Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. By preliminary results of January 2021, the gross industrial output reached MNT 1.6 trillion, increased by MNT 415.9 billion (35.8%) from the same period of the previous year.

This increase was mainly due to MNT 325.6 billion (42.8%) increase in mining and quarrying gross output and MNT 79.7 billion (30.7%) increase in manufacturing output. Also, the output of electricity, gas, steam, air conditioning supply increased by MNT 9.8 billion (7.5%) and the output of water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities increased by MNT 777.2 million (7.2%) from the same period of the previous year.

By preliminary results of January 2021, the mining and quarrying gross output reached MNT 1.1 trillion, increased by MNT 325.6 billion (42.8%) from the same period of the previous year. This increase was mainly due to increases in the mining of metal ores by 65.2 billion (14.9%), extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 12.8 billion (21.1%), and mining of coal and lignite by MNT 257.1 billion (2.1 times) from the same period of the previous year.

The gross industrial output decreased by MNT 210.8 billion (11.8%) from the previous month. This decrease was mainly due to MNT 231.7 billion (17.6%) decrease in mining and quarrying gross output. By preliminary results of the mining and quarrying sector in January of 2021, extraction of copper concentrate, gold, fluorspar, crude oil, and hard coal increased by 0.3% to 2.0 times compared to the same period of the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, production of main products such as lime, alcohol, soft drinks, juice, milk, flour, meat, refined coal increased by 1.1% to 2.7 times compared to the same period of the previous year. Also, the production of coal briquettes and face masks increased by 79.1% to 7.9 times more compared to the same period of the previous year.

Source: National Statistics Office

The past year is one that few of us will forget. While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have played out unevenly across Asia and the Pacific, the region has been spared many of the worst effects seen in other parts of the world. The pandemic has reminded us that a reliable and uninterrupted energy supply is critical to managing this crisis.

Beyond ensuring that hospitals and healthcare facilities continue to function, energy supports the systems and coping mechanisms we rely on to work remotely, undertake distance learning and communicate essential health information. Importantly, energy will also underpin cold chains and logistics to ensure that billions of vaccines make their way to the people who need them most.

The good news is our region’s energy systems have continued to function throughout the pandemic. A new report Shaping a sustainable energy future in Asia and the Pacific: A greener, more resilient and inclusive energy system released today by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) shows the energy demand reductions have mainly impacted fossil fuels and depressed oil and gas prices. Renewable energy development in countries across the region, such as China and India, has continued at a healthy pace throughout 2020.

As the Asia-Pacific region transitions its energy system to clean, efficient and low carbon technologies, the emergence of the pandemic raises some fundamental questions. How can a transformed energy system help ensure our resilience to future crises such as COVID-19? As we recover from this pandemic, can we launch a “green recovery” that simultaneously rebuilds our economies and puts us on track to meet global climate and sustainability goals?

A clean and sustainable energy is central to a recovery from COVID-19 pandemic. By emphasizing the importance of the SDGs as a guiding framework for recovering better together, we must focus on two critical aspcets:

First, by making meaningful progress on the SDGs, we can address many of the systemic issues that made societies more vulnerable to COVID-19 in the first place – health, decent work, poverty and inequalities, to name a few.

Second, by directing stimulus spending to investments that support the achievement of the SDGs, we can build back better. If countries focus their stimulus efforts on the industries of the past such as fossil fuels, we risk not creating the jobs we need, or moving in the right direction to achieve the global goals that are critical to future generations. The energy sector offers multiple opportunities to align stimulus with the clean industries of the future.

The evidence shows that renewable energy and energy efficiency projects create more jobs for the same investment as fossil fuel projects. By йincreasing expenditure on clean cooking and electricity access, we can enhance economic activity in rural areas and bring modern infrastructure that can make these communities more resilient and inclusive, particularly for the wellbeing of women and children.

Additionally, investing in low-carbon infrastructure and technologies can create a basis for the more ambitious climate pledges we need to reach the Paris Agreement targets of a 2-degree global warming limit. On this note, several countries have announced carbon neutrality, demonstrating a long-term vision and commitment to an accelerated transformation to sustainable energy. Phasing out the use of coal from power generation portfolios by substituting with renewables, ending fossil fuel subsidies, and implementing carbon pricing are some of the steps we can take.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced us to change many aspects of our lives to keep ourselves and our societies safe. It has shown that we are more adaptive and resilient than we may have believed. Nevertheless, we should not waste the opportunities this crisis presents for transformative change. It should not deflect us from the urgent task of making modern energy available to all and decarbonizing the region’s energy system through a transition to sustainable energy. Instead, it should provide us with a renewed sense of urgency.

We must harness the capacity of sustainable energy to rebuild our societies and economies while protecting the environment in the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Op-Ed by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary- General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, India sent 13 boxes of COVID-19 vaccine to Mongolia on Sunday.

The vaccine was sent from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), Mumbai to Mongolia.

New York (CNN Business)Copper prices climbed to their highest level in nearly a decade Friday as investors in the commodity anticipate rising demand for infrastructure and construction projects in the post-pandemic economy.

On Friday, the price of copper climbed above $4 per pound for the first time since September 2011.

The base metal is used in many construction materials, including electrical wires and water pipes. The uptick is being driven by short and long term optimism for the commodity due to both strong expected demand and supply constraints.

With the full reopening of the US economy on the horizon and President Joe Biden's plan to invest heavily in America's infrastructure, as well as China's ongoing economic recovery, there is reason to believe copper demand will remain high.

China's economy grew 2.3% in 2020. Although it was that nation's slowest annual growth rate since the 1970s, it was also a welcome positive surprise after the world experienced its worst economic shock in recent memory.

China is an important puzzle piece for copper prices because it's such a big consumer of the metal. Demand is so high that inventories there are at their lowest level in nearly 10 years, according to commodity analysts at BCA Research.

Demand from China was the main driver of copper prices last year but "as consumption from the Asian country has slowed in recent months, the recovery has broadened," commodity analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC) said last month. And that's a good sign for prices in the long run: every nation needs copper for their recovery.

The BofA analysts think prices can rise above $4.54 "at some stage."

The main risk to copper's success story is a delay to the reopening of the economy caused by hiccups in vaccine efficacy or a renewed increase in infections.

The number of China-Europe freight trains traveling via Erenhot, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, surpassed 300 this year, local railway authorities said.

The 317 trains carried 32,344 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of goods, up 66.84 percent year on year, according to the Erenhot Customs.

The overall volume of goods transported by the freight trains via the port during the period edged up 73.52 percent year on year to 268,800 tonnes, with the import and export values exceeding 4.35 billion yuan (about 673 million U.S. dollars).

Erenhot Port, an important channel for international cargo in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has 44 China-Europe freight train routes passing through it.

Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will spend 226 billion Mongolian Tugriks (about 79.3 million U.S. dollars) to vaccinate its people against COVID-19, the country's Health Ministry said Saturday.

"The Mongolian government has approved a total of 226 billion Mongolian Tugriks for all activities related to COVID-19 vaccination, including the purchase, transportation, storage and inoculation," said Sereejav Enkhbold, the country's health minister.

Mongolia is planning to vaccinate at least 60 percent of its 3.3 million people, or all adults in the country, against the coronavirus within 2021, with 20 percent of them to be vaccinated under COVAX, a global initiative to ensure quick and equal access to vaccines against the virus, according to the minister.

The Asian country is expected to launch a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign early next week.

So far, the country has recorded 2,586 COVID-19 cases, with six deaths.

More than 2,100 of the confirmed cases were locally transmitted, and over 1,700 of them were detected in the country's capital Ulan Bator, home to over half of the country's total population. Enditem

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On February 21, Sunday, the cabinet convened for an irregular meeting and approved an interim regulation designed for determining the level of COVID-19 transmission and managing the operations of government organizations, individuals and private legal entities.

The regulation divides COVID-19 transmission in the country into four levels each represented by a color and lays out detailed rules and guidelines for operations and activities to be carried out by government organizations, individuals and private businesses under each level.

1. Green Level – Guidelines for the green level transmission are issued when the country has gone 28 days straight with zero COVID-19 cases. Operations of public and private organizations and individuals are not suspended, only health preventative guidelines and recommendations are in place.

2. Yellow Level – issued when the coronavirus cases registered in the past 14 days are ‘imported’ from abroad and taken under control or the local cases confirmed in the past two weeks are not directly related to each other in terms of their timing and locations. Under the Yellow Level transmission, complete or partial heightened state of readiness is declared and operations of public and private organizations and individuals are restricted to a certain extent.

3. Orange Level – issued when cluster infections are confirmed and local cases recorded in the past 14 days are related to each other in terms of their timing and locations. Under the Orange Level transmission, complete or partial heightened state of readiness is declared and operations of public and private organizations and individuals are restricted to a certain extent depending on the situation.

4. Red Level – issued when large-scale community infections of COVID-19 are recorded, positive coronavirus cases recorded in the past 14 days are found to have been virally transmitted among general population or the cluster source of 25 percent of newly confirmed cases cannot be identified or mortality rate per 10,000 people is higher than 0.1. Under the Red Level transmission, all-out readiness regime is issued in full or partial manners and operations of public and private organizations and individuals are restricted and special measures for lockdown and quarantine are implemented.

With a view to curb and contain the spread of community transmission of COVID-19, Ulaanbaatar city has been under the Red Level-related regime of strict lockdown since February 11. The lockdown is scheduled to be lifted on February 23, Tuesday, and the capital city will move under the Yellow Level of transmission, reports the Cabinet Secretariat.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On February 19, the second day of 2021 Judo Grand Slam Tel Aviv, Saeid Mollaei, the only judoka representing Mongolia at the competition, took the silver medal in men’s 81 kg division.

After topping his B pool and then defeating Russia’s Aslan Lappinagov in semi-final, the athlete lost to Uzbekistan’s Sharofiddin Boltaboev in the gold match.