MONTSAME NAMES THIS YEAR'S HIGHLIGHT EVENTS IN MONGOLIA

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ Mongolia's National News Agency MONTSAME is naming the most important events occurred in Mongolia this year. 1. Mongolia took the presidency of the Community of Democracies (CD). A ceremony took place on July 1 to transfer the chairmanship to Mongolia from Lithuania, after the President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj received the CD's flag from Audronius Azubalis, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, who chaired the community in 2009-2011. Mongolia will chair the CD until 2013. In 2013, the Ministerial Conference of the CD members will take place in Ulaanbaatar. 2. Mongolia started introducing of the standards of Cambridge to give the young high-quality and high-competitive education and to bring the Mongolian education system into the world standards. As of present, two laboratory schools in the city are being tested under the Cambridge standards. A preparation has started to drill the standards in 30 lab schools nationwide. It is expected that all secondary schools will transfer into the standards by 2015. 3. Organized on occasion of several biggest anniversaries, the Mongolian national wrestling was listed in the Guinness Record Book. This year, Mongolia marked the 2220th anniversary of the Foundation of Mongolia's Statehood-the Hun Empire, the 805th anniversary of the Great Mongol Empire, the 100th anniversary of the National Freedom revolution and the 90th anniversary of the People's Revolution. During the national great festival, the tournament of wrestling attracted 1,024 men. A State Khartsaga titled S.Monkhbat won this tournament and received the State Champion title. Moreover, the Federation of Mongolian National Wrestling organized a tournament with 6,002 wrestlers which was registered in the Guinness Record Book. This event has confirmed that Mongolia is the nation of wrestling throughout the world. 4. Leaders of the world countries paid visits to Mongolia, for example, the President of the Republic of India Mrs. Pratibha D. Patil in July, the President of the Republic of Korea Mr. Lee Myung-bak in August. Furthermore, the Vice President of USA Joseph Robinette Biden visited us in August; a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Zhou Yongkang--in August; the President of the Republic of Finland Mrs. Tarja Halonen--in August; and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany--in October. Domestic and foreign observers say these visits were the "competitions for mineral resources". 5. On December 15, the State Great Khural (parliament) passed the draft amendment to the law on election. This has happened after three years of hot discussions. Pursuant to the law, the parliamentary election in 2012 will run through a system with dominating majority with the ratio 48:28. In other words, 28 of the 76 MPs will be elected by a proportional system, and 48 will be individual candidates nominated by their parties. In order to gain a seat in parliament, a political party must get five percent of the total national votes. Not less than 20 per cent of the MPs shall be women. It is considered that the law will improve responsibilities of political parties and candidates. The new law allows the Mongolians abroad to vote. 6. The 14th Dalai Lama visited Mongolia on November 7-11, and recited Buddhist scriptures for Mongolian believers and lamas. In addition, the leadership of Mongolian Buddhists has been bestowed upon Tibetan-origin Jambalnamdolchoijijantsan, the 9th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. On November 2, a ceremony took place in the Gandantegchilen monastery to grant the stamp. This event has faced protests from leaders of some monasteries and believers. 7. Growth of Mongolian economics reached 20 per cent. It is considered that the growth has been mainly influenced by high prices of gold, copper and coal at the international market. The government of Mongolia has said the next year's economic growth will be higher of this year's. At the same time, as statistics show, the poverty rate has reached almost 40 per cent. Some politicians and economists have concluded Mongolia is facing the "economy foam". Apart of this, the cabinet decided to distribute 1,072 stocks of the Tavan tolgoi coal deposit to each citizen of Mongolia. Mongolians will start receiving the stocks from the next year. It is also available for us to have cash of MNT one million instead of stocks. 8. Teachers of secondary schools and kindergartens went on a strike demanding the government to augment the salaries from January and March of 2012 adhering a trilateral agreement on labor and social negotiations. The three sides--the government, the Mongolian Trade Unions and the Union of Employers--continued the negotiations. The teachers stopped the strike after hearing about governmental decision to clarify the budget in order to increase the salaries by MNT 80,000 from February 1, and by 23 per cent from May 1. 9. The very first coal processing factory was put into use in frames of a project of Ukhaa-Khudag mine at the "Energy Resource" company. This factory has capacity of cleaning and enriching five tons coal a year. It was constructed by over 600 workers and engineers from 20 companies. When the factory works in full capacity, it will create 140 jobs. A power station with 18 MWatt has been constructed for the factory, introducing the dry cooling system without using water. This power station has been erected by own labor force. 10. In scope of the Third Campaign for Reclaiming Virgin Lands, Mongolia harvested the largest volumes of grain, potatoes and vegetables in history. This year, Mongolia harvested 433.4 thousand tons grain, 191.5 thousand tons potatoes and 97.2 thousand tons vegs. Selenge province, alone, harvested 214 thousand tons of grain, which is equivalent to about 50 per cent of the total size. Thus Mongolia has become able to fully provide its people with organic products. Mongolia intends to export veg, grain and flour to foreign countries, and then decided to export grain to China in the first turn. A number of heads of livestock increased, reaching about 38 million. B.Khuder