President speaks at World Investment Forum
President Kh.Battulga delivered a speech about Mongolia’s investment environment and opportunities to the World Investment Forum 2018, which will be concluding today in Geneva, Switzerland.
In his statement, the president emphasized that an emerging technological divide between developed and developing countries in relation to the new industrial revolution poses a daunting challenge for landlocked developing countries like Mongolia in their efforts to achieve sustainable development and implement goals set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is why Mongolia is pleased to have an opportunity to jointly seek solutions to global and regional challenges at the forum.
The president highlighted that since the Parliament of Mongolia adopted its own agenda, called Sustainable Development Vision–2030 (SDV) based on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development two years ago, the country has been developing and implementing national-level and inter-sectoral development policies in line with the SDV.
He pointed out that Mongolia believes that its state policies linked with Sustainable Development Goals will help enhance the structure of the relevant authorities and their coordination, and increase the effectiveness of investment.
Kh.Battulga said, “We also focused on developing a winwin investment agreement that ensures our country’s interests are on an equal footing by formulating a model bilateral investment agreement in accordance with the recommendations made by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)”.
He noted that foreign direct investment in Mongolia has been increasing over the past few years, and mentioned that foreign investment doubled last year, while the nation’s economic growth reached 5.3 percent last year, and 6.3 percent in the first half of this year.
“However, there is still a critical need to promote and attract more investment in sectors crucial for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, such as agriculture, processing industries and infrastructure. In order to address this issue, we are working to improve the legal environment for accessing the markets of our trading and investment partner countries and increase investment from those countries to Mongolia,” Kh.Battulga said.
The president underlined that Mongolia is seeking to develop its agriculture, renewable energy and tourism sectors, and proposed Northeast Asian countries to implement a project called “Northeast Asian Energy Super Grid”.
He added that Mongolia has significant renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, that could make up a large portion of the renewable energy that will be consumed in the Asia-Pacific region in the future, which is why the country has great interests to move the project forward.
In his speech, the president noted that the summit should come up with ways to increase the effectiveness and quality of investment and to modify investment protection mechanisms, and countries, investors and international organizations should reaffirm their commitment to work together to increase investment flows as an essential factor in achieving sustainable development worldwide.
Kh.Battulga concluded his statement by saying, “As a former professional athlete, I greatly value the role of sports and physical training in the development of an individual and self-discipline. Hence, I strongly believe that increasing investment in sports and physical education will contribute significantly to achieving the objectives set out in Sustainable Development Goals, such as empowering women and children, developing education and healthcare and ensuring social equity. Taking this opportunity, I wish to express my intention to support sports projects and programs involving not only Mongolia but also countries in our region.”
As part of the forum, President Kh.Battulga held a meeting with Secretary-General of the UNCTAD Mukhisa Kituyi on October 23 to discuss mutual cooperation.
Kituyi delved into the multilateral activities being carried out by the UNCTAD, including in the areas of transport, investment, trade facilitation, and sustainable economic development of landlocked developing countries.
President Kh.Battulga expressed Mongolia’s interest in cooperating with the UNCTAD in diversifying the economy and steering the cooperation among landlocked developing countries.
Kh.Battulga then visited the headquarters of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Geneva to meet with IRU Secretary-General Umberto de Pretto.
During their meeting, the sides exchanged views on the implementation of the TIR Convention and trends in the development of global transport sector.
The president also met with Francis Gurry, the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to exchange views on cooperation between the two parts.
He expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of Mongolia’s cooperation with the WIPO and discussed the introduction of new technologies in small and medium-sized enterprises, support for initiatives and innovations of young minds, and access to information on patent acquisition for innovations.
During their meeting, Gurry decided to organize workshops on ways to access the WIPO database and put intellectual property to economic use in Mongolia.