Mongolian Customs General Administration has released preliminary data on Mongolia’s mineral exports for 2024.

According to the Customs General Administration, coal export revenue in 2024 amounted to USD 8.6 billion. The total volume of exported coal reached 83.7 million tons, marking the first time in history that coal exports have exceeded 80 million tons. Last year, Mongolia exported 83.7 million tons of bituminous and lignite coal, earning USD 8.6 billion. At the same time, the volume increased by over 20 percent compared to the previous year.

In 2024, Mongolia had planned to export 78 million tons of coal at an average price of USD 115 per ton. Although the volume target was exceeded, the average export price was approximately USD 103 per ton.

The total export value of the six key mineral products reached USD 13.2 billion, a 5 percent increase compared to 2023.

Trip.com, a global leader in the tourism industry with over a half billion users worldwide, began officially promoting Mongolia. This marks an important milestone for Mongolia's tourism sector.

In September 2024, Minister of Culture of Mongolia Nomin Chinbat signed a Cooperation Agreement with Jane Sun, President of Trip.com Group. Under the agreement, both parties aim to promote Mongolia’s nomadic culture, traditions, and stunning natural landscapes through the National Brand "Go Mongolia." The Promotion Campaign will market to users from South Korea, Hong Kong, and China, focusing on selling tourism products and services.

To enhance Mongolian tourism in the Chinese market, various types of content are now being distributed to users through social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat. These platforms also provide direct access for purchasing flight tickets and tourism products and services.

The year 2024 was successful for Mongolia's tourism sector, with over 810,000 tourists visiting the country, which is the highest number in history. To further reduce seasonality and develop winter tourism, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is collaborating with professional organizations. The Ministry has set a goal of attracting 2 million tourists by 2028.

The capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar continue to rank among the most polluted cities in the world. This year’s extreme air pollution demonstrated the failure of a series of government policies, highlighting the amount of financial resources wasted on ineffective fixes in the past decade. The culmination of inefficient policies, undeliverable goals, redundant short-term solutions, and the resident’s dependence on coal is wreaking havoc on Mongolians’ health and longevity.

Ulaanbaatar is one of the coldest cities in the world due to its high elevation. The capital is also surrounded by mountains and hills that traps carbon, smog, and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). In the first week of January 2025, Ulaanbaatar ranked as the fourth most-polluted city in the world in the Air Quality Index (AQI). In comparison to manufacturing hubs in India, Bangladesh, and China – which all take leading positions among the world’s most polluted countries as well – in Mongolia’s case, pollution is caused more by burning raw coal, polluting automobiles, and unregulated settlers in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, among other factors.

In September 2024, the Ministry of Economy and Development, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Health, and National Center for Public Health, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the EU office in Mongolia, organized “Air Pollution Investment Case” to address the dire need to solve Mongolia’s air pollution. Experts highlighted that air pollution causes 2,839 deaths annually, and household air pollution leads to over 4,300 deaths each year.

Mongolian policymakers, in tandem with receiving millions in assistance from global partners, have talked about eliminating coal burning and reducing air pollution for decades. The pledge to reduce coal consumption as a domestic heat source in the ger districts has been used for political advantage. To many policymakers, embracing that narrative was important to attract financial support from international organizations and partners, yet little has been done to actually implement the necessary changes.

Researchers and working groups have consistently (for example, in 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021) assessed that Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution is a major public health issue and a major contributing factor to an increase of brain and respiratory diseases, pregnancy losses, and cancers. For over a decade, these and similar assessments have recommended the following steps:

First, completely eliminate coal burning as a domestic heat source and replace it with natural gas, or provide clean coal as an interim solution. Second, continue to remove gers and provide alternative housing with appropriate insulation, such as apartments or houses. Third, continue to eliminate indoor smoking, particularly inside homes. Fourth, work on regulations eliminating diesel and other vehicular exhaust within the city. And fifth, move to mandate clean-emission natural gas, electric, or hybrid vehicles as much as possible within the city.

For decades, experts have warned that the main culprit for Mongolia’s air pollution is the burning of coal and the lack of modern engineering infrastructure that can support clean air systems. Advocacy groups and development banks have recommended and financed many, many projects and initiatives to address the issue. A decade later, these recommendations, however, seem to be nothing but so many PDF files.

According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, “In 2017, air pollution in the country’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar was found to be 7.5 times higher than the safe limit, leading the National Security Council of Mongolia to declare that air pollution had reached disaster levels, derived sources including the household energy, transportation, coal, and wastes sectors.”

In 2018, the government pledged $55 million to reduce air pollution, including by phasing out coal burning. So far, these pledges have not materialized, nor have the goals been reached – such as a target to halve air pollution by 2025. In 2017, Mongolia had a yearly average of 62 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 particles. In 2023, the level had crept up to 73.

Programs supported by international partners have come to similar ends. As NPR noted in a 2019 article, “with support from the World Bank, the government distributed low-emission stoves a few years ago, but that program fizzled out in 2015.”

Since 2019, the Mongolian government has made some efforts in reducing air pollution by banning the use of raw coal. However, given the socioeconomic status of the working class, it is fiscally impossible for people to buy higher priced coal. The 58 percent of the city’s workforce who currently live in ger districts have little or no access to infrastructure that can actually help to introducing clean-air cooking and heating systems. These ger districts both contribute to and are heavily affected by air pollution.

Former Minister of Environment and Tourism Oyunkhorol Dulamsuren stated that “between 2011 and 2015, the government spent more than $37 million, plus $47 million from international donors, on tackling air pollution.” For example, in cooperation with with UNICEF, several projects and research initiatives have been conducted to test stove efficiency, particularly in the ger districts. Yet all these initiatives – and all that money – had come to naught.

By assessing from the millions of dollars spent on tackling air pollution, it begs the question where do all these funds go if there has not been a notable improvement of the city’s engineering and infrastructure?

In response to the government’s inability to fix the air pollution crisis, the Mongolian public has demonstrated consistently between 2016 and 2024. Every winter, Mongolian parents in particular voice their concerns over the impact of increasing air pollution on their and their children’s health and well-being. Unfortunately, managing air pollution has become a normal part of Mongolians’ daily life during the months of November to late March.

In December 2024, another peaceful demonstration took place in Sukhbaatar Square. Human rights and children’s advocacy groups and individuals demanded that the government, headed by Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, tackle air pollution.

In response, Oyun-Erdene held an irregular session one day before the New Year to address the nation on the severity of the air pollution. Some of the solutions the Cabinet proposed include creating a public transit system, building a freeway, insulating 95,000 households in the ger district.

While these are good talking points, measures like creating a public transit system to reduce automobile smog and building a freeway to reduce the cars on the roads in Ulaanbaatar will take years. For decades, Mongolian policymakers have discussed transit systems like Japan’s or public metro systems like those in Moscow and Beijing. To this day, none has materialized. Instead, the Mayor’s Office and municipalities prefer short cuts and short-term solutions like installing air purifiers and exhorting the public to wear facemasks. For example, the Mayor’s Office implemented a policy that restricts cars to drive on every other day, depending on their license plate number.

As evidenced by the continuing air pollution crisis, however, such approaches have a minimal impact on solving air pollution. But they have made the daily lives of Ulaanbaatar residents more difficult as they have to manage the daily commute to work or dropping their children to school.

With that history in mind, despite the Cabinet meeting and Oyun-Erdene’s address, residents of Ulaanbaatar remain uncertain and not confident in the latest measures. The so-called new measures – such as increasing investments and financial support to reduce air pollution, “constructing energy-efficient and green residential towns, expanding the road network, [and] supporting the development of public transportation systems” – have been empty political promises for decades. Without more holistic fixes such as ensuring proper access to city sewage systems, electricity, and clean water supplies, short-term solutions such as the insulation of 95,000 households are a waste of public financial resources.

Despite these narratives on combating air pollution and modernizing the ger district, it seems that Mongolia’s working class, especially the 38 percent of people living in poverty, will continue to depend on burning coal to hear their homes.

With air pollution as a leading crisis, the Ulaanbaatar Development Index dropped to 0.474, receiving an F grade in 2024. The index assess quality of life, implementation of policies, and competitiveness, with 1.000 as the highest possible score. Mongolia’s long-term development goals include a target to improve Ulaanbaatar’s score to 0.9, but given the slow progress on renewable energy, much less housing initiatives to transfer ger districts to apartment units, this winter does provide much reason for hope.

The current government’s growing economic incentives are not quite translated toward making the Mongolian households any healthier. The lack of policy and implementation continuity from the Mayor’s Office only make things worse. A growing sense of unhappiness and daily frustration over air pollution are the lived realities of Mongolians living in Ulaanbaatar during the harsh winter months. Given Mongolia’s sparse population, a grand bargain for economic goals cannot come at the cost of the Mongolian people’s health, happiness, and longevity.

BY 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.

On January 6, 2025, President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa visited the construction site of the Second National Oncology Center and was introduced to the ongoing work by the Members of the Working Group in charge of supporting its establishment.

The Second National Oncology Center will be located on 12 hectares of land in the Bayangol Am, the 34th khoroo of Songinokhairkhan district of Ulaanbaatar. Around 1,500 doctors to work at the Center will be trained in collaboration with the University of Utah in the United States.

President Khurelsukh noted, “We need to urgently establish a comprehensive and modernized cancer treatment and research facility that meets international standards. With Mongolia's expanding foreign relations, we intend to advance this project through international cooperation and not rely solely on the State Budget. Cancer incidence is increasing each year, and without the timely completion of this facility, the World Health Organization estimates that cancer rates in Mongolia will double by 2040.

The Center, covering 95,000 square meters, will employ about 1,500 doctors and medical staff. Members of the State Great Khural who have studied cancer extensively and deeply understand the adversity of the people are included in the Working Group as they will be a great driving force in this initiative.”

The mortality rate from cancer in Mongolia is 24 percent, which is considerably higher than the global average of 17 percent. Additionally, around 70 percent of cancer patients are diagnosed at later stages of the disease.

The new center will consist of a seven-story building with four blocks. Specifically, Block “A” will house waste management, outpatient services, training, research, and inpatient care. Block “B” will include sterilization, outpatient services, imaging, endoscopy, surgery, laboratory facilities, and office spaces. Block “C” will cover chemotherapy, intensive treatment, emergency services, and inpatient care, while Block “D” will accommodate radiotherapy and anatomical pathology.

The construction of the 600-bed Second National Oncology Center is set to commence next spring and is planned to be fully operational by 2030. The Government of Mongolia is implementing a policy for increasing public participation in early cancer detection, providing localized cancer care for citizens in their respective areas, and reducing cancer-related mortality rates. The Government has also allocated funds in both national and local budgets for the expansion of the National Oncology Center and the provision of medical equipment to regional hospitals.

During its plenary session on December 26, 2024, the State Great Khural of Mongolia discussed a draft Law on Ratifying the Agreement between the Governments of Mongolia and the Russian Federation on the Development of Design for the Project to Expand and Modernize the Thermal Power Plant No. 3 of Ulaanbaatar City.

Minister of Energy of Mongolia Choijilsuren Battogtokh noted, "The Thermal Power Plant No. 3, with its 48 MW medium-pressure section, was commissioned between 1968 and 1975, and the 100 MW high-pressure section was put into operation between 1976 and 1981. With the addition of a 50 MW turbine generator in 2014, the installed capacity reached 198 MW for electricity and 585 GCal per hour for heat. It has been in operation for 56 years now. The Plant is located in the most optimal place to support Ulaanbaatar's heat supply network. It provides 32 percent of the heat supply of Ulaanbaatar and 16 percent of the central region's electricity. During the winter, the operation of thermal power plants without proper preparation increases the risk of limiting heat supply to consumers due to technical malfunctions at Thermal Power Plant No. 3. To mitigate this risk, the Plant needs to be expanded and modernized in the near future."

The Government of Mongolia has included in its Action Program a two-phase expansion of the Plant. In the first phase, a new Thermal Power Plant with a capacity of 50 MW of electricity and 100 GCal per hour of heat will be built. The existing 48 MW plant will be decommissioned, and a new thermal power plant with a capacity of 250 MW of electricity and 400 GCal per hour of heat will be constructed in its place. The design work for this will be undertaken during the second phase.

During the official visit of the President of Mongolia to the Russian Federation in 2021, the "Thermal Power Plant No. 3" (TPP No. 3) JSC and "Inter Rao-Export" LLC signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation, launching the development of a feasibility study for the expansion project. "Inter Rao-Export" LLC financed the feasibility study with its funds and delivered it to TPP No. 3 in September 2022. To determine the total project cost and construction timeline accurately, the Ministry of Energy of Mongolia first developed a draft Agreement between the Governments of Mongolia and the Russian Federation on the Development of Design for the Project to Expand and Modernize the Thermal Power Plant No. 3 of Ulaanbaatar City.

In August 2024, the Government of Mongolia discussed the draft Agreement with the Standing Committees on Security and Foreign Policy, Economics, and Budget of the State Great Khural. Subsequently, based on the minutes of the meeting of the Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy and under Directive No. 48 of the Prime Minister of Mongolia, the Minister of Energy was authorized to sign the Agreement with the Russian side. On September 3, 2024, during the official visit of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to Mongolia, the two sides signed the Agreement, which specifies the scope and general conditions of the engineering surveys and research for the development of the project's design. It also designates "Thermal Power Plant No. 3" JSC as the client and the "Inter Rao-Export" LLC as the contractor.

Based on the presentation by Minister of Energy B. Choijilsuren, and the conclusions of the Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy, Members of the State Great Khural asked questions and made remarks. Following this, a vote was held on whether to approve the draft Law on Ratifying the Agreement between the Governments of Mongolia and the Russian Federation on the Development of Design for the Project to Expand and Modernize the Thermal Power Plant No. 3 of Ulaanbaatar City. A majority of the Members voted in favor, and the State Great Khural approved the draft Law.

Opposition parties led by the Liberte Party plan to protest at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulanbaatar Jan. 11. Organizers are denouncing the ruling coalition over several issues pertaining to economic, environmental, and traffic management policies. Anti-government rallies in recent years have seen high turnouts of several thousand people and sporadic altercations between activists and police. Attendees may hold unannounced marches towards key government buildings in the vicinity, including the Government Palace, as well as residences and offices of the president and prime minister. Additional gatherings, including counter-protests by pro-government groups, may also occur at nearby public squares, parks, and thoroughfares.

Authorities typically heighten security in the capital city ahead of planned demonstrations. Checkpoints at entry points of Ulanbaatar, vehicle and personnel checks, gathering bans, and localized public movement restrictions in key areas are possible. Clashes may occur, especially if protesters attempt to breach security cordons, defy any official bans, or confront rival groups. Violence may also break out if police attempt to carry out mass arrests. Temporary road closures, curtailment of public transport services, and diversions are likely to affect access roads to the main rally site. Increased congestion on roadways and public buses is probable as attendees arrive at and leave the venue. Localized business closures may occur.

In accordance with the Anti-Corruption Law and the Law on the Coordination of Public and Private Interests in Public Service and the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest, all officials subject to the law must submit a new Declaration of Personal Interest and Declaration of Assets and Income (HASKOM) by February 15 each year.

As part of the revisions to the HASKOM form, the Standing Committee on Justice of the parliament approved Resolution No. 05 in 2024, which revised the approval procedures, forms, and lists. The guidelines for completing the declaration were further clarified by Order No. A/96 issued by the Head of the Anti-Corruption Department in 2024, with the updated procedures taking effect on January 1.

The Anti-Corruption Agency opened the online submission system for applicants to re-submit their 2024 HASKOM starting January 2. The submission process is now active nationwide via the agency's online platform at https://meduuleg.iaac.mn/.

In addition to reporting dual employment, as well as any equipment and virtual assets owned by both themselves and their family members, the new regulations also require officials to report their and their family members' income after taxes and contributions have been deducted.

Applicants must log in to the online system of the Independent Agency Against Corruption, re-submit their 2024 HASKOM, verify the information by February 15 and submit the confirmation sheet to the appropriate authorized official for registration and storage of their application.

The Singapore government on December 30, 2024, published guidance specifying the modifications made by the OECD base erosion and profit-shifting multilateral instrument to the 2002 Mongolia-Singapore income tax treaty.

Singapore signed the MLI on June 7, 2017, when it was opened for signature, while Mongolia signed the MLI on October 6, 2022. Singapore deposited its ratification instrument for the MLI on December 21, 2018, while Mongolia deposited its on September 30, 2024.

The MLI entered into force April 1, 2019, for Singapore and January 1, 2025, for Mongolia. The guidance specifies that the preamble is replaced and an article on the prevention of treaty abuse is added.

The guidance states that the MLI has effect regarding the Mongolia-Singapore tax treaty, in Singapore, as follows:

for taxes withheld at source, on amounts paid, deemed paid, or liable to be paid (whichever is the earliest) on or after January 1, 2025; and

for taxes other than those withheld at source, when the income is derived or received in a basis period beginning on or after July 1, 2025.