The meeting convened representatives from AmCham member organizations, state agencies, international development organizations, foreign embassies, and domestic and international businesses. Minister Tsogtbaatar provided updates on the government’s trade and investment policy priorities, and outlined the challenges being encountered.

In his address, Minister Tsogtbaatar noted, “Mongolia’s foreign trade turnover reached nearly 13 billion USD in 2018 – a record-high performance – with export equivalent to almost 7 billion USD, while the FDI grew 1.5-fold over the past year compared to 2015.” He highlighted the importance of expanded Mongolia-U.S. comprehensive partnership and the latest developments in bilateral relations between Mongolia and the U.S., including the Mongolia Third Neighbor Trade Act and the Millennium Challenge Corporation Second Compact, while stressing AmCham Mongolia’s role as a bridge connecting investors to state authorities.

Following the Minister’s keynote address, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Manuel P. Micaller delivered remarks, stating, “With the new year ahead of us, I want to lay out our economic priorities for 2019: what we hope to accomplish in 2019 in partnership with Amcham and the Mongolian government. The Transparency Agreement is perhaps the most relevant to AmCham members, which requires that new laws, rules, and regulations be subject to a public comment period before becoming final. It is a key element of the Indo-Pacific strategy – combining our two goals of transparency and private sector-led growth into a treaty that will form a cornerstone of our economic partnership once implemented.”

Chairman of AmCham Mongolia Mr. Oybek N. Khalilov delivered opening remarks, and stated, “AmCham Mongolia will continue to work closely with the Government of Mongolia to promote the growth of a strong and competitive private sector across all industries, and to attract investment to the Mongolian economy. AmCham Mongolia’s Roadmap for Growth 2019, a document presenting the framework for our policy and advocacy priorities, will be focused on supporting the country’s economic growth by regaining the interest of foreign investors.”

source: amcham.mn

The financing went toward a 10MW PV project in Mongolia, which was completed at the end of 2018. Now operational, the installation has already started to feed energy into Mongolia’s main electricity grid to help spur the country’s transition to renewables. The project was developed at the Sumber Soum area of Mongolia’s southern Govisümber province.

XacBank was able to fund the project in a little over half a year thanks a long-term, concessional loan of US$8.7 million provided by GCF. The site, built with a total investment of US$17.6 million, is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 12,270 tons annually, while also providing 15,395 MWh of electricity every year.

Ayaan Adam, Director of GCF’s Private Sector Facility, said: “This marks an important turning point for Mongolia, which has previously relied on overseas financial institutions to fund large-scale solar generation. XacBank has shown that, with initial concessional loan support from GCF, it is possible for local businesspeople to set their own course in addressing the climate challenge. I hope the commissioning of this solar plant will serve as a model to show how the local private sector can expand renewable markets, not just in Mongolia but also in other countries.”

XacBank CEO Bold Magvan added: “Mongolia has already experienced climate change at an accelerated pace, with rising temperatures and land degradation driving migration and livelihood instability. Completing the plant is symbolic for combating those effects, as well as a tangible decarbonisation of Mongolia’s energy supply.“

The 10MW site is being operated by Mongolian company ESB, while Japan’s Sankou Seiki offered technical input during its construction, along with the assembly of the plant’s 31,000 PV panels.

After the ousting, Mr. Enkhbold addressed, “the Parliament has ratified the bill in its full power and I am retiring from my position in accordance with the law. I believe this is a gray day in the history of the Parliament of Mongolia. I hope no other Speaker would be ousted in the same manner.”

Other MPs, namely Erdene Sodnomzundui and Munkh-Orgil Tsend, also expressed the necessity to annul the amendments to the Law on the Procedures of Parliamentary Plenary Session that allows the majority of MPs to oust the Parliament Speaker. Mr. Munkh-Orgil remarked, “Dismissal of a single authority will not brighten the situation. It is important for the people that requested to oust the Speaker shall revoke the bill.”

Accordingly, the Parliament has to appoint the next Speaker before moving onto other items on the order list, including the ousting of Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports Tsogzolmaa Tsedenbal, and the recently appointed Minister of Road and Transport Development Sodbaatar Yangug. Another key item is the bill on Minerals, which will extend the 2.5 percent gold royalty for three years. The bill was retracted by the Mongolian People’s Party caucus last week as the Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren was on a working visit abroad and a certain change had to be made on schedules.

As the last speech as the Parliament Speaker, Mr. Enkhbold stressed “Aside from the last two months, I am confident that the Parliament performed well under my leadership. We took the office in times of depression. We focused on grave issues the country was facing. I understand that the public is upset because of the difficult living environment. But I want to address the organizers of public demonstrations. You have shown us that you can discard all the misconducts of the last two decades on one person. I worry about the potential establishment of control and oppression in the Mongolian Government. I am saying this in this chamber deliberately and responsibly. May the State stay strong and may virtue be heavy.”

About bilateral economic ties and cooperation, Deputy General Director for Foreign Economic Activity at Minsk Department of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dubova Tatyana Yaroslavovna said “We have come to Mongolia to augment trade volume in Mongolia and to broaden cooperation. Representative offices of the Belarusian biggest machinery and equipment companies have been operating in Mongolia. This time, we signed an agreement on supplying elevator for flour mill. Also the two Chambers of Commerce and Industry renewed cooperation agreement.

15 representatives of 11 Belarussian companies in the fields of mining, food, agriculture and energy arrived Mongolia. At the meeting, the businessmen mostly touched upon transportation issues. “For example, when supplying equipment from Belarusia to a meat processing plant in Uvs aimag, the transportation must pass through Ulaanbaatar instead of directly transporting through border station of neighboring Russia. The Belarusian side asked relevant public organizations to help solving this problem, MNCCI General Secretary E.Oyuntegsh said.

Present at the meeting were Ambassador of Belarus to Mongolia S.Chepurnoy and trade representatives of the Embassy of Russia in Mongolia. Business delegation from Belarus will visit Mongolia for two days.

Enkhbold Miyegombo, a former presidential candidate and prime minister, has been under pressure to resign since a failed no-confidence vote against the current prime minister in November.

Five MPs had spearheaded calls for Enkhbold's resignation, leading a boycott of parliament that paralysed the legislature for a month.

Thousands of protesters gathered in December and January to vent their anger at corruption, bribery scandals and embezzlement of government funds.

Enkhbold has been accused of selling government positions, such as vice minister and state secretary, to raise at least 60 billion tugrik (US$24 million).

Earlier this month, President Khaltmaa Battulga - who defeated Enkhbold in the 2017 presidential election - introduced legislation to allow a vote to oust the speaker.

Political instability has been a constant problem for the young Central Asian democracy, which passed its first constitution in 1992 after decades of Communist rule.

Enkhbold said he had done his job "well" and that banking and financial regulations passed under his watch had helped the economy.

"You can see that all the bad things that happened in the past 20 years can be blamed on just one person," Enkhbold said.

"Maybe to solve all the problems in today's society I was to become the scapegoat," he said.

Compared with CPI 2017, Mongolia improved its score by one point that made it step forward by 10 positions from 103rd. But it is insufficient index as compared with the average score (44) of Asia and the Pacific countries.

Mongolia ranked at 87th among 176 countries with a score 39 in 2015, 87th from 176 countries with a score 38 in 2016, and 103rd from 180 countries with a score 36 in 2017 respectively.

The 2018 CPI draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

At a plenary session of the parliament, Davaajanstan Sarangerel denied the media reports that many children have died of swine flu in the country so far this year.

“Great efforts have been made by relevant officials to halt the spread of flu and flu-like illnesses.

“Fortunately, there have been no reports of any deaths of children due to the flu and flu-like illness, including the H1N1 flu virus.

“However, seven adults died from the H1N1 flu virus across the country so far this year,’’ Sarangerel said.

Swine flu is a human respiratory disease.

People get the disease from other people, instead of pigs.

It has an incubation period of one to four days and has high virulence if not diagnosed and treated in time.

(Xinhua/NAN)

Mongolia's total renewable energy capacity stood at 275 megawatts at the end of 2018, according to the Ministry of Energy.

The 10-megawatt solar power plant was officially put into operation on Sunday in Sumber soum, an administrative subdivision in Govisumber, said the project's operator ESB Solar Energy.

"The construction of the Green Climate Fund-funded power plant took six months. The power plant can generate 17.1 million kWh of electricity per year to the country's national power grid," the company said.

The Green Climate Fund is a fund established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help developing countries in their efforts to adopt renewable energy.

Mongolia, which enjoys more than 250 days of sunshine a year and boasts a potential wind capacity of 1,100 gigawatts, has set a goal of supplying 20 percent of its energy through renewables by 2020 and 30 percent by 2030.

The share of renewable electricity in Mongolia's overall energy consumption rose to 16 percent on average in 2018, said the Ministry of Energy. Enditem