Tuvaan Tsevegdorj, Vice Minister, Industry and Agriculture, discusses his ministry’s key goals.
European Times: Can you describe some of your current projects?
Tuvaan Tsevegdorj: We have issued a bond to support the development of our cashmere, wool, lumber, milk and winter-crops segments. We are also promoting meat production through public-sector funding. Agriculture accounts for 21% of Mongolia’s GDP and 40% of total jobs. We aim to expand our agriculture sector to provide food for our population and for export. We are also promoting organic agriculture and developing around 20 hectares of greenhouses to produce food products year-round. We are granting low-interest loans and other support for this project. A lot of our current projects are fairly small and we are partnering with European companies in many of these initiatives.
European Times: What are you doing to foster more ties between Mongolia’s farmers and partners around the world?
Tuvaan Tsevegdorj: We have established a commodities exchange and have formed links between our cashmere producers and Italian companies concerning technology transfer. We have high expectations that Mongolia’s new investment law will draw more foreign investors. We are seeking investors in light and heavy industry, agriculture and food-processing. We would like to form partnerships with France concerning livestock production; Spain and Turkey for leather; the Netherlands and Germany concerning greenhouse agriculture and wheat; and more partnerships with Italy concerning our cashmere. Mongolia has around 122 million hectares of unused agricultural land just waiting to be developed but we need the right technologies. Our goal is to combine food-processing and agriculture to create value-added products. Mongolia’s mining sector also offers strong investment potential and we are working on a project to produce crude steel from coke and to melt copper at one of our factories. In the light-industry sector, we are focusing on leather, of which we produce 10 million units per year; cashmere, of which we produce 6,000 tonnes per year or 40% of global production; and wood products, of which we produce 18,000 tonnes per year. Our dairy industry is another opportunity; Mongolia currently produces around 600,000 litres of milk per year.
European Times: What are your main goals for the agriculture sector in the coming five years?
Tuvaan Tsevegdorj: I would like Mongolia to be self-sufficient in vegetables, milk and wheat, and we want to step up our exports of grains, milk, meat and cheese. I also want the Mongolian brand to be associated with our cashmere and leather products.
