MAYOR OF ULAANBAATAR RECEIVES HIS CHINESE COUNTERPART

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On June 17, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city S.Barbold received delegates led by Mayor of Beijing Chen Jining, who arrived to participate in the Northeast Asian Mayors' Forum-2018. Beginning the meeting Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city S.Batbold expressed his gratitude to the delegates for giving a high significance to the forum and friendly cooperation between the two countries. “I took part in a delegation of Prime Minister’s visit to the People’s Republic of China last May. Within the framework of the official visit over 30 memorandums of cooperation between the governments, organizations and entities were signed. As a result of the visit, we hope that major infrastructure projects and wastewater treatment plant will be realized," said Mayor S.Batbold. Ulaanbaatar is a developing city with population of 1.4 million people, which is nearly 50 percent of Mongolia’s total population, producing 65.8 percent of the nation’s GDP. This is a positive indicator on the one hand, but on the other hand due to rapidly growing population we are facing major problems including expansion of ger areas, air and soil pollution, traffic congestion, violating the human right to live in healthy and safe environment. To solve these problems, the Ulaanbaatar city initiated the Northeast Asian Mayors' Forum in 2014 to learn from the experiences of the other countries and develop the regional cooperation. This year, the forum is taking place under the theme ‘Low Carbon City Development: Improving air quality and Reducing greenhouse gas emissions’. "Close cooperation between the capital cities plays an important role in deepening the bilateral relations of the two countries. We are pleased with the expansion of cooperation in all fields, since the establishment of sister-city relationship between Ulaanbaatar and Beijing in 2014,” he underlined. Mayor of Beijing Chen Jining in return expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome. He said “As the capital of the PRC, Beijing is rapidly developing and now has a population of 21 million. Therefore, we are also facing the metropolitan-area problems including air pollution and traffic congestion as well. China and Mongolia have long-term friendly neighbor relations and the relationship is becoming more and more active in recent years. We are ready to cooperate and implement projects and programs in the future. We are looking forward to intensify development of the two cities and mutually beneficial cooperation. 2019 marks the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the sister-city relationship between Ulaanbaatar and Beijing. It is important to make China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Mongolia’s Development Road program coherent." The cities need to cooperate in the industrial and investment sectors, using their advantages. Specifically, there is a need for highly skilled and capable human resources in construction sector. Therefore, Mayor Chen Jining noted, they are planning to encourage their investors and developers to participate in the economic and social development of Ulaanbaatar in the future. "Air pollution was an pressing issue due to high population and industrial policy of Beijing. It was significantly reduced due to renovation of vehicle gross emitters and removing the manufactories from the city. The public support is also important besides the government involvement. We will be happy to share this experience with you. In the future, we need to expand humanitarian cooperation between the cities.” B.Misheel