Mongolia: small embassies can have a big impact www.blogs.fco.gov.uk

By:Catherine Arnold Former British Ambassador to Mongolia
Part of BBC Inside the Foreign Office 2018 UK in Mongolia

Mongolia is everything you expect. Mongolia is also everything you don’t expect. At least that’s what I found as the UK’s Ambassador. The world’s least densely populated country, which was once one of the largest empires in world history, it is a land of immense beauty and rich history.

Mongolia is also a vibrant 21st century democracy. Many issues that matter to Mongolia, matter to us – media freedom, climate change, global peacekeeping. And, it’s quite literally sitting on a gold mine. Home to over 6000 deposits of more than 80 different minerals, Mongolia has the potential to be the richest country per capita in the world.

That means the small, motivated embassy of three UK diplomats and our excellent Mongolian team, covers a huge range of work.

The UK and Mongolia have recently celebrated 55 years of diplomatic relations and, as Mongolia’s second largest trading partner, our trading relationship matters for both countries. To celebrate the 55th anniversary, we announced:

the appointment of Julian Knight MP as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Mongolia;
that UK Export Finance will increase how much it lends to support suppliers and buyers of UK exports to Mongolia.
Having fretted about meeting our export targets the excellent Department of International Trade team exceeded them.

Cambridge Mask Company’s initial consignment of pollution masks sold out within 24 hrs of the fashion show they were launched at, developing into a thriving collaboration with a Mongolian pharmacy chain.

The mask fashion show also means more people have started to wear effective masks – of whatever brand. The embassy has since taken this to the next level, focussing on supporting the poorer parts of Ulaanbaatar, where pollution levels often go off the international air-quality scale.

This is typical of our work in Mongolia – supporting UK trade is of course an essential part of what diplomats do around the world but the relationship between our two countries is about so much more than that.

We work with Mongolia in the UN Human Rights Council, Mongolian troops joined coalitions with ours in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Mongolian peacekeepers are currently working across Africa. UK expertise is supporting education reform and a UK funded mobile app and training for border guards is helping to counter the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) here.

The last had swift, positive results, including a 25-fold increase in detection of smuggled, endangered wolf-parts. The Mongolian Foreign Minister spoke powerfully about this at the recent major international conference on IWT, in London.

It’s true that supporting UK trade is important work for diplomats around the world and small embassies can have a big impact. The British Embassy Ulaanbaatar has helped UK companies in Mongolia to secure exports worth many times the total running and staff costs of our embassy.

But diplomacy works best when trade is one of many links between the UK and the countries we work in. A key task for diplomats is to fit together the people and pieces to make the UK’s presence overseas much more than the sum of its separate parts.

Mongolia's economy to maintain positive growth next year www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's economic growth has been recovering rapidly thanks to the recovery of commodity prices in the global market and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s economic bail-out program for the country, a Mongolian economic researcher said.

Russian Foundation for Basic Research to partner in research field www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. In the frameworks of her official visit to the Russian Federation, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Culture Ts.Tsogzolmaa held a meeting with the President of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research V.Ya.Panchenko.

Three financial instruments to launch in capital market www.zgm.mn

Minj Property LLC, which is organizing its roadshow for a bond offering today, is planning on becoming a publicly traded firm. Along with the company, Ard Credit and Tumen Shuvuut have announced potential IPOs in upcoming months. Minj Property LLC is a construction firm that has implemented Park Town-1 project for 620 households in Darkhan-Uul aimag. A study that involved 600 households in need of accommodation in Darkhan city shows that 22 percent of surveyee are planning on purchasing new housing in the short-term. Because of the fact that 91 percent of accommodation in the city were constructed in 1990s, the demand for new housing stands high in Darkhan city. The province has over 100,000 population, of which working-age population account for 64 percent.

IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement on the Sixth Review of Mongolia's Extended Fund Facility www.imf.org

Growth remains strong, led initially by buoyant external conditions and increasingly by a recovery in domestic demand. The fiscal deficit is improving much faster than expected, allowing government debt to fall sharply. The authorities are on track to meet all macroeconomic targets for end-year.
Two important vulnerabilities are that international reserves and bank capital are still not at appropriate levels. Macro-economic policies should be used to dampen high credit growth and help build external buffers. Meanwhile, it is crucial that banks complete the recapitalization efforts started in 2017.
For 2019, program goals are to continue reducing public debt, resume international reserve accumulation, and ensure the banking system is well-capitalized. In addition, it is critical that the authorities strengthen the investment climate to attract the foreign capital necessary for Mongolia’s long-term growth.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team led by Mr. Geoff Gottlieb visited Ulaanbaatar from November 7-17, 2018 to conduct discussions on the sixth review of the three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement approved on May 24, 2017, in an amount equivalent to SDR314.5054 million, or about US$434.3 million (see Press Release No. 17/193 ).

At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Gottlieb made the following statement:

“As we reach the mid-way point of the IMF supported program, significant progress has been made by the authorities in overcoming the economic crisis. Growth has revived to over 6 percent, the overall fiscal balance has swung from a large deficit to a small surplus, and government debt has fallen sharply. While the external environment has been supportive with buoyant export demand, the recovery has become broader based with consumption and investment rising sharply. Against this backdrop, the authorities are on track to meet all end-December macroeconomic targets, including the fiscal deficit and net international reserves.

“While welcome, this recovery brings new challenges. Stronger domestic demand conditions are widening the current account deficit, halting reserve accumulation. In response, the Bank of Mongolia should rein in high credit growth through tighter monetary conditions and the introduction of well-targeted macro-prudential measures.

“In the financial sector, the follow-up to the Asset Quality Review that was completed in 2017 is entering its final phase. Those banks that were found to be undercapitalized have until end-December to raise the necessary new capital. Banks that fail to do so will face Central Bank intervention or be resolved as per the Banking Law.

“The authorities are also moving ahead with reforms that will allow for more rapid resolution of non-performing loans, strengthen their Anti Money Laundering framework, and improve the selection and appraisal of public investment projects. Given the importance of attracting more foreign capital, the authorities should also commit to strengthening the business and investment climate.

“The authorities and the IMF team have reached staff-level agreement on the economic policies for completion of the sixth review under the EFF arrangement, which is subject to the approval of the IMF Executive Board. The authorities have committed to several actions, mainly in the financial sector, that will be completed before the Executive Board meeting.”

The team thanks the authorities for their cooperation, constructive dialogue, and hospitality during its stay in Mongolia.

IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONS
PRESS OFFICER: TING YAN

PHONE: +1 202 623-7100EMAIL: MEDIA@IMF.ORG

Kincora Copper says geophysical surveys in Mongolia support multiple drill targets www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk

Mongolia-focused miner Kincora Copper Ltd (CVE:KCC, OTCMKTS:BZDLF) said Wednesday that geophysical surveys at the East Tsagaan Suvarga and Bronze Fox projects in Mongolia were completed on time and under budget.

Meetings with Chiefs of INTERPOL National Central Bureaus for Russia and China www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The 87th International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) General Assembly ran for the third day yesterday, November 21, discussing about enrollment of new member countries.

Experts warn of potential obstruction in next year’s coal export plan www.zgm.mn

According to Bayan Zam Transporters Association, over 7000 trucks are stuck in line at the main coal export route Gashuunsukhait-Gantsmod border checkpoint. Therefore, a working group from the Ministry of Road and Transport Development and National Center for Auto Transit has been deployed at Gashuunsukhait in Umnugobi aimag to resolve the issue. The working group has reportedly sent unloaded vehicles to Oyu Tolgoi route. Specifically, they are sending the trucks heading to Tsagaan Khad customs inspection zone in two lanes by temporarily halting movement of the opposite direction. Officials highlighted that this will prevent long queues and potential accidents in the long queue of trucks driving in wrong-lane. Although 77 trucks entered the border on Monday, which doubles the amount of previous day, the association highlighted that the entry capacity needs to be increased to 1000 trucks per day, which was the average capacity in October; however, the number drastically dropped to 400 in November and on November 16, only 30 trucks were able to enter the border. Economist Naranbaatar Lundeg remarked, “Chinese side decided to cease all types of coal import. China explained that this year’s import plan has been fulfilled around 40 days prior to the end of year as this year’s amount was set lower than 2017. So this unpredictable situation might continue until February of next year. Sarah Liu, Vice President of Fenwei Energy Information Services, mentioned about this situation during an international conference of coal in Beijing. Also researchers from different countries warned about this near the end of the year at Coal Mongolia 2018 conference, yet our Government ignored it.

Mongolian parliament to discuss letter for dissolving cabinet www.news.mn

On Monday, Mongolian MP D.Khayankhyarvaa presented a letter for dissolving the cabinet to Speaker of Parliament M.Enkhbold. According to law, the letter must be discussed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on State Structure within in week and by State Great Khural (Mongolian parliament) within 14 days. Subsequently, the committee will discuss the issue on Friday 23 November at 3.00 p.m.

Mongolia spends MNT 12 billion on innovation www.news.mn

A “Science, Technology and Innovation-2018” exhibition opened at the Mongolian National Art Gallery. A total of 120 enterprises displayed nearly 1500 innovation products such as books, medicine, bio active products, agriculture and food technologies at the exhibition.