Mongolia Brief September 4, 2014 Part III

Presidential Visit of Russian Federation to Mongolia Concludes Successfully

September 4 (infomongolia.com) President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and accompanying delegates comprised of high-level Government representatives have conducted a 6-hour working visit to Mongolia on September 03, 2014.

The visit started with official welcoming ceremony at the Central Square in Ulaanbaatar and after holding individual meeting at the State Affairs Ger Palace followed by intergovernmental meeting, the Presidents of the Russian Federation and Mongolia witnessed the signing of a package of bilateral agreements, where 15 documents were signed.

Afterwards, President V.Putin attended the official reception held to commemorate the 75th anniversary of victory of the Khalkhyn Gol Battles, and together with the President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj laid a wreath at the monument to four-time Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Mongolia, Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and visited the G.K.Zhukov’s Museum.

President Vladimir Putin ended a working visit to Mongolia and departed from Chinggis Khaan International Airport at 08:25 pm on September 03, 2014. Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag, Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Bold and other officials were present to see off the honored guests at the airport.

President Ts.Elbegdorj emphasized that a one-day working visit of President V.Putin will give great impetus to the development of bilateral relations between the two countries.

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Gazprom and CNPC will be Decided whether Gas Pipeline to Run through Mongolia or Not, Says Minister S.Donskoy

September 4 (infomongolia.com) According to ITAR-TASS press releases from September 03, 2014, President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj proposed Russia to consider a possibility of stretching a natural gas pipeline between Russia and China via Mongolian territory.

In conjunction, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergey Donskoy, who was accompanying the President V.Putin to Mongolia, said, “Russia’s Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will need to decide whether their gas pipeline will run through Mongolia or not. This issue will have to be discussed at the level of Gazprom and CNPC. As a buyer, the CNPC should make assessments, raise questions and put forth demands. Mongolia will have to answer these questions.

Moreover, Mongolia’s proposal could be attractive since the pipeline will run mainly across the plains and therefore will need fewer booster stations. But problems may arise if the pipeline crosses nature reserves in Mongolia. Although, this issue had been under discussion since the autumn of 2013”.

In addition, during his working visit in Mongolia, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted, “Rosneft meets most of the country’s oil product demand, supplies Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar and has major plans for expanding its presence on the Mongolian market”.

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Foreign Minister meets former PM of Japan

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Bold Thursday received a delegation led by Mr Yoshihiko Noda, a former Prime Minister of Japan and a current member of the House of Representatives (Lower House).

Mr Bold recalled how he paid a first visit to Japan after taking the duty in 2012 and was as received by Mr Noda. Then he said that a development of the friendly relations and cooperation with Japan is one of the priorities of Mongolia’s foreign policy, and that Mongolia attaches a great importance to the strategic partnership with a “Third neighbour” Japan.

Mr Bold also expressed a satisfaction with a successful implementation of a middle-term programme on the Mongolia-Japan strategic partnership, established last year to bring the ties into a newer level and to boost the win-win cooperation.    

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Ts.Bayarsaikhan meets with Russian Minister of Regional Development

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) The Minister of Construction and Urban Development Ts.Bayarsaikhan Wednesday met with Mr Igor Slyunyayev, Russia’s Minister of Regional Development.

The Ministers discussed issues of the regional cooperation, planning of ports near borders, intensifying the bilateral trade and economy through the border ports and opportunities for cooperation in wood productions and supply.

They also considered possibilities for increasing a supply of wood materials, cement and other construction materials to Mongolia in order to augment the commercial turnover and widen the trade and economic cooperation.

Mr Bayarsaikhan asked the Russian Minister to pay attention to backing of a joint “Steppe road” project which intends to perform some construction works for railways, highways, gas and oil pipelines and energy constructions.

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Main tourist attraction: Caves of Gurvan Tsenkher

By B. Amarsaikhan

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) Cultural singularities in Khovd aimag, such as Khoid Tsenkher Caves, Jargalant mountain, Alag hill, Tarvagatai Mountains, the areas where the petroglyphs picturing human and animal features are preserved, attract more tourists every year.

Over 300 petroglyphs were found in Khuren Del Mountains, alone. The latter’s findings include petrographies of oxcarts and deer, pictured in magnificent details, even the breast-bands of the carts can be identified.

The drawings of deer with a bird-like mouth and ornament-like horns share appearance with deer stones found in other regions of the country.

The researchers of Mankhan soum run studies on discovering rare kinds of petroglyphs, and cave inscriptions from Gurvan Tsenkher Caves, that attract tourists to this landmark region.

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The German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology opens

September 4 (news.mn) The opening of new academic year of the German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology began with a ceremony today in the Nalaikh district.

The German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology (GMIT) was established in 2011, in accordance with an agreement between German Chancellor Merkel and Mongolian President Ts.Elbegdorj concerning close cooperation in the fields of mineral resources, industry and technology to provide qualified engineering and technology personnel in Asia.  The Institute is particular with its teaching associated with industrial practices.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development supports the further sustainable development of the institute.

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MONTSAME and "Rossiya Segodnya" are to seek cooperation path

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) The head of the MONTSAME news agency A.Baatarkhuyag Thursday received Mr P.V.Andreev, a deputy editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya /Russia Today/ news agency of Russia.

Mr Andreev expressed a willingness to establish a cooperation memorandum with the MONTSAME. “Our agency prepares world standard news. We always aim to deliver exclusive news,” he said, hoping that the two agencies will make their collaboration complementary. 

The two agencies have all opportunities to cooperate, even to establish a cooperation document at a high level, said Mr Baatarkhuyag.

Mr Andreev reported that the Rossiya Segodnya agency now needs to update its legal documents because it is a newly agency founded by a decree of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The sides also exchanged views on activities, structures and perspectives of their agencies and reached an agreement to intensify the collaboration in the nearest future by signing a memorandum.

The MONTSAME head noted that his agency wants to study the “Russia Today” TV channel which belongs to the Rossiya Segodnya agency. 

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Cabinet discusses draft amendment on NCHR

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) A regular cabinet meeting held Thursday discussed a proposal and conclusion to a draft amendment to the law on the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) drawn up by S.Demberel MP.

The cabinet members decided to submit a proposal to the draft initiator on a necessity to combine the draft amendment with another draft new wording of the law on the NCHR initiated by the President due to some duplication in terms of the both drafts.  

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USAID to provide grant to improve deaf education in Mongolia

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is to partner with the Mongolian Association of Sign Language Interpreters (MASLI) NGO and the Mongolian Association of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth and Children (MADYC) NGO to develop deaf education in Mongolia and help improve lives of deaf community.

The intent was announced at a public event by the U.S. Department of State’s Special Adviser for Disability Rights Ms Judith Heumann.

Ms Heumann noted: “It is my pleasure to announce today USAID’s intent to provide disability funding to this important initiative. The project will focus on early identification and intervention services for Mongolian deaf children and youth, and improve the quality of life for the deaf community.”

Research shows that about 2-3 out of every 1,000 children are born deaf or hard of hearing. Over 90 percent of these children are born to parents who can hear and have no knowledge about deafness. When a child has a hearing loss, the parents may be unsure of what to do. Most parents need help. Early identification and intervention of children who are born deaf or hard of hearing is critical to ensure their families have the resources they need to help their children acquire language and achieve age-appropriate communicative, cognitive, academic, social and emotional development.

The project will enjoy the benefit of having an interdisciplinary team of all necessary area professionals and representatives from both organizations.

Total number of the project beneficiaries is expected to be about 1,000 including the deaf, their family members and deaf teachers and educators. There will also be numerous numbers of direct and indirect beneficiaries on national level.

The total funding of the project is USD 294,114. The project will be carried out from July 2014 through July 2016 for the period of two years at the Deaf School 29, Deaf Kindergarten 189 in Ulaanbaatar and four aimags.

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International scholars’ conference: “Bat Khaan and Battle of Liegnitz“

By B. Amarsaikhan

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) A Mongolia-Germany joint scientific conference was concluded on Wednesday. One of the purposes of the conference was to emphasize the contributions of Chingis Khaan’s army in art of war.

Mongolian Academy of Sciences, together with University of Bonn, Association of Valstat Brothers of Germany have co-organized the event. “The history of our two nations’ first meeting was not pleasant, in an obvious reason. However, since then, the relations have prospered over the years. Battle of Liegnitz played important role in the two nations’, as well as in the world history. Thus, the conference, on the occasion of the 254th anniversary of the historic battle, should enrich the historic fund of 13th century Mongolia-European history”.

This is one of the frameworks being organized in a scope of the anniversary of diplomatic relations. The objectives are to analyse matters of Mongolian army system, warships of Chingis Khaan’s descendants, contribution of Mongolians in art of war, history of Great Mongol Empire, especially the history of thirteenth century relations of Mongolia and Europe, as well as to enrich the mutual historic fund with newly developed resources, definitions and arguments.
Discussions were held in intriguing topics: “Mongolian army system in 13th century”, “Bat Khaan and Battle of Liegnitz”, “The History of Valstat Brothers”, and “Battle of Liegnitz: Mongolian art of war”.

At the conference, present were B.Enkhtuvshin, a president of Academy of Sciences, T.Galbaatar, secretary and a senior scholar of the academy, representatives of German Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, and 40 scholars from Mongolia, Russia and Germany.

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Stock exchange news for September 4

By B. Khuder

Ulaanbaatar, September 4 (MONTSAME) At the Stock Exchange trades on Thursday, a total of 29 thousand and 895 shares of 17 JSCs were traded costing 31 million 662 thousand and 128.00 togrog.

"Hermes center” /15 thousand and 045 units/, “Merex” /5,000 units/, “Avto impex” /4,120/, “Mongol alt” /2,725 units/ and "Genco tour bureau” /2,000 units/ were the most actively traded in terms of trading volume, in terms of trading value were "Avto impex” (MNT 16 million and 480 thousand), "Mongol alt” (MNT eight million 178 thousand and 673), "Hermes center” (MNT two million 632 thousand and 775), "Mogoin gol” (MNT one million and 440 thousand) and "Baganuur” (MNT 925 thousand and 200).

The total market capitalization was set at MNT one trillion 608 billion 182 million 645 thousand and 367. The Index of Top-20 JSCs was 15,695.85, decreasing 14.43 units or 0.09% against the previous day.

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