New renewable energy plant in western Mongolia www.news.mn

A new combined solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power plant is under construction in the Altai Soum of Gobi-Altai Province. The 450kW solar PV and 200kW wind hybrid plant is expected to begin operation later this year. The construction of the plant has been financed with Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding worth USD 92 thousand.

Russian Urals crude sinks below $12 amid epic oil market meltdown www.rt.com

The unprecedented oil market crash this week has put Russian crude under pressure, with the Urals blend falling by almost $6 to trade below $12 per barrel, according to energy information provider Argus Media.
The Russian oil benchmark, the price of which is determined by Brent crude, was trading lower only on April 2, when it dropped to $10.54 per barrel (CIF Rotterdam). That was the weakest level since March 1999. Urals had almost doubled in price a week later, on reports of OPEC+ negotiations.

Green Belt Project - Symbol of Friendship between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On November 22, 2019, during a parliament session, it was warned that 76.8 percent of Mongolia’s territory has become subject to desertification and land degradation. Later, on February 20, 2019, a technical meeting to develop a global sand and dust storm source base map talked about how the yellow dust storm caused by desertification and land degradation is posing a challenge to not only Mongolia and Asia, but the entire world and producing diverse impacts on human health.

A Mongolia-ROK joint project, ‘Green Belt’, has been running for 14 years to mitigate desertification in Mongolia and combat yellow dust storms. Specifically, Mongolia and ROK made high level talks to implement a forestation project for the prevention of yellow dust storm and desertification in 2005, and the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism established a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Korea Forest Service in 2006. As a result of the project, tree nurseries have been set up in 45 hectares of lands in Dalanzadgad soum of Umnugobi aimag and Bayanzag Flaming Cliffs site in the aimag’s Bulgan soum and Lun soum of Tuv aimag with USD 11.8 million assistance from ROK and 3,046 hectares of forests have been planted.

20 types of anti-desertification trees such as poplar, tamarisk, willow, elm, Prunus sibirica, and Prunus amygdalus, that were planted in the abovementioned three soums, where yellow dust storms might emerge from, are now growing smoothly. Mongolia has been taking over the management of the forested areas in phases. Since 2017, a total of around 2,200 hectares of lands have been transferred to the Mongolian side. The remaining 821 hectares of lands will be transferred this year together with funds and equipment necessary for upkeeping the forested areas. This will open up an opportunity for the Government of Mongolia to preserve the forests and plant more trees, said project director Seong In-kyeong. Showing that there is a great opportunity to plant trees in the areas affected by desertification and further grow forests was an outstanding success. Mr. Seong Inkyeong also emphasized his hope that many citizens and politicians will get inspirations from the project and protect the nature by planting trees.

Even though the project had originally wrapped up in 2016, governments of the two countries agreed to continue with it and held another high-level talks on May 18, 2016, and a memorandum of understanding was signed on July 17 of the same year to collaborate in the fight against desertification and yellow dust storms. Accordingly, it was decided to implement the project’s second phase from 2017 to 2022 and works began to build an urban forest called ‘Mongolia-ROK friendship park’ in a 40 hectares of land located in the 16th subdistrict of Sukhbaatar district. The ongoing second phase targets reduction of air pollution in the capital city, while the goal of the first phase was to prevent yellow dust storms. The project worth USD 9 million is currently 50.8 percent complete. The project director highlighted that people will get to know everything about forests such as benefits, plantation, and maintenance of trees by visiting the urban forest, while they would only take a rest and picnic in regular parks.

The urban forest will have 90 types of trees and other plants besides having a learning garden, bike path, playground, sports ground, and a parking lot for around 100 cars. Currently, the construction of basketball court is running at 83 percent, observation tower – 79 percent, parking lot – 79 percent, fences – 94 percent, flower-shaped railings - 33 percent, levee – 98 percent, pond – 99 percent, and information center - 24 percent, and the park’s tree nursery has been fully constructed. The most important part of the project, tree planting, is beginning this year. A single tree has an annual fine dust reduction effect of 35.7 grams and an acre of moderately mature trees absorbs 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. It is therefore expected that the project will concretely contribute to reducing air pollution in the capital city.

During his March 2019 visit to Mongolia, former ROK Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon got acquainted with the construction works and planted a tree. About this, project director Seong In-kyeong said, “During his visit, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon gave us an idea for fruitful continuation of the project. So we are now studying whether to implement the project’s third phase.”

The project team is confident that the Green Belt project that has been making concrete contributions to preventing and fighting desertification and yellow dust storms in Mongolia and reducing air pollution in Ulaanbaatar city will become a symbol of friendship between Mongolia and the Republic of Korea.

Mongolia ranks 73rd in World Press Freedom Index www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The 2020 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders was released on April 21. The annual report on press freedom of 180 countries reflects the growing animosity toward journalists.

Traffic movement in and out of Ulaanbaatar, Selenge and Darkhan-Uul suspended until April 25 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The State Emergency Commission convened a meeting on the evening of April 21, concerning the newest COVID-19 case in Mongolia, which was announced today to have detected in a driver of freight vehicle, who had traveled to Europe via Russia before arriving in Mongolia on April 18. When tested positive for the coronavirus, the patient was staying under precautionary and mandatory isolation in Selenge aimag and was brought to Ulaanbaatar today.

New mechanism for Mongolia-China cooperation established www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an online mechanism for Mongolia-China cooperation was established, holding its first video-conference on April 21.

35th coronavirus case recorded in Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The National Center of Communicable Diseases (NCCD) today reported that 35th confirmed coronavirus case recorded in Mongolia.

Export dwindles by 39% yoy www.zgm.mn

As of April 21, the total export of Mongolia amounted to USD 371.9 million, which decreased by 39.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. According to the General Customs Administration (GCA), the fall was mainly due to the 64 percent decline in coal export and 79.7 percent drop in crude oil respectively. In addition, imports fell by 11.2 percent year on year, triggered by the vehicle import, which deteriorated by 28.8 percent during the reporting period. Fuel imports dropped by 16.6 percent; diesel fuel imports reduced by 20.8 percent as well. According to the National Statistics Office (NSO), the revenue of railway transport increased by seven percent from a year ago. This is mainly influenced by the rise in mineral product transportations. However, the tariff is relatively low compared to rail transit transport and imports, revenue has not been reached the target. Particularly, Mongolian Railway SOE decided to grow its transport volume by 25 percent. The company reported that transit transport has been declined. During the period, the company’s 102 container import and transit orders were canceled. As a result, MNT 16 billion in revenue has been cut, slipped by 16-18 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The import of vehicles and their belongings made up the largest fall. These types of imports dropped by 21.4 percent, to USD 190.5 million. CGA highlighted that the fall is mainly due to the delay in rail traffic from Tianjin, China.

BoM lowers economic growth outlook www.zgm.mn

According to the Monetary Policy Department of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM), Mongolia’s economy will shrink in the first half of 2020 and in the second half, economic growth could reach 1.8 percent. The International Monetary Fund assumed that Mongolia’s economy will lessen by 1 percent this year. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has cut its previous assumption to 2.1 percent. The Monetary Policy Committee convened on April 13 and decided to lower the interest rate by 1 percent to 9 percentage point which is the lowest in the last 13 years. In other words, the policy rate was the same in 2007. This level was reached by holding two irregular meetings and lowering the interest rate by one unit each. Central bank officials explained that the decision has been made in an effort to prevent the risk of economic shrinkage. Director of Monetary Policy Department, Bayardavaa Bayarsaikhan said, “Lowering the policy interest rate is mainly driven by the risk of internal economy contraction.” As reported previously, BoM also decided to extend the term of the most vulnerable consumer loans by 12 months. According to the central bank, the decision is aimed at supporting economic demand by reducing the financial burden of households and mitigating the negative shock of consumption.The economic performance in the first two months of 2020 shows that the general government budget revenue reached MNT MNT 2.2 trillion, a decrease of MNT 173.7 billion or 10.6 percent year-on-year. As a result of export decline by as much as 29.5 percent, the mineral industry revenue which makes up 23.7 percent of the general budget revenue amounted to MNT 347.3 billion, contracted by 32.9 percent compared to Q1 2019.

Large gold and copper ore deposits discovered near Oyu Tolgoi www.news.mn

Rare Metal Mining, a company based in Mongolia, has discovered large gold and copper ore bodies near Oyu Tolgoi, according to a recent statement issued by the company.

The company recently signed a joint venture with MarketPeak and Rare Metal Mining after discovering a large gold and copper ore body which covers the majority of the 2,398 hectares. The mining exploration license is located in South Mongolia within the same metallic belt as Oyu Tolgoi. Precisely the land is approximately 240 km from Oyu Tolgoi, which happens to hold the largest copper deposits in Asia.

The Prime Mongolian Resources group of companies focuses on flipping and developing mines and exploration licenses, now co-owns over 1% of all the mining exploration licenses in the territory of Mongolia.

With drillings expected to commence in 2021, agreements have been signed to support the local community needs. Also, its an effort to build the company’s brand reputation within the mining industry. Prime Mongolian Resources hopes to make its first Copper and gold extractions by 2023.

Mongolia lies among the top 30 resource-rich developing nations, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The nation is also rated number 47 in the world based on political stability index, which puts it above countries such as Germany ranked 62, the USA at 69, and France at 88, according to a survey conducted by the World Bank in 2018.

Incredibly, the mining statistics are also in favor of Mongolia as it has one of the highest mining success ratios. From a total of 2,796 mines and exploration licenses between 2016 and 2019, only 617 failed either through being surrendered, canceled, or by expiring, according to statistics from the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia.

The current mines and explorations licenses cover a total area of 4.8% of Mongolia’s territory. And with the nation being one of the richest in natural resources, this leaves vast unexplored potential. According to government sources, the country’s untapped mineral wealth is worth around $1.3 trillion, consisting of gold, copper, nickel, cobalt, oil, and other resources, which makes Mongolia an exciting market.

Interestingly, Mongolia’s mining fortune heavily depends on Chinese demand for copper, coal, and other resources, which account for over 90% of all its exports. For now, the outlook for commodity exporters looks promising in the near future as new mining projects begin to open up in the Asian nation.

According to UN Comtrade, in 2018, copper was among the top two export commodities for Mongolia at an estimated $2 billion. And it’s the booming mining activities that are fueling the economic development of the nation with the Asian Development Bank expecting Mongolia’s GDP to grow at 6.1% in 2020, the highest in Asia.

Copper, gold, and other resource mining have also had a positive impact on the Mongolian economy as the nation has seen substantial labor shifts where citizens have moved from the agricultural sector to the mining, manufacturing, and construction sectors. Those that have moved to the capital have shifted from pastoral occupations to construction jobs and the service sectors. Others have seasonally worked in mines around the booming southern Gobi or in the capital. (source: Ritz Herald)