped train nearly 12,700 healthcare workers to conduct outbreak surveillance, use and manage U.S. government-donated medical equipment, and deliver quality care for COVID-19 patients.

The United States, as Mongolia’s third neighbor, will continue to support the health and wellbeing of the Mongolian people.

German chemicals major BASF may be forced to halt production at the world's biggest chemicals plant in Ludwigshafen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing shortages of cheap and abundant Russian gas.

According to the report, BASF has used Russian natural gas for years to generate power and as feedstock for products that make it into toothpaste, medicine, and cars. However, dwindling Russian gas supplies are proving a threat to the company's vast manufacturing hub, it says.

"Cutting down production at this site will be a huge task," said BASF senior economist Peter Westerheide, as quoted by the WSJ. "We've never seen situations like this before. It's hard to imagine."

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With an area of approximately ten square kilometers, the Ludwigshafen complex spanning some 200 plants, accounts for about 4% of the total gas demand in Germany. Approximately 60% of the fuel used at the plant is meant to generate electricity, while the remaining 40% is feedstock for the production of chemical products, including ammonia and acetylene.

BASF estimates that if the chemical complex continues to receive more than 50% of the maximum volume of gas, operations could be continued. Otherwise, the work of the complex will have to be stopped.

Earlier this month, Russian gas flows to Germany through the undersea Nord Stream pipeline were cut by as much as 60% due to technical issues arising from Western sanctions against Moscow. In response to the crisis, the German government has launched the second 'alarm' phase of its three-level gas emergency plan. Berlin has warned it's facing a severe shortage of the fuel amid diminishing flows from Russia.

Russia is believed to have defaulted on its debt for the first time since 1998 after missing a key deadline.

Russia has the money to make a $100m payment, which was due on Sunday, but sanctions made it impossible to get the sum to international creditors.

The country had been determined to avoid the default, which is a major blow to the nation's prestige.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, said "statements of a default were absolutely unjustified".

He added that an intermediary bank had withheld the money and that the reserves were blocked "unlawfully".

The White House said that Russia had defaulted on paying yields on its international bonds, crediting sanctions for effectively cutting Russia off from the global financial system.

Russia's finance minister called the situation "a farce" and said the situation is not expected to have short-term impact.

This is because Russia does not need to raise money internationally as it is reaping revenue from high-priced commodities such as oil, according to Chris Weafer, chief executive at Moscow-based consultancy Macro Advisory.

But he said it would create a "legacy" problem if the situation with Ukraine and international sanctions improves.

"This is the sort of action that will hang over the economy and make recovery much more difficult when we get to that stage," he said.

The $100m interest payment was due on 27 May. Russia says the money was sent to Euroclear, a bank which would then distribute the payment to investors.

But that payment has been stuck there, according to Bloomberg News, and creditors have not received it.

Meanwhile, some Taiwanese holders of Russian bonds denominated in euros have not received interest payments, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited two sources.

The money had not arrived within 30 days of the due date, that is, Sunday evening, and so is considered a default.

Euroclear would not say if the payment had been blocked, but said it adhered to all sanctions, introduced following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia disputed that it had defaulted on the debt. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it had made the payments due in May, and the fact that it was blocked by Euroclear because of sanctions was "not our problem."

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Russia finance minister Anton Siluanov admitted foreign investors would "not be able to receive" the payments, according to the RIA Novosti news wire.

Because Russia wants to pay and has plenty of money to do it, he denied that this amounts to a genuine default, which usually occur when governments refuse to pay, or their economies are so weak that they cannot find the money.

"Everyone in the know understands that this is not a default at all. This whole situation looks like a farce."

Defaulting nations usually find it impossible to borrow any more money, but Russia is already in effect barred from borrowing in Western markets by sanctions.

Also, Russia is reportedly earning about $1bn a day from fossil fuel exports, and its finance minister Anton Siluanov said in April the country had no plans to borrow more.

Repayment trigger

The default will trigger repayments on a large chunk of Russia's debt, according to Mr Weafer.

About $40bn of Russia's debts are denominated in dollars or euros, with around half held outside the country.

"Some parts of that debt will now become automatically due because there will be early repayment clauses in all debt instruments so if you default on one it usually triggers the immediate demand for payment on the other debts, so Russia could certainly face immediate debt repayment of about $20bn at this stage," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Russia's last debt default of any kind was in 1998 as the country was rocked by the rouble crisis during the chaotic end of Boris Yeltsin's regime. At the time Moscow failed to keep up payments on its domestic bonds and defaulted on some overseas debt.

Russia has seemed on an inevitable path to default since sanctions were first imposed by the US and European Union following the invasion of Ukraine.

These restricted the country's access to the international banking networks which would process payments from Russia to investors around the world.

The Russian government has said it wants to make all of its payments on time, and up until now it had succeeded.

Default seemed inevitable when the US Treasury decided not to renew the special exemption in sanctions rules allowing investors to receive interest payments from Russia, which expired on 25 May.

The Kremlin now appears to have accepted this inevitability too, decreeing on 23 June stating that all future debt payments would be made in roubles through a Russian bank, the National Settlements Depository, even when contracts state they should be in dollars or other international currencies.

Meanwhile, Mr Weafer, who is based in Moscow, said that life was more or less operating as normal despite sanctions and Western companies withdrawing from Russia.

"If you're in Moscow right now frankly, if you weren't reading the newspapers, you'd see there's been a price increase but otherwise life is as it was before February 24.

"In March and April there was a lot of concern that products would disappear, that factories would not be able to get components or materials to continue operating and we could be looking therefore at a severe drop in employment or a rise in unemployment by the summer [or] early autumn. That situation has improved," he added.

"We've seen alternative import routes opening via Kazakhstan and Turkey, the government has promoted what they call a parallel import scheme so effectively a lot of products that were blocked in March and April are now starting to reappear, albeit at a higher price."

President of the Mars Society Dr. Robert Zubrin visited Mongolia at the invitation of the ‘Mars V’ project team, which aims at establishing tourism model city in the Mongolian Gobi with an international space science and technology institute and an academy to train and prepare astronauts.

During the visit, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia S.Amarsaikhan received Dr. Robert Zubrin.

“Currently, the Gobi Desert of Mongolia is considered the most similar to the Mars so that space travel can be open not only for astronauts but everyone. Also, this uniqueness will make a valuable contribution to the development of tourism in our country,” noted project team members.

Dr. Robert Zubrin said, “The reason why we intend to establish the training station to prepare those who will be sent to the planet, and ‘Space Studies Free Zone’ in the Mongolian Gobi Desert is that the coldest Gobi, reaching -42 degrees Celsius, is found only in Mongolia. Scientist around the world proved that this weather condition is the most similar to the Mars.” He also expressed his commitment to launch massive construction work to build Mars Research Station next year.

In turn, Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan said, “With the successful implementation of the project, it will become possible to develop a technology-based tourism and this will have a further positive impact on the Mongolian economy.”

Noting that the Government of Mongolia will provide all possible support, S.Amarsaikhan congratulated the ‘Mars V’ team and wished them success in their future endeavors.

As part of the national movement ‘Food Supply and Security’, initiated by the President of Mongolia U. Khurelsukh, Mongolia’s ‘Premium Group’ LLC and South Korea’s ‘Plant TFarm’ have started a project to jointly establish a new generation hydroponic greenhouse.

The opening ceremony of the project was attended by Chief of Staff of the Office of the President Ya.Sodbaatar, President’s Urban and Rural Policy Advisor O.Buyannemekh and other officials.

At the event, Y. Sodbaatar expressed gratitude to the companies for investment and cooperation at a time when President U. Khurelsukh set a goal to meet domestic demand for 19 types of main products over the next five years. He also stressed that he would support the introduction of new methods and technologies, workforce training, strengthening public-private partnerships, as well as any proposals and initiatives of companies in this regard.

Premium Group and South Korean Plant TFarm will invest a total of MNT 50 billion over the next three years to build a 4,700 sq.m greenhouse and 800 sq.m ancillary facilities.

“A hydroponic greenhouse has its advantages, in particular, it will be possible to harvest 60 times more crop per unit area compared to traditional cultivation, replace import products, deliver 2100 kg of leafy vegetables to the capital every day, reuse water, create jobs and improve public education on healthy food,” explained A. Ganhuyag, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Premium Group.