Prime Ministers issue joint statement after EPA signing

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ While being in Japan with the working visit, the Prime Minister of Mongolia Ch.Saikhanbileg together with his Japanese counterpart Mr Shinzo Abe released Tuesday the joint statement to express a mutual satisfaction with signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in Tokyo. "The EPA has been signed after three years' negotiations between the countries on boosting the economic partnership," the statement begins. "We confirm that the ideology of freedom and democracy, peace and mutual assistance are the foundation and the value of the Mongolia-Japan friendly relations, and we underline an importance of the EPA in deepening the two countries' development and the inter-citizen ties. We express a confidence that the document will contribute to enhancing of the bilateral strategic partnership through the economic cooperation," it goes on. "We agree that the EPA will maximize the countries' investments, the turnover of services and products as well as a mutual exchange of citizens, will give big opportunities to individuals and the private sectors to expand their business, to make investments, and to bring the bilateral economic relations into a newer volume. "The EPA-the very first economic partnership agreement for Mongolia--has been formulated at a high level of quality, involving a wide range of issues such as the trade of products and services, facilitation of commerce and investments and improving an environment of intellectual properties, competitiveness and business. "The EPA highlights an importance of intensifying the Mongolia-Japan economic cooperation, directions of the agreement’s cooperation are reflected in the document’s appendix. "We emphasize an importance of the EPA in deepening the bilateral economic cooperation at the regional and international platforms, and in connecting Mongolia to the world economic integration. "We affirm our aspiration to fulfill the legal requirement in order to realize the EPA in a shortest time," says the joint release.