PM J.Erdenebat meets RZD President O.Belozerov

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Prime Minister, Mr J.Erdenebat received Wednesday the President of the Russian Railway, Mr Oleg Belozerov. The Premier highlighted there are necessity and potentials for Mongolia and Russia to combine joint efforts for improving the operations of the Ulaanbaatar Railway joint venture and boosting transit transports. The Ulaanbaatar Railway has many opportunities to draw benefits from the joint projects carried out by Mongolia, Russia and China, noted the Premier. The leaders of the three countries have found out that there are over 100 million tons of freight available for transit transportation. Only 10 million tons of the freight can bring the Ulaanbaatar Railway profits. “The Government of Mongolia will put all possible efforts in making this real”, said J.Erdenebat. Mr Belozerov agreed with the Prime Minister and expressed his gratitude to the Erdenebat's cabinet for taking the initiative on zeroing excise tax on diesel fuel, supplied to Ulaanbaatar Railway, and the Mongolian parliament for approving a regulation favoring this action. The regulation is to come into force on January 1 of 2017. Thereby, Mr Belozerov requested the Prime Minister whether ther is a possiblity to bring the date closer, namely within 2016. The zero-rating has been resolved in frames of Mongolian laws and regulations, noted the PM and added that new regulations on taxation start to be implemented from January 1st of the following year since the regulations were already approved. He also suggested it is due time to upgrade the management system of Ulaanbaatar Railway, by re-organizing the joint venture into a corporation, in consideration of the modern economic perspectives and demands. “It is the right time to enable the Ulaanbaatar Railway to keep up with the global economic pace, to grow independently and to have wider gate to the international markets through renewing the agreement of 1949. Both sides should take tangible steps towards this goal”, underlined PM J.Erdenebat.