AmCham Daily Newswire

Cabinet will not cut health sector budget

Summary: During a meeting with health sector representatives, PM J. Erdenebat and Head of the Cabinet Secretariat J. Munkhbat highlighted that this Cabinet will take the matter of accountability seriously and reminded the representatives that measures will be taken if someone does not fulfill their job responsibilities. The PM noted that he supports the idea of establishing a health support fund and suggested cooperating closely with the private sector and donors since financing for the fund would not be issued through the state budget. Additionally, he commissioned the Minister of Health A. Tsogtsetseg to provide necessary assistance with the establishment of a needle and syringe factory. Regarding the report of 26 maternal deaths in July; the PM strictly warned health sector authorities that legal action would be taken and any achievement or honor would be revoked from hospital staff found to be responsible for a maternal death. In conclusion, the two ministers announced that despite the current economic decline, the Cabinet would not cut any of the health sector budget.

Keywords: government policy, health Today /pages A2/

IAAC to supervise kindergarten registration process

Summary: Nationwide registration for state-owned kindergartens starts today. There is a shortage of kindergartens despite the opening of 60 new kindergartens countrywide this year. To ensure fair enrollment, the Capital Education Department announced that they will be holding a lottery for registration. Due to many complaints regarding the unfair enrollment process, including the bribery of school staff and administrators, the IAAC decided to assign a working group to supervise the lottery drawing procedure. Tickets will be provided for every child registered and guardians must acquire the ticket by August 26^th. Children with disabilities and those who qualify for state welfare will be automatically placed in kindergartens, the remaining children will be assigned via the lottery.

Keywords: education, government stability Daily News /pages 7/

The exchange rate starts to stabilize

Summary: The Bank of Mongolia (BoM) issued their first bills of the Central Bank (CBB) since the Monetary Policy Council increased the monetary interest rate to 15% to prevent commercial banks from holding onto the USD and creating shortages. Through the issuance, the BoM was able to concentrate 78.7 billion MNT and the one-week CBB balance reached 657.7 billion MNT. One-week CBB’s are the main monetary policy instrument of BoM, which plays an important role in managing the reserves of the banks. The CBB rate represents BoM’s policy rate, which serves as a guide for the interbank money market. The BoM managed to fulfill the requests from commercial banks to buy 60 million USD at the rate of 2,265.81 and 67.1 million RMB at 339. As a result of the excess supply to the market, the exchange rate started to experience some stabilization.

Keywords: monetary policy, economic recession The National Post /page 1/

DP – Court issued a ruling to conduct a re-election in Orkhon and Darkhan provinces

Summary: The DP filed several complaints regarding the election procedure and result of the 2016 Parliamentary and City Council representatives’ elections. Particularly, they requested an investigation into an alleged tape recording between administrators of the MPP talking about raising 60 billion MNT through selling higher civil servant positions. However, the Capital City prosecutor's offices issued a ruling to dismiss the case. The DP announced that they will appeal to the higher court to reinvestigate the case. Additionally, DP representatives stated the Orkhon Province Court and the Supreme Court of Mongolia issued a ruling to conduct another City Council representatives’ election in the Orkhon and Darkhan-Uul Provinces respectively. The General Secretary of Special Commission of the DP B. Batkhuyag stated that more information on the illegal acts surrounding the 2016 elections and a comprehensive report will be made by the end of this week.

Keywords: election, law enforcement www.medee.mn