Last week, O.Enkh-Erdene successfully passed the first round with his performance of a cover of George Strait’s ‘Amarillo by Morning’, which deeply impressed the judges. He earned overall 97 points from judges: 50 or highest point from three main judges and 49 points from 50 international judges. Lydian Nadhaswaram

Mongolian rapper and producer O.Bayarsaikhan, better known as Rokit Bay, is working as one of the 50 international judges for the global talent competition.

At the beginning of the meeting, Ms. Gabriella Spirli congratulated the Speaker on his appointment, delivering felicitation message of President of the National Council of Switzerland, Marina Carobbio Guscetti.

Speaker G.Zandanshatar stated his view that a reform is in high demand for the development of parliamentary democracy and pointed out the great importance of having fact-based debates at the Parliament, and reinventing the governance to e-governance by digitizing the legislative process and delivering government information and services digitally. "Thus, we would like to cooperate in the development of parliamentary democracy as the parliaments of European countries including Switzerland have extensive experience in this area," said the Speaker.

In turn, Ms. Gabriella Spirli expressed her hope that the proposals and other issues will be discussed broadly and cooperation measures will be defined during mutual visits of the Speakers of the two countries.

Moreover, the sides exchanged views on the projects being implemented by SDC in Mongolia and their effects and the SDC Director of Cooperation and Consul General detailed Speaker G.Zandanshatar on the agency’s projects planned to be implemented in Mongolia on protecting health of pregnant women and children from air pollution, easing centralization, and strengthening local governance.

Ms. Gabriella Spirli also pledged to study the Speaker’s proposal to jointly hold a public hearing on the bill on pastureland and use payment.

Between 2007 and 2016, SDC carried out a total of 15 projects in Mongolia in three main areas of agriculture and food safety; vocational education and training; and administrative reform, local government and citizen participation; and in the Dispatch on Switzerland’s International Cooperation 2017–2020 adopted by the Federal Council in 2016, the country decided to continue providing development assistance to Mongolia.

Developed between 1689 and 1929, the ancient China-Mongolia-Russia Tea Road was an international trade route pioneered by the legendary Shanxi merchants. The 13,000-kilometer route linked more than 200 cities across China, Mongolia, and Russia, and even extended to Europe.

Pingyao in North China's Shanxi province and Kyakhta in Russia are both important trading cities on the route, with trade between the two helping to develop a multitude of links.

The "Revival of Tea Road" Culture and Trade Center is expected to promote both the culture and industrial development of the China-Mongolia-Russia Tea Road, as well as advance cultural and economic ties between China and Russia.

With the new culture and trade center, the two sides will together develop the Tea Valley of China in Pingyao, and further trade in farm produce, education, medicine, cultural products and tourism, as well as expand trade volume.

On the sidelines of the session, the Mongolian delegation held meeting with representatives of Polish Ministry of Transport and the sides agreed to intensify works to establish Intergovernmental Agreement on Road Transportation and to complete it within 2019.

The delegates also met with Yuwei Li, Director of Sustainable Transport Division at UNECE and expressed Mongolia’s request to join several UN transport agreements and conventions to implement a project on Transport Safety-Gateway to International Transport Network Integration. They also talked over developing UN Road Safety Trust Fund and preventing from illegal transport of dangerous goods.

Furthermore, the delegates had meeting with Umberto De Pretto, Secretary-General of the International Union of Railways (IRU) and Mr. Umberto De Pretto agreed to visit Mongolia in September this year.

State Secretary S.Batbold emphasized that the Government of Mongolia has been working towards broadening activities of international auto shipping, ensuring conditions for passing transit transports that link Asia and Europe through the country’s territory without any barrier as well as increasing opportunities for Mongolian railroaders to actively participate in this activity, improving state coordination and empowering personnel.

IRU expressed to cooperate and back Mongolia to fulfill these works, to strengthen and empower its human resource and to join international agreements and conventions.

On February 20, Minister D.Tsogtbaatar met with Thomas Greminger, Secretary general of the OSCE, exchanging views on bilateral relations and cooperation.

At the meeting, Foreign Minister expressed Mongolia’s readiness to contribute to strengthening inter-regional cooperation between Asia and Europe, countering extremism in the region that leads to terrorism and violence, and discussed the opportunities to expand cooperation with Asian countries. Thus, Mr. D.Tsogtbaatar requested to co-organize the OSCE Counter-Terrorism Conference in Mongolia.

In addition, the parties exchanged views on hosting regional seminar on illegal trafficking of cultural heritage in Ulaanbaatar in collaboration with OSCE Asian partners.

Oyu Tolgoi LLC fully funded the MNT46 billion project, which was recognized as the “Best Construction and Infrastructure Project 2018” by Umnugovi province. It is the latest of many projects Oyu Tolgoi LLC has funded for the development of Umnugovi and Khanbogd. Recently, Oyu Tolgoi-funded school and kindergarten complex for 840 students opened in Khanbogd. The school introduces Cambridge education system to the community, making it the only soum level educational institution with international curriculum.

Before its commission on December 24, 2019, The Ministry of Road and Transportation Development representatives praised the quality of construction, pavement markings and road safety signs during a visit to the construction site.

The construction was concluded by the joint efforts of 26 different national contractors, led by Arj Road, Anand Road, Zag Engineering and KACMS LLC. In 2018, the surrounding area registered high rainfall level, complicating work conditions at the site. To deliver the quality work within timeframe, the construction team took immediate measures to increase the technical capabilities and manpower and managed to complete the project on time. At the height of construction, 550 workers and 171 vehicles were employed at the site, paving up to 2800 meters of asphalt concrete a day, significantly above the national average.

Extensive research and tests were conducted to address material shortages in of the local market, successfully planning the logistics of procurement from distant areas. Material quality was assured by an on-site laboratory, which conducted more than 1200 tests.

Prior to land disturbance, extensive archeological and paleontological researches were undertaken in accordance to the Environmental, Social, Cultural Impact Assessment. In addition, 10 thousand rare plants of six species were relocated to Oyu Tolgoi tree nursery in Khanbogd.

The project is aimed at increasing the quality, ageing and economic efficiency of the road through introduction of a technology for domestically producing polymer bitumen, a material used in making pavement. Under the project, innovative manufacturing technology for PG 64-46 polymer bitumen will be developed for each climate zone and the scientists will make science-based reports after studying a 200m test road throughout a year.

The investigations on special purpose funds have been completed weeks ago. But the Cabinet is refusing the reveal the information of loaners, assuring to present it next week. This was the third time the Cabinet postponed the results.

Mr. Khurelbaatar addressed, “There are cases where a single entity was granted loans from three different funds and there are a total of 319 private entities that have drawn loans from two funds.

Many companies are overdue on repayment, but due to the fact that the Bank of Mongolia does not register the repayment of these funds, the reimbursement has been under a major delay. The overdue loans were reduced from the initial amount of MNT 130 billion to MNT 100 billion in the last one to two months.”

Since the establishment of the Farming Support Fund, over 16,000 entities have drawn loans two or more times. The minister explained that the majority of these were used to pay off previous debts. Further more, a request has been delivered to the Cabinet on dissolving some of these funds. Mr. Khurelbaatar then noted to provide details on the matter once the Cabinet reaches a decision.

Farming Support, Livestock Protection, and Employment Promotion funds granted MNT 938.8 billion worth loans to individuals and entities. As of 2017, the total loss amounted to MNT 395.3 billion. The minister suspects that the loaners may have saved the loans in commercial banks as the interest is lower than savings rates.

Authorities of corresponding companies were obliged to ensure safety of the traffic movement and repair damaged parts of the existing road in this route.

The new road will have four lanes and be special purpose road that has a load bearing capacity of 115 tons; 24 tons on each axle. Construction of the road is believed to increase freight transportation by two-fold, augment coal export, bring economic benefits, develop rural areas and increase jobs.

The National Committee on Environmental Pollution Reduction intends to conduct 32 activities this year. For instance, nighttime electricity tariff discount will be given to households who use electric heaters, entire ger area households will be provided with improved fuel, re-planning of ger area will be intensified, accessibility of centralized and partial engineering facilities will be improved, stage by stage restrictions will be made to aged or diesel-consuming vehicles to run in traffic movement, and households of ger area will be able to get improved fuel by loan through the banks.

Moreover, control posts will be set up in four points of the city for prevention of raw coal entry.

After hearing the report, the Cabinet assigned the Minister to report the progress of the works at the Cabinet meeting dated on May 15.