MONGOLIA-RUSSIA INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION MEETING HELD

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The 18th meeting of the Mongolia-Russia intergovernmental commission for the trade, economy, sciences and technical cooperation ran October 13-15 in the State House in Ulaanbaatar. This year's meeting has been considered as special because it took place after the visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Mongolia and follow-up negotiations significantly contributed to activating of the bilateral ties and to mutually-beneficial commercial and economic cooperation. At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on ways of tackling problems to the Mongolia-Russia trade and economic cooperation and on further measures. Moreover, the parties discussed issues of maximizing profits of the “Erdenet” Mining Corporation and the Ulaanbaatar Railway joint venture, intensifying bilateral trade, widening the collaboration in infrastructure, mining, construction and humanity. Although the Mongolia-Russia strategic partnership relations have been developing recent years, the trade turnover still has been decreasing. For example, the turnover size was USD 1.6 billion-- a 15.8% decline in 2013. The Russians emphasized that restoring its commercial representative in the capital city of Mongolia will help activate the commercial and economic ties. Regarding issues agreed at the meeting, a detailed protocol was released by Mr D.Terbishdagva, the Deputy Premier of Mongolia and head of the intergovernmental commission for the Mongolian side; and by Mr S.Ye.Donskoy, Russian Minister of Natural Resources and head of the commission for the Russian side. Moreover, a cooperation memorandum was established between the “Chingis Land Development Group” LLC and the “Dalistroimekhanizatsia” company to implement a project on constructing a highway in a route Altanbulag--Ulaanbaatar--Zamyn-Uud. The sides also summarized a course of the decisions on 47 matters made at the previous meeting. The noted that 13 issues have been completely realized, 30 issues are underway, and four have not been realized yet.