While working as UNFPA Country Representative in Mongolia for six years, Ms. Naomi Kitahara has made great contribution to expansion of the cooperation between the Government of Mongolia and UNFPA. In particular, projects and programs of the fund provided substantial support in development of population of Mongolia, protection of rights of women and youth, health improvement and enhancement of herders’ livelihoods, noted the Foreign Minister.

Ms. Naomi Kitahara in turn, expressed her pleasure at having worked closely with public and civil society organizations and making a certain contribution towards social development of Mongolia during her term of office.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection S.Chinzorig also met with the UNFPA Mongolia Country Representative and handed over 'Foremost employee for social protection' award in recognition of her valuable contribution to youth development of Mongolia.

“This indicates that it’s very difficult for any country to avoid introduction of the virus,” Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health at the City University of Hong Kong, said in an interview. The fact that Mongolia has a low pig population density “further strengthens the hypothesis of widespread geographical presence of the virus,” he said.

The outbreak in a second Asian country means China’s neighbors should intensify efforts to prepare for the disease that’s prompted mass pig cullings in China -- the world’s biggest hog market. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, which is spearheading an international effort to control the virus, has already said the spread of African swine fever to other Asian countries is a near certainty.

Animal health authorities in Asia have increased border surveillance and China has slaughtered more than 900,000 pigs to contain the disease, which isn’t known to harm humans. With no vaccine to protect animals, researchers say the virus -- which can survive for more than a year in dry-cured ham -- is a particular risk to countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.

The Mongolian outbreak occurred in a “backyard” swine operation in the center of Bulgan region, which borders Russia, according to a posting on the World Organization for Animal Health’s website dated Tuesday. A total of 214 hogs were killed and disposed of after 85 cases of the ASF were found at the operation. More work need to be done to determine whether the disease arrived in Mongolia from China or eastern Europe, Pfeiffer said.

“No single country can afford the illusion that they can isolate themselves from the regional dynamics of how this virus is being moved around,” Pfeiffer said. “It will get more complicated if and where it gets established in wild pig populations.”

Pork prices in China have been hammered as farms increase slaughtering to avoid contamination, bolstering supply. By the first week of January, prices in northeast provinces had fallen 34 percent from a year earlier and 16 percent in the north, according to data published by the nation’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

2018 was rather generous for Mongolia considering the fact that the economy grew by 6.3 percent in the first half. At the time, the Asian Development Bank highlighted that this was “driven by the expansion of investments in the mining sector and an increase in household consumption on the back of improved household loan grants.” As mentioned, consumer loan played its role in the economy. However, growing inflation is drawback for increased consumption. Consumer loan pushes households to pay three-quarters of their income to loans, creating a situation where the consumer could face bigger risk from the loan repayment.
According to the report, the inflation measured by the national consumer price index increased by 8.1 percent from the previous year. NSO explained that the growth was mainly contributed by increases in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages by 9.1 percent and alcoholic beverages and tobacco by 8 percent, transport by 9.7 percent, housing, water, electricity, and fuels by 16.3 percent, and health by 11.4 percent.

The Monetary Policy Committee reached a decision to limit household debt-to-income ratio at 70 percent and set the maturity of non-mortgage commercials to not exceed 30 months, which took effect on January 1, 2019. Plus, petroleum price was lowered by MNT 100 this week; thus, economists expect the inflation to stabilize in the upcoming months.

Additionally, the total trade turnover reached USD 12.9 billion as of December 2018, of which exports totaled USD 7 billion and imports - USD 5.9 billion. Compared to the same period of the previous year, export increased by 13.1 percent and import by 35.5 percent. Money supply reached MNT 19.5 trillion in November, displaying MNT 3.6 trillion growth (4.4 percent) year over year. The currency issued in circulation totaled MNT 968.6 billion, an 8.2 percent increase. Additionally, the nominal average exchange rate of the MNT against the USD announced by the Bank of Mongolia depreciated by 8.4 percent from the previous year and fell 3.8 percent against CNY.

Exports rose 13.1 percent to 7.0 billion dollars, while imports increased 35.5 percent to 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, according to official statistics.

Most of the export growth came from mineral products and textiles, which accounted for more than 90 percent of total exports.

In 2018, China remained Mongolia's major export destination, the data showed.

Among the more than 70 countries to which Mongolia exported its goods and services last year, China was the recipient of about 85 percent of the total.

The commemorative coin, which is marked 10,000 Mongolian tugriks (3.7 U.S. dollars), has a 38.61-mm diameter and contains 31.1 grams of pure silver. It depicts a Mongolian bodon, or wild boar in English.

The coin is available at the Treasury Fund of the central bank at a cost of 400,000 Mongolian tugriks (150 U.S. dollars) per piece, the bank's spokesperson Ariun Dagva told Xinhua.

The Year of the Pig begins Feb. 5, according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

Since 1972, the Bank of Mongolia has been issuing gold, silver and bronze coins depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, endangered animals, Olympic athletes and other well-known figures, as well as historical events or anniversaries.

The decision was made during a meeting held at the Book City Institute in Tehran on Monday.

P. Delgerjargal, the vice director of the Humanities Department of the School of Arts and Sciences at the National University of Mongolia, and history professor Danuu Ankhbayar met deputy director of the institute Ali-Asghar Mohammadkhani and scholar Mahmud Jafari at the meeting.

Mohammadkhani said that the institute has so far collaborated on publications and cultural activities with about 40 countries.

He added that Iranian people are not very familiar with Mongolia and its poetry and literature, while the Mongolian nation has little knowledge about Persian literature.

For his part, Delgerjargal said that the National University of Mongolia has several departments on European and Asian languages including German, French, English, Japanese and Turkish, while there is no department for the Persian language.

He noted that works by Persian poets Ferdowsi and Khayyam are currently being taught for students studying Eastern literature, but this seems like nothing considering the widespread popularity of Persian literature.

He added that the only book translated into the Mongolian language is the book “Akhbar-i Mughulan” compiled by historian scholar and manuscript expert Iraj Afshar.

In this meeting, he also introduced several Mongolian writers and publishers and hoped that the institute can help pave the way to introduce more Mongolian writers and poets, while it can help to provide opportunities to familiarize the Mongolian nation with Persian writers.

According the Minister’s report on the performance of 2018 General Government Budget, in the end of 2018 the equilibrated balance of the state budget had a surplus of over MNT12 billion, which has been the first record since 2010. The equilibrated revenue of the budget reached MNT9.2 trillion, not including MNT207 billion of the Stabilization Fund and MNT620 billion of the Future Heritage Fund.

The budget revenue overfulfilled by MNT2 trillion, which was mainly accumulated from the mining sector (MNT670 billion) and others (MNT1.3 trillion). It is a result of the government policy, growth of economy and investment, intensification of businesses, adherence of tight fiscal disciplines and Mongolia’s credit rating upgrades, noted the Finance Minister.

The Government’s gross debt is MNT21 trillion, but there is not large amount of debt that must be repaid in 2019 and 2020. In the end of 2017, the debt equaled 74.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, but it decreased to 60.9 percent by the end of 2018. It is estimated that if this figure is dropped further to 40 percent, there will not be any pressure on the budget.

In 2018, over 600 thousand people received a total of MNT 78 billion as VAT refunds. Then, it is planning to disburse VAT refunds worth MNT120 billion to 808 thousand people very soon.

In accordance with the obligation given by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority has reached an agreement with petroleum product importing companies on lowering the retail gasoline price.

On January 14, Chief Cabinet Secretariat G.Zandanshatar met Deputy Chair in charge of crude oil of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority Ts.Erdenebayar, where he was informed about timely issues.

As results of several meetings with the importers, the retail gasoline price has been cut in stages since December 2018. Specifically, most commonly used gasoline and fuel prices have been lowered by 250 tugrug per liter so far.

About 110 entities in Mongolia are engaged in meat processing.

Mongolians consume 300-400 tons of meat or around 10-12 million head of livestock per year. The country has opportunities to export over 180 thousand tons of meat.

Last year, Mongolia exported sheep, goat, beef and horse meat and meat products to 15 countries: Azerbaijan, DPRK, China, Vietnam, Iran, Spain, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan and Japan, reported the Ministry.