Business news

16 Mar 2024

Key takeaways from Belarus-Mongolia government negotiations

ULAANBAATAR, 16 March (BelTA) - During his official visit to Mongolia, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Aleinik held talks with Deputy Prime Minister Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan. The parties outlined promising projects and discussed ways to implement them, BelTA has learned.

Before the talks with the deputy prime minister, Sergei Aleinik was received by Mongolia President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. The parties discussed strategic areas of cooperation, while the tactics were discussed in the government. It is expected that all agreements will be formalized during the upcoming state visit of the Belarusian president to Mongolia.

"We will make every effort to ensure that the visit is held at the highest level. Because it is important not only for our countries: many countries, almost the whole world will follow this visit," Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan said.

In anticipation of the food "revolution"

The most pressing issue for Mongolia is the development of the agricultural industry. The country, according to local officials, intends to make a revolution in agriculture, and finds the experience of Belarus very useful. First of all, Mongolia plans to modernize the livestock industry. This requires equipment, new farms and complexes.

"We are thinking about reforming our animal husbandry and switch it from the extensive, nomadic one to intensive," the deputy prime minister said.

Belarusian tractors were actively used in Mongolia until the early 1990s, and now the country is ready to return to this practice. It is possible that the parties will organize the joint production of farm machines for Mongolian farms.

Sectoral ministries have prepared a roadmap for the development of cooperation in agriculture, which spells out projects and steps for their implementation. "This is the construction of new and modernization of existing full-cycle dairy farms, the supply of cattle of Belarusian selection, veterinary drugs, seeds, special-purpose equipment, training and advanced training of Mongolian specialists and the supply of agricultural machines," Sergei Aleinik said.

Belarus is ready to offer Mongolia its grain drying complexes that help to keep crops safe. "Our technologies in this sector are in demand in many countries of the world," the minister said.

Cooperation in these areas was discussed in more detail during a meeting of the Belarusian delegation with Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Khayangaa Bolorchuluun of Mongolia.

Supply of equipment and historic partnership

At the talks in the government, it was noted that the Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has long used Belarusian special-purpose equipment and technical means in their work. They are satisfied with the operating experience.

"They are very useful and effectively used in emergency situations," Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan said.

The parties are preparing to sign a new, rather impressive contract; preliminary agreements have already been reached. The matter is about the supply of more than 100 units of Belarusian fire equipment.

An equally urgent issue for Mongolia is the expansion of the fleet of passenger vehicles and the modernization of elevator infrastructure in residential buildings. "All this is very relevant, and we could tap into our cooperation in this regard," the deputy prime minister suggested. "I believe that Belarusian-made engineering goods are better suited to our weather and climatic conditions."

The Belarusian side will also be happy to provide Mongolian cities with other types of vehicles: not only passenger, but also road, construction, and utilities. "We are ready to offer special-purpose equipment for forestry, which is very important in the context of your state program ‘Billion Trees’,” Sergei Aleinik noted.

Another interesting area is cooperation in the mining industry. The Belarusian mechanical engineering company BelAZ has been working in the Mongolian market for a very long time, for several decades, but the time has come to open new horizons.

"Another aspect that we have not touched upon is possible cooperation in railway transport. This is the supply of rail cars, spare parts for them," Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan added.

In order to explore each other's economic opportunities, Belarus and Mongolia plan to hold a joint business forum. According to Sergei Aleinik, it is necessary to think about the mutual creation of trading platforms. Belarusian products are recognizable in the Mongolians yet are poorly represented in the country. Belarusians would be happy to have access to more Mongolian goods, for example, cashmere products.

Not only economy

The parties are also discussing humanitarian projects. Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Batmunkh Battsetseg spoke about this in a little more detail after talks with her Belarusian counterpart.

"We discussed cooperation in the field of training specialists and improving their competencies. We also came to agreements on the exchange of press tours, cooperation through youth organizations," Batmunkh Battsetseg said.

She noted that Mongolia is looking forward to the visit of the Belarusian president. The country attaches great importance to this event. A little later, at a meeting with Sergei Aleinik, the Mongolian leader also spoke about this. "We are looking forward to the visit of the Belarusian president as the head of state and also as a person. The Mongolian people see him as a brave leader and a wise statesman, so we see the upcoming visit as historic," Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh stressed.