On 25 August 2024, Mr. Delgersaikhan, Minister of Road and Transport of Mongolia met with Mrs. Armida S.Alisjahbana, Deputy General Secretary of UN and Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Committee for Asia and Pacific and discussed cooperation in the transport sector. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Ganbold, head of the East and South-East Asia Subregional Office of UNESCAP and Mr. San Won Lim, economist of the UNDP Office in Mongolia.

At the beginning of the meeting, Minister Mr. Delgersaikhan expressed his appreciation to UNESCAP for its commitment and continued support rendered to the development of Mongolia’s transport sector and highlighted UNESCAP’s key backing for Mongolia’s participation and engagement in the region-wide transport connectivity initiatives and projects.

The Minister shared insight on national infrastructure development plans and projects, which include major projects of railway, aviation, road transport and establishment of dry ports to respond to rapidly increasing freight and passenger transport demands.

He also pointed out the importance of the Dry port development for Mongolia, as a landlocked country, and it will be useful not only to Mongolia but also to the region and expressed his interest to work with UNESCAP on the knowledge sharing and dry port operations.

Moreover, the Minister raised Mongolia’s proposal on possible creation of an international road transport insurance scheme for the Asian region similar to Council of Bureaux /Green Card System/ to facilitate free movement in cross-border road traffic by removing administrative barriers and to offer a high level of protection to victims of cross-border road traffic accidents by facilitating the compensation procedures. 

Also, during the meeting, within the framework of the Agreement on the Asian Highway Network and the Trans-Asian Railway Network Agreement, Mongolia is eager to increase the volume of transit, import and export freight transportation with the neighboring countries and in the region, to increase transportation links, expand its road network, improve Central railway corridor, and to enhance border port transshipment capacities.

The parties agreed that to solve those problems, Mongolia needs technical support and productive cooperation from multilateral organizations including UNESCAP. 

Mrs. Armida S.Alisjahbana reiterated UNESCAP’s commitment to support Mongolia’s efforts for foster its role in multilateral platforms and took note of comments and proposals voiced by the Minister Delgersaikhan. She also suggested Mongolia to participate in the upcoming UNESCAP Transport Committee meeting in November this year and recommended to raise all these matters at the meeting for discussion and further actions.