Prime Minister S. Batbold declared during a Government meeting last Friday that the Tavantolgoi issue will soon be decided and that Mongolian national interests will be at the forefront when the agreement is made with investors.

The mega coal deposit will be fully owned by the State and investors will act as contract operators. New railroads, power stations and towns will be built, triggering national reconstruction. New factories will come up, national companies will be encouraged and thousands of jobs will be created. “We are aiming to manufacture processed products, instead of exporting the raw resources,” declared the PM.

Talking about the new railway, he said the Government believes a west-east route from Tavan Tolgoi to Sainshand to Choibalsan will be best, opening possibilities to develop broad economic relationship with Northeast Asia as well as providing infrastructures with guaranteed supplies of coal, copper, uranium and oil reserves from the Gobi region.

Thus, development Tavan Tolgoi and its related extraction facilities is expected to lead to the setting up of plants for coal enrichment and washing, to the construction of railways and tarmac roads, to the finding of new sources of water and energy, to the improvement of operations at border checkpoints, to the use of sea ports abroad, and to the manufacturing of value-added products in the national territory.

S. Batbold also said that the national program on a “Smokeless Ulaanbaatar” will be implemented, as will be the one on the “100,000 household apartments,” adding he will personally head the committees in charge of implementing the program.

Ger districts will be turned into apartment districts. 75,000 apartments will be built in 35 locations and will be expected to accommodate around 70% of metropolitan citizens