MONTSAME NAMES HIGHLIGHT EVENTS OF 2013

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The MONTSAME national news agency is naming the most important events that have taken place this year in Mongolia. 1. Powerful states of the world turned big attention to Mongolia It was expressed by state and working visits of some nations. About 20 visits of State Heads, Prime Ministers and high-level officials were paid this year, for example, Mongolia received Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission; David Johnston, the Governor-General of Canada; Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan; Bronislaw Komorowski, the President of Poland; Kgalema Motlanthe, the Deputy President of South Africa; Yingluck Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand; and Riccardo Migliori, the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. These dignitaries and the Mongolian side focused on ways of expanding the bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and mining, on supplying facilities to Mongolia for the oil sector, on co-implementing infrastructure projects, and widening the inter-citizen ties. The state and governmental leaders appreciated Mongolia's achievements in improvement of the mining sector and investments environment. 2. Ts.Elbegdorj re-elected the President The 6th Presidential election ran on June 26 with three candidates from the Democratic Party (DP), the Mongolian People's Party (MPP) and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). As a result, the DP nominee Ts.Elbegdorj won the election, being thus re-elected the President of Mongolia with 622 thousand 794 people or 50.23% of the total votes. The election was special because a woman candidate stood for the presidential election for the first time in our history, and the oath-taking ceremony took place not indoors but on the Chingis Khaan's Square in front of people and voters July 10. 3. World democracy discussed in Ulaanbaatar While chairing the Community of Democracies (CoD), Mongolia successfully organized the 7th Ministerial Conference of the CoD on April 27-29 in Ulaanbaatar, bringing together 1,300 delegates from 100 countries. The participants exchanged views on a present situation of the democracy in the world and made some decisions. The Conference also had five forums, nine thematic meetings and one regional meeting, at which more than 100 high level delegates delivered reports. The Conference released a final document--the Declaration of Ulaanbaatar--to conclude works done by Mongolia for the CoD presidency and to design further goals. Mongolia passed the CoD presidency to El Salvador. 4. Strategic partnership relations with China and Japan The Prime Minister of Mongolia N.Altankhuyag paid visits to Japan and China, and announced that Mongolia will develop the strategic partnership relations with these countries. The Premier paid the official visit to Japan on September 11-14. He signed the Middle-Term Programme on Mongolia-Japan strategic relations. In addition, the countries established a memorandum of mutual understanding between the Developmental Bank of Mongolia (DBM) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The banks reached an agreement to issue the "Samurai" bonds of JPY 3 billion. On October 22-26, the PM paid the official visit to the People's Republic of China. During this visit, the two countries determined directions of the 20-year relations and cooperation and established important agreements on erecting a factory of gasifying coal, supplying up to one billion tons of coal to China for 20 years and on augmenting a supply of "Mongol 93" fuel by four times. 5. Law on investments adopted On November 1, the State Great Khural (parliament) adopted the law on investments and this created an investors-friendly and sustainable legal environment. It aims at attracting both domestic and foreign investments and at activating the investment flow. The law reflects several important clauses such as stabilizing the legal environment for investments, determining common legal guarantees for both domestic and foreign investors, augmenting benefits of some investments, stabilizing the tax environment for beneficial for Mongolia projects, and improving business environment by abolishing bureaucracy. 6. Ts.Elbegdorj becomes the first ever democratic president to visit North Korea. The President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj visited North Korea on October 28-31, becoming the first country leader to be received there since Kim Jung Un's leadership. During his four-day visit, Mr Elbegdorj presented his country's history as an example of how to achieve sovereignty and economic development without relying on the use of force. The Mongolian leader had busy days, meeting with various officials and zipping around to Kim IL Sung University, a Pyongyang theater, the Munsu water fun park, the border with South Korea and Kim family mausoleum, among other places. A speech given at Kim IL Sung University in Pyongyang by the President raised eyebrows for its starkly critical portrayal of the follies of tyrannical rule and the repression of human rights. 7. Young scientist's innovation is to tackle nation's growing energy demand The President Ts.Elbegdorj awarded the young engineer N.Natsagnyam the highest State Award for his innovation of "Automatic adjustment for synchronized generator's reactive potential and its virtual laboratory" or "NaNyam-AX12\u8243". Several days earlier, the Government had awarded him 2013 Prize of Technological Progress of Mongolia, with a cash of 100 million togrog. His innovation of complete software and hardware solution saves 600 million togrog or 350 thousand USD in imports of similar equipment, and it is ten times cheaper than a similar technology used in China. 8. Oyu Tolgoi gets approval for copper exports A majority-owned unit of Rio Tinto PLC announced that customers of its massive Mongolian Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project had secured Chinese customs approval to receive copper concentrate in China, thus paving the way for the mine's owners to start earning revenue from the USD 6.2 billion project. Oyu Tolgoi's customers had been engaged with Chinese customs officials and had received the necessary approvals allowing them to collect purchased concentrate. The withdrawal of copper from the warehouse means the company and the Mongolian government, which owns the remaining 34% stake in the mine, now is able to record revenue from copper concentrate exports that began in July. The Oyu Tolgoi mine began exporting copper concentrate to China for the first time in July following hiccups in securing export permits from the Mongolian government. Oyu Tolgoi produced 160,000 metric tons of copper concentrate and shipped approximately 38,000 tons of concentrate to the bonded warehouse in China between the time it began its first shipments in July and September 18. 9. Sukhbaatar Square is renamed after Chingis Khaan The Capital City Citizens' Representatives' Khural on July 15 decided to change the name of Sukhbaatar Square to Chingis Khaan square, whose name has been commemorated eight centuries since his founding of the Great Mongol Empire, and is now every Mongolian's pride and idol. The Khural announced that scientific institutes, researchers, civilians and NGOs had requested to name the square after Chingis Khaan numerous times. 10. Corruption index of Mongolia decreases 11 spots Mongolia improved its ranking on the list of most corrupt countries, 2013 Corruption Perception Index, published by Transparency International. The corruption index of Mongolia declined from 94 to 83 out of 177 countries, with a point of 38 for this year.