Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On April 11, Parliament Speaker G.Zandanshatar, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports Yo.Baatarbileg, Minister of Health D.Sarangerel held a meeting with representatives of the telecommunications sector of Mongolia, including CEO of Mobicom Corporation Tatsuya Hamada, G Mobile President G.Dahsnyam, Unitel Group CEO Ch.Enkhbat, Mongol Post JSC CEO B.Ankhbaatar and others. 

At the meeting, the government’s steps to contain COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia with support from the telecommunications operators were discussed, such as online education portals, including www.econtent.edu.mn and unlimited mobile internet data being provided free of charge to school and university students, and benefit, discounts and free access of movie contents offering for internet users and television service subscribers and others. 

Some telecommunication operators also have reduced employees’ work hours or allowed them to work from home and are providing sanitizers, protective equipment and immune boosting products. No companies, whose directors were present at the meeting, have laid off their employees until now due to the COVID- 19 pandemic. 

Also at the meeting, the telecommunications companies put forward about measures that can be put in place to ease the consequences of the global pandemic, for instance, a free education portal of online classes and mobile application for COVID-19 information and resources. 

In the wake of the drops in their revenues caused by their communications services providing for free or at discounted price to fulfill the heightened demands, some state-owned companies asked for government support, such as granting them an exemption of social insurance contributions and income tax, and customs duty relief on their equipment. 

After noting that the government will consider the requests forwarded by the companies, Speaker Zandanshatar asked for the companies to look into possibilities of reducing its tariffs for customers and offering their science and education contents on the IPTV gratis and give support a total of 28.5 thousand high school graduate students to prepare for general entrance exams online. 

The telecommunications industry has donated cash money and products and services equaling to MNT 270 million to the health industry in the fight against the coronavirus. Also, mobile service provider companies have sent out 184.4 million text messages  worth MNT 3.7 billion containing guidelines, advice and warnings to prevent from the coronavirus to mobile phone users across the country free of charge. 

In conclusion, Speaker Zandanshatar noted the imminent necessity of digitization of public services, financial and economic communications and pledged to speed up the efforts to improve the regulatory framework and reforms for digital transformation.