MONTSAME HIGHLIGHTS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF MONGOLIA THIS YEAR

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The MONTSAME news agency names the ten important events that happened in Mongolia in 2014 1. Presidents of neighbour countries visited Mongolia The President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Mr Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Mongolia on August 21-22, whereas the President of the Russian Federation Mr Vladimir Putin paid a working visit on September 3. These visits were the continuation of traditional high-level mutual visits between Mongolia and its neighbours. Within the visit of Mr Xi, the two counties signed the joint Declaration on developing the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership relations and some 30 documents between the governments and entities on forwarding the cooperation. A total of 15 memorandums and contracts were established with the Russian Federation on the bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, industry and education spheres. As results of Putin’s visit, the two countries’ people began to visit each other without visas from November 14. 2. Mongolia selected as host country of 11th ASEM Summit Mongolia was selected as the country to organize the 11th Summit of the ASEM in July of 2016. It was announced by Mr Herman Van Rompuy during a closing ceremony of the 10th ASEM Summit ran in October this year in Milan, Italy. The President Mr Elbegdorj said he would preside over "a special anniversary summit," since it will mark 20 years since ASEM was launched. "During that time, in my country we will have very nice weather," he added. On December 30, the President Mr Elbegdorj issued a decree on setting up a national council for organizing the ASEM Summit. 3. State Heads of Mongolia, Russia and China meet in Dushanbe At initiative of the Mongolian President, the first meeting of the State leaders of Mongolia, Russia and China was held within the 13th Annual Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which ran September 11-12 in Dushanbe of Tajikistan. Main objective of this meeting was to implement the Ulaanbaatar Meeting of the Presidents of Mongolia, Russia and China. In Dushanbe, the State Heads of China and Russia backed in principle Mr Elbegdorj’s initiative and emphasized that such a meeting can be hosted not only in Ulaanbaatar, but also in any city as soon as possible. 4. Cabinet for reforms resigned and new cabinet formed The cabinet for reforms headed by N.Altankhuyag resigned early November. This cabinet was co-formed by the ruling Democratic Party, the “Justice” coalition and the Civil Will-Green Party as a result of the 2012 parliamentary election, and it lasted for two years and two months. The new cabinet for solutions was formed this month by the Democratic Party, the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), the “Justice” coalition and the Civil Will-Green Party. Then a former head of the Cabinet Secretariat Ch.Saikhanbileg was elected the 28th Prime Minister of Mongolia. With 15 Ministries and 19 Ministers, the new cabinet announced it will focus on national economy. 5. 75th anniversary of the victory on Khalkh River Battle celebrated Mongolia and the Russian Federation celebrated the 75th anniversary of the joint victory on the Khalkh River Battle. On occasion of the event, the Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia and promised to render support to Mongolia for improving the bilateral military and military-technical cooperation, arms and techniques of the Mongolian Armed Forces. Moreover, the “Selenge-2014” joint military exercise took place in Dornod with participation of some 1,000 servicemen within the anniversary. 6. Great Construction works done in energy, road and construction sectors The flow of investments to the energy, road and construction sectors was high this year although a size of foreign investment was low. For example, the “Amgalan” thermal power station was put into use in the city’s Bayanzurkh district, the #3 thermal power station received a new annex. Works have launched to distribute energy to eight provinces as well. In the road area, the capital city was connected by paved roads to Khovsgol, Sukhbaatar and Omnogobi aimags. 7. Mongolian athletes achieve brilliant success at international competitions Mongolian athletes grabbed medals at World championships, Grand Slam, Grand Prix and other biggest competitions for many sports. A State Honored Sportswoman and youth world champion S.Tserenchimed captured a gold medal in the FILA Wrestling World Championship which took place in Tashkent of Uzbekistan. A State Honored Sportsman G.Boldbaatar won a gold medal in the 2014 Judo World Championships in Chelyabinsk of Russia. J.Nurlan became the very first Mongolian to grab a gold medal in the Bodybuilding World Championship held in Mumbai of India. Our national team collected five gold, four silver and 12 bronze medals at the Incheon Asian Games, becoming the 16th among 45 countries. 8. “Hakuho” M.Davaajargal’s success equals highest record of sumo A State Honored Sportsman and Grand champion of Japanese professional sumo “Hakuho” M.Davaajargal won the sumo tournament of November, receiving the Emperor’s Trophy for the 32nd time. Thus, his record equaled to the record of Taikho, which is the top one in the professional sumo world. One win left for him to break the professional sumo’s all-time record. 9. Mongolia fully provides itself with flour Mongolia harvested 465 thousand tons of wheat, thus becoming able to provide its people with flour and other products made of flour. It has been estimated that the flour consumption is about 240 thousand tons, and it needs 360 thousand tons of wheat. This is first time for Mongolia to harvest such big amount of wheat since Mongolia received 1.6 tons of wheat from one hectare thanks to the 1st Campaign for reclaiming virgin lands in 1958. The size of the wheat harvested increased this year by 15% against 2013. 10. Mongolian actor enters Hollywood A Foremost Figure of Culture B.Amarsaikhan became the first Mongolian to show up in the Hollywood world. He played a historical role of Arigbokh in the “Marco Polo” TV series produced by the Netflix company. He participated in the red carpet official ceremony of the movie’s opening at the Broadway theatre in New York, wearing the national costume.