ABOUT MONGOLIA-JAPAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION THESE DAYS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At a meeting of the parliamentary Standing committee on economy Wednesday, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to Japan Mr S.Khurelbaatar gave a report on a present situation of the Mongolia-Japan economic cooperation. Some 40 years passed since Mongolia and Japan established the diplomatic relations. The bilateral economic relations until 1990s were based on official assistance for development, and the commercial and business ties were not very active, he noted. From 2010, Japan's interest in Mongolia grew as a result of our intensive economics growth. The bilateral economic ties were likely to rise, but the commercial and investment indicators have not reached yet a sufficient volume, the Ambassador said. For the time being, Japan is the 11th among countries by a size of investments made to Mongolia. The export of Mongolia to Japan accounts 0.2 percent, whereas the import from Japan stands at seven percent. "Despite it, we have a big opportunity to boost our economic cooperation in near future," he said. Position and geopolitical importance of Mongolia in Japan's foreign policy have been widening. Moreover, the economic growth of Mongolia and implementation of the biggest projects on great constructions fully meet the strategy of Abenomics' (economic policies advocated by Shinzo Abe) growth, including the infrastructure export policy. So it is vital to realize some of these projects together with Japan--one of our "Third Neighbour"--in order to keep a balance of the political, foreign policy and economic security and to introduce high quality and new technologies. Mongolia needs to make an agreement with Japan to supply coal to the country for a long period. Japan has expressed its willingness to participate in the Tavantolgoi project, and the Japanese participation is important in constructing the largest infrastructure, the Ambassador noted. Mongolia commenced talks with Japan to establish an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in 2012. The dialogues for the talks have run five times so far, and the 6th is expected this month. If the dialogue is successful, the two countries will establish the EPA in a final half of this year, "this agreement focuses on abolishing difficulties in tariff and trade and on refining upon the business environment and investment conditions". In 2013, Mongolia-Japan trade stood at 454 million 655 thousand USD, of which the export accounted for 10 million 530 thousand, the import--USD 444 million 120 thousand. Japan is the fifth by a size of foreign trade turnover, following China, Russia, South Korea and the USA. Since 1990, 530 Japanese companies have made investments of 184 million USD to Mongolia, so the country is the 10th by this size, Khurelbaatar said. After the report, the Ambassador noted again that Mongolia should realize some works to expand the Mongolia-Japan economic relations and cooperation.