Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene pays courtesy call on President Battulga

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, appointed by the Parliament with majority vote on January 27th, 2021, paid a courtesy call on the President soon after he received the office. President Battulga said: “Congratulations on your appointment as the Prime Minister of Mongolia, with approval from the State Great Khural. You will be known as the 32nd Prime Minister of Mongolia starting today. I am working with the 8th Prime Minister since I have entered the politics. I am confident in your ability to work in an urgent manner as you formerly held a highly responsible government position. Upon your appointment as the Chief of the Cabinet Secretariat, your predecessor U.Khurelsukh and I had thoroughly discussed cooperation without prejudice and political polarization. I would like to underline again that we collaborated, regardless of political affiliations. For instance, we managed to stop the illegal activities on the Salkhit silver deposit and cancelled pension-backed loans of up to 6 million MNT taken out by thousands of seniors. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the Kharmagtai deposits holding at least 100 million tons of gold had been detected in collaboration with geologists while the Government of Mongolia and the minister in charge of the industry were not aware of it, and 53 tons of gold have been identified through a 18,000-meter drilling within three months and was handed over to the Government. The gold reserves of the deposits are available to increase to 100 million tons and the geologists undertook great exertion. This serves as a proper example of how natural wealth can be appropriately allocated to Mongolia’s population of three million. It is only a part of the 18,000 meter drilling and a portion of the huge deposits of gold and copper. This could be an opportunity to rescue the economy during these challenging times. PM U.Khurelsukh and I divided the sample extracted by the drilling at the time into two equal parts and laughed, saying we received the dole of our gold. The feasibility study for this project is expected to complete by mid-March and this effort should continue forward. During the official visit by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to Mongolia in September 2019, it was agreed to pursue active cooperation, taking more initiatives on the matter of a gas pipeline between Russia and China to run through Mongolia. In the course of the Prime Minister Khurelsukh’s visit to Russia in December of that same year, it was mentioned that some results have been achieved and its feasibility study was underway with great progress. I view that the National Security Council should deliberate whether this crucial issue remains a responsibility of the Deputy Prime Minister against the backdrop of current tough times of the pandemic and dzud. Because issues surrounding the gas pipeline are noticed to fall behind since Sodbaatar Yangug was working overburdened while he was the Deputy Prime Minister. I am concerned that this situation could be misinterpreted as Mongolians are not paying due attention on this matter. Therefore, I see that the National Security Council should commit to this and make well-thought decisions, since you now become a member of the National Security Council. Following a letter sent from Mongolia to Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, the bilateral currency swap arrangement of 6 trillion MNT was extended for 3 more years until 2023, which releases Mongolia from the burden of high amount of payment. I have recently met with the Chinese Ambassador and proposed to extend the three-year agreement by up to 20 years, within the framework of the visit paid by Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi to Mongolia. If this is solved, payment worth 2 billion USD will be freed in the future. Thanks to this, a plan has been developed to provide much-needed support for households and businesses during the difficult period brought by the pandemic, taking examples from foreign countries. I encourage you, as the new Prime Minister, to get acquainted with the plan. Instead of dividing over the affiliations to the Democratic Party and the Mongolian People’s Party, we should work together for the people to overcome the pandemic. Moreover, we should also work together to finish the railroad construction underway. I believe you will get to work right from today. During the parliamentary session, some opposition members and S.Ganbaatar MP will be included in the working group for the Oyu Tolgoi agreement. On this matter, N.Altankhuyag MP will be extremely helpful as he was Prime Minister at the time of the deal. A proposal was sent from our Office on this hot topic. As you have led several demonstrations, I believe you have some level of imagination what the public distress can cause. For that reason, I hope you will firsthand tend to the matter of putting an end to S.Ganbaatar MP’s hunger strike. I also hope you will be willing to cooperate for the wellbeing of the three million citizens and the revival of the economy. Let’s collaborate for unbending durability of governance and prosperity and wellness of the Mongolian people. Good luck!” The Office of the President of Mongolia