PRESIDENT OF MONGOLIA RECEIVES AMBASSADOR OF JAPAN
President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan M.Takaoka met today in the State Palace. The President touched upon three key matters:
First of all, the sides underlined that forwarding the commissioning of the Khushig valley airport [New Ulaanbaatar International Airport] will facilitate the upgrade of two countries’ relations and cooperation in tourism and economic sectors. He expressed the wish to establish one more major factory with capacity of Gobi or Darkhan Iron Factory.
Secondly, the President noted the issue of the 458 km railroad is of strategic significance in promoting economic growth. He said, “Mongolians export animal hides, leather, wool, cashmere, gold, copper, fluorspar and other raw materials unprocessed. So, we need to focus more on the processing industry. We can process 100% of our cashmere at home, if there were two factories like Gobi.”
In third, he said, a major Japanese company can be allowed into the mining industry.
Ambassador Takaoka noted the people-to-people relations are also important in addition to diplomacy. Mongolian’s success in judo and sumo is one of the main pillars of people-to-people ties, he noted.
The Ambassador said, while expressing his acceptance of the President’s proposals, it is important to deliver the outputs of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the Government of Mongolia and the Government of Japan.