MONGOLIA TO LAUNCH OWN SATELLITES

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ Mongolia will launch its satellites by the year 2015. The "National Satellite" programme was adopted by the cabinet at its regular meeting on Saturday. By preliminary calculations, some 350 billion togrog are needed for owining and launching a communication satellite, and 280 billion for a reconnaissance satellite. These money will be financed by the state budget, investments of the private sector and foreign loans and assistance, and an implementation plan has been approved as well. An obligation has been given to Ch.Ulaan, the Minister of Finance, to N.Batbayar, the Minister of Economic Development, and to Ts.Jadamba, a head of the Information, Communications Technology and Post Authority to ensure a realization of the programme. As of this year, 56 countries are having own satellites, 115 countries are owning satellites jointly. Since an establishment of the first station of space communication in 1970, Mongolia has been utilizing satellites. B.Khuder