On a Monday in the late summer of 2011, Joe Biden stepped out of a plane in Mongolia. He was met by then-Prime Minister Sukhbaatar and taken on a whirlwind day that included archery and wrestling. He was also given a horse, which he named ‘Celtic’ for his Irish roots.

He’s since chosen ‘Celtic’ as his Secret Service codename for his presidency, and this hasn’t gone unnoticed in Mongolia. There are high hopes that a Biden administration will be a positive for Mongolia’s relationship with the US.

Vice President Joe Biden and former Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold walk down the red carpet during an arrival ceremony at Ghengis Khan International Airport in 2011. (White House Archives)

In an August op-ed, a former Speaker of the Great State Khural, Zandaakhuu Enkhbold, noted the codename story and said the partnership between Mongolia and the US is ‘one of the most underrated.’

“Both Democrats and Republicans have warmly welcomed us on the Capitol Hill,” Enkhbold wrote. “This was proof that our two countries have grown stronger and closer based on common strategic interests, shared democratic values, and principles of sovereignty. Achieving tangible results from this partnership should be the priority of both our nations’ leaders.”

There are a few reasons why Mongolia’s leaders should be optimistic.

First, Joe Biden has says he wants to try and re-join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The TPP is now known as the CPTPP – say that five times fast - which is a huge trade deal taking in countries around the Pacific rim. Mongolia isn’t a member, but the lesson here is that Biden believes trade is an important part of international relations.

This is a good omen for the Mongolian trade deal currently sitting in the US Congress, although a Trump re-election wouldn’t necessarily have changed its fortunes seeing as the US has a trade surplus with Mongolia (which was one of Trump’s hobby horses). But unlike Trump, Biden’s leadership is also a good omen for US-Mongolian economic relations beyond the scope of the bill, particularly in green energy.

Second, Biden was vice-president when Mongolia sent troops to Afghanistan in 2009.

This means Mongolian officers would’ve built personal relationships with American commanders who may now have risen through the ranks towards top positions under Biden as commander-in-chief. Those kind of personal relationships matter, albeit in unseen ways.

Importantly, Joe Biden’s likely pick for Defense Secretary is Michele Flournoy. In 2009, she was undersecretary of defense for policy and helped shape the US strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan at the exact same time that Mongolian troops deployed to serve alongside US soldiers. If she’s appointed, Mongolia’s reputation will certainly be well-established in the Pentagon.

Third, Mongolia is becoming more strategically important for the US, no matter who is in the White House.

It is one of the only true democracies in Asia, something Joe Biden pointed out when he visited in 2011. This makes Mongolia a natural partner in American efforts to contain China, and those efforts won’t go away with a Biden administration.

Flournoy has said that the US needs to take a hard line on China, and she’s also said that “America’s best asset in the region is the other nations who can jointly pressure Beijing.”

Mongolia is one of those nations: it is one of China’s top sources of coal, a potential transit route for Siberian energy and a key stop on Beijing’s ‘One Belt One Road’, a huge infrastructure plan to better link China with Europe. It also has the potential to fuel China’s renewable energy future through lithium deposits in the Gobi desert.

Finally, if US relations with China deteriorate, Washington will need a diplomatic ‘back door’ to conduct negotiations with Beijing out of public view. Mongolia would be a strong candidate: it is one of the only countries – possibly the only country – to maintain decent relations with Russia, the US and China at the same time. It is seen as neutral ground, and as the Asia-Pacific becomes more polarized, neutral ground will be a hot commodity.

However, there is one major stumbling block.

Mongolia has yet to congratulate Biden for winning the election. It is one of only a few countries - including Russia, Turkmenistan, Myanmar and Syria - that's stayed silent.

So what's stopping Mongolia? Maybe the country's leaders are waiting for the electoral college to certify the election in mid-December. But this would be globally unusual - even China has called Biden, although it waited a while.

Enkhbold ended his op-ed by hoping for another visit from Biden. There are reasons to believe the wish may be granted - as long as Mongolia quickly picks up the phone and dials his number.

by: Ewen Levick

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At 5 p.m., Head of the Surveillance Department of the National Center for Communicable Diseases A.Ambaselmaa provided updates on the latest coronavirus test results.

18 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected as coronavirus tests were conducted on 963 people since 11 a.m.

550 tests carried out at the NCCD were included in it and a hospital worker tested positive for the coronavirus.

4 people were diagnosed with the coronavirus among the tested 348 people in Darkhan-Uul aimag.

13 people tested positive among the tested 59 people in Selenge aimag

The newly detected cases are all the close contacts of the previously confirmed cases or community transmission. Thus, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at 473 at the national level.

Incidentally, 23 confirmed cases have been recorded in the cluster of Selenge aimag, 8 confirmed cases in Darkhan-Uul aimag, one confirmed case in Gobisumber aimag and 15 confirmed cases in Ulaanbaatar city.

The Mongolian Government has extended the state of public emergency readiness for 14 days until 1 December. These measures came into effect at 06.00 a.m.

During the emergency period, a curfew will be in force inthe Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Therefore, all commercial banks have closedand moved online and to mobile channels.

Plans are in hand in Mongolia for a series of road development works in the next four years. The programme calls for the construction of 2,022km of surfaced roads. In addition, new concrete bridges will be built under the plans.

At present, a plan is being carried out for 2,000km of roads being built during 2020.

Financing for this new programme will be delivered through a combination of state funding, loans from international sources and by PPPs.

New highway stretches will connect Darkhan with Altanbulag and Nalaikh with Bayan, featuring two lanes in either directions. The 58km road linking capital Ulaanbatar with Uvurkhangai will be improved, as will the 127km route connecting Bayankhongor with Gobi-Altai. Constructill be carried out on the 67km route connecting Tosontsengel and Uliastai.

Five more locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Selenge province in northern Mongolia on Tuesday, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD).

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country reached 440, including 27 locally transmitted cases as of Tuesday evening.

Domestic transmissions of the virus have been reported in the capital city Ulan Bator, Selenge province and its neighboring Darkhan-Uul province.

After confirming its first locally transmitted case last Wednesday, the country has imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the pandemic for two weeks until Dec. 1.

The first case of local transmission in Mongolia was a woman whose 29-year-old husband, a transport driver, returned home from Russia via Altanbulag border point and tested positive for the virus four days after he was released from 21-day mandatory isolation on Nov. 6.

Among the confirmed cases, 329 patients have recovered so far, according to the NCCD.

Authorities of the country have urged the public to stay at home and maintain good hygiene habits. Enditem

Coal market participants in China are closely monitoring what impact a new outbreak of COVID-19 in Mongolia might have on the country’s coal exports – a crucial concern given that China is the destination of almost all Mongolian coal for export.

Last Thursday, the Ulan Bator government imposed a national lockdown after a locally transmitted COVID-19 case was identified, and as of Monday morning, three new cases had been recorded after 1,818 tests were carried out nationwide, according to the head of Mongolia’s National Center for Communicable Diseases. Mongolia’s efforts since earlier this year had spared the landlocked country the worst of the global pandemic, Mysteel Global notes.

Due to the new wave however, the Mongolian government has temporarily closed some of the country’s checkpoints with Russia, though the major Mongolia-China checkpoints remain opened, Mysteel Global understands from government posts.

“Due to the possible impact to the economy during the pandemic, specialized (virus) inspection agencies at the border are working as quickly and continuously as possible” to detect anyone who might be infected, noted a report by Mongolia’s government-backed Montsame agency on November 14. During last Friday, Mongolia exported 1,425 trucks or 138,602 tonnes of coal to China, according to the news agency’s data.

“Major China-Mongolia border checkpoints for coal trade are still in operation, despite Mongolia’s lockdown, as measures to contain virus have been adopted since Mongolia resumed coal deliveries in late March,” said a Shanghai-based analyst. “However, compared with the peak period over September-October, the delivery volume of Mongolian coal slid recently,” he observed.

Mongolia is one of the key overseas sources of metallurgical coal for Chinese end-users. The country’s coal became more popular among markets in China after the latter tightened restrictions on seaborne coking coal imports including those from Australia, Mysteel Global notes.

Some traders have continued to lift Mongolian coal prices recently after noting firm coking coal demand from Chinese end-users. By November 16, Mysteel’s price assessment for 11% ash, 25% volatile matter and 0.7% sulphur Mongolian coal had increased Yuan 30/tonne ($4.6/t) on week to Yuan 1,080/t including the 13% VAT, hitting a seven-month high.

Written by Sean Xie, xiepy@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

Gross industrial output reached MNT 13.1 trillion in the first ten months of 2020, decreased by MNT 1.9 trillion (12.5%) from the same period of the previous year, Montsame reports.

This decrease was mainly due to MNT 1.8 trillion (16.3%) decrease in mining and quarrying gross output. However, the electricity, thermal energy, and water supply production output increased by MNT 67.8 billion (7.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

By preliminary results, the mining and quarrying gross output reached MNT 9.1 trillion in the first ten months of 2020, decreased by MNT 1.8 trillion (16.3%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the reductions in coal mining and lignite by MNT 2.0 trillion (44.5%), and extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 533.8 billion (62.8%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

On November 16, 2020, Marubeni Corporation (hereinafter, “Marubeni”) reached an agreement with AND Global Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter, “AND Global”), a FinTech solutions developer and provider in Singapore, by which Marubeni will make an equity investment in AND Global by capital increase through third-party allotment.

AND Global is a start-up company that operates its FinTech R&D center in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The company also runs a small ticket lending business with the brand, “LendMN” and an e-wallet service with the brand, “LendMN Wallet”. Additionally, its operating subsidiary, LendMN NBFI JSC was listed on Mongolian Stock Exchange in 2018.

Since Marubeni and AND Global entered into a strategic partnership in April 2020, the two companies have been cooperating to develop new business opportunities and promote AND Global’s FinTech solution service globally. Through this process, Marubeni has grown to believe even more strongly in AND Global’s vision and digital development capability in providing its FinTech service due to its strong management and talented people. As such, Marubeni decided the agreement to strengthen its relationship with AND Global even further by investing in the company and support its further growth in the future. After consummation of the equity subscription, Marubeni, as the largest shareholder of AND Global, will continuously provide necessary support for the company’s global expansion, including deployment of its own employees to AND Global’s group companies and extensive support for business development.

With the coronavirus crisis, and as Digital Transformation becomes a global phenomenon, especially in the consumer business area, significant growth in digital financial services for general consumers is expected. Marubeni strongly believes that AND Global’s FinTech solutions, including its proprietary AI-based credit scoring system and collaboration with external application service providers, has a great potential to serve the increasing global demand and will work together with AND Global to expand its business outside of Mongolia.

Marubeni also believes that AND Global’s experience in operating digital finance service and establishing digital ecosystems with its self-developed technology will be a great help for consumer businesses of the Marubeni Group and partner companies, helping them to improve their current operation and create new businesses in the midst of the aforementioned global trend.

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results, the gross industrial output reached MNT 13.1 trillion in the first ten months of 2020, decreased by MNT 1.9 trillion (12.5%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to MNT 1.8 trillion (16.3%) decrease in mining and quarrying gross output. However, the electricity, thermal energy, and water supply production output increased by MNT 67.8 billion (7.7%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

By preliminary results, the mining and quarrying gross output reached MNT 9.1 trillion in the first ten months of 2020, decreased by MNT 1.8 trillion (16.3%) from the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to the reductions in coal mining and lignite by MNT 2.0 trillion (44.5%), and extraction of crude petroleum by MNT 533.8 billion (62.8%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

In October 2020, the gross industrial output reached MNT 1.9 trillion, increased by MNT 235.9 billion (14.3%) from the previous month. This increase was mainly due to MNT 180.8 billion (14.8%) increase in mining and quarrying output.

By the preliminary results of the mining and quarrying sector, in the first ten months of 2020, extraction of iron ore and gold increased by 4.7-31.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, the production of bottled water, soft drink, juice, alcoholic beverage, alcohol, wheat flour, cement, milk, and coal briquette grew by 2.4-90.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Also, the face mask production rose by 11.8 times more compared to the same period of the previous year.

However, in the mining and quarrying sector, extractions of brown coal, fluor spar, copper concentrate, hard coal, and crude oil decreased by 4.5-47.4%. In the manufacturing industry, productions of lime, meat, combed cashmere, copper cathode, cashmere products, concentrated coal metal steed and cigarettes decreased by 3.7-50.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.

By the preliminary results of the first ten months of 2020, the sales of industrial output reached MNT 15.3 trillion, decreased by MNT 1.9 trillion (11.2%) compared to the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted from MNT 1.7 trillion (14.4%) decrease in sales of mining and quarrying output and MNT 316.4 billion (7.2%) decrease in sales of manufacturing output.

The sales of mining and quarrying output decreased by MNT 1.7 trillion (14.4%) compared to the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly resulted MNT 1.8 trillion (41.8%) decrease in sales of coal mining output and MNT 508.9 billion (63.0%) decrease in sales of crude petroleum output, respectively.

In the total sales of industrial output, MNT 8.7 trillion (56.8%) was export, of which MNT 7.3 trillion (83.8%) was export of mining and quarrying output. Of the total MNT 7.3 trillion export of mining and quarrying output, 62.0% was metal ores, 32.0% was coal and lignite, 4.1% was crude petroleum, and 1.9% was other mining quarrying output.

Source: National Statistics Office

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results in the first ten months of 2020, the total revenue of the general government budget was MNT 8.3 trillion. The equilibrated revenue of the general government budget was MNT 7.6 trillion and 91.5% of the total revenue of the general government budget. On the other hand, the total expenditure and net lending was MNT 10.8 trillion in the first ten months of 2020, resulting in a deficit of MNT 3.3 trillion in the equilibrated balance.

In October 2020, the total equilibrated revenue and grants of the general government budget was MNT 0.9 trillion, decreased by MNT 147.1 billion or 14.7%, the total expenditure and net lending was MNT 1.4 trillion, increased by MNT 289.8 billion or 26.7% compared to the previous month.

In October 2020, the equilibrated balance of the general government budget was in deficit of 519.7 billion, increased by MNT 437.0 billion, or 6.3 times compared to the previous month.

The General government budget revenue was comprised of 83.1% of tax revenue, 8.4% of non-tax revenue, 8.0% of the future heritage fund, and 0.5% of the stabilization fund.

the first ten months of 2020, tax revenue reached MNT 6.9 trillion, decreased by MNT 1.1 trillion, or 14.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to MNT 410.4 billion or 19.0% decrease in income tax revenue, MNT 318.4 billion or 20.2% decrease in social security revenue, MNT 168.5 billion or 8.4% decrease in value-added tax revenue, MNT 133.2 billion or 17.5% decrease in other taxes revenue, MNT 84.3 billion or 11.5% decrease in excise tax revenue and MNT 32.2 billion or 4.9% decrease in foreign activity revenue.

In the first 10 months of 2020, general government budget expenditure and net lending was MNT 10.8 trillion, increased by MNT 2.5 trillion or 30.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. This increase was primarily affected by MNT 2.1 trillion or 32.0% increase in current expenditure and MNT 587.7 billion or 37.6% increase in capital expenditure, though net lending decreased by MNT 166.3 billion or 84.8%, compared to the same period of previous year.

In the current expenditure, 44.8% was current transfers, 42.4% was expenditure on goods and services, 9.3% was interest payment and 3.5% was subsidies.

Source: National Statistics Office