AmCham Daily Newswire

DP – ‘The Cabinet needs to be dismissed if the effective date of the Criminal Code is delayed’

Summary: The Minister of Justice S. Byambatsogt participated in DP Caucus meeting to provide a detailed explanation of the proposal to delay the effective date of the Criminal Code. The Minister explained that the law requires approving more than 70 additional regulations, conducting training for 40,000 staffs and creating 1,500 new job positions. The necessary structural and managerial renovation of prisons will cost approximately 90 billion MNT. This amount was not included in the 2016 budget and the Ministry does not have such resources at the moment. However, DP members stated that Minister S. Byambatsogt’s justifications are insubstantial and that the MPP is trying to slow down one of the most important laws in the last 26 years just for the sake of the Presidential Election and the personal gain of one or two people. The DP members claim that if implemented, the Criminal Code will actually help the Government save money and that the current Cabinet needs to be dismissed if the effective date of the Criminal Code of Mongolia is delayed.

Keywords: law enforcement, government policy Today /page A2/

Judges are against the salary cuts

Summary: The budget amendments proposed by the Cabinet, which is currently being discussed during the irregular Parliament session, includes a clause to reduce the salaries of Supreme Court judges by 61-66%. The judges held a press conference at the Judicial General Council of Mongolia to express their opposition to the draft amendment. They believe that cutting the salary of judges could have terrible consequences, including biased rulings and bribery. As of July 2016, 98.5% of judges have taken some sort of loan from commercial banks. This proves that the salary cut will shake their financial stability dramatically. The Supreme Court is one of the few institutions that needs to keep its financial independence for the country to develop further. In addition, lowering the salaries of judges will violate several clauses of the Constitution.

Keywords: government policy, economic decline The National Post /page 8/

D. Gan-Ochir – ‘Monetary Interest Rate had to be increased’

Summary: The Bank of Mongolia’s Chief Economist and Advisor to the President, D. Gan-Ochir stated that the current state of the Mongolian economy is worse than the 2008– 2009 economic crisis. As of July of this year, the budget deficit reached 1.9 trillion MNT, the unemployment rate has risen to 10.4% and non-performing bank loans have risen to 8.6%. To prevent the economic crisis from deteriorating further and to stabilize the banking sector, the BoM is taking strategic actions and their first step was to raise the monetary interest rate by 4.5 units to 15%. Despite the criticism that followed the decision to raise the monetary interest rate, D. Gan-Ochir insists it was a necessary step to recover the economy and claims the results are already apparent, as they were able to successfully stabilize the exchange rate of the MNT against the USD. The BoM’s next step is to increase the sustainability of the economy and to strengthen the base of constant growth to ensure the midterm exchange rate stabilization.

Keywords: economic decline, monetary policy Daily News /page 1, 7/

Exports passing through the Gashuun Sukhait port has increased for 5 consecutive months

Summary: As of July of 2016, the number of exports going through the Gashuun Sukhait port reached 5.41 million tons, a 30% increase from last year. Even though the number of exports has risen considerably, the collected revenue has only increased by 1.2%, reaching 214 million USD. 45% of the country’s exported coal passes through the Gashuun Sukhait port and they currently collect 59.4% of all income that comes from coal export.

Keywords: export, mining The Official Gazette /page 11/

Night clubs to close at 00.00 AM

Summary: The newly elected Mayor of Ulaanbaatar S. Batbold announced that he will bring back the policy which forbids night clubs to operate after 00:00 AM. The former Mayor E. Bat – Uul dismissed the policy and extended the operation time of night clubs to 4:00AM; claiming that closing the operation of night clubs at 00:00AM increased the occurrences of drinking alcoholic beverages in public places and hotels and essentially resulted in more crime.

Keywords: regulation, law enforcement www.medee.mn