“The Government will pay special attention to the tourism sector in the next two years”

Politics
munkhzul@montsame.gov.mn
2022-05-02 17:19:26

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On April 30, Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene held a meeting with representatives of over 120 companies that run operations in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Previously, the Prime Minister held a meeting with tourism sector representatives in February 2021. After a year - on February 14, 2022, a policy discussion was also held under the theme, ‘New Revival Policy - Tourism’, following the announcement of the opening of the country’s borders to tourists and visitors from abroad.

At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene highlighted that the country’s economy is going through a difficult time as challenges are being faced not only in the country but also globally, and expressed that the Government will pay special attention to the tourism sector as part of the measures to eliminate factors limiting the country’s development. He then informed the participants about works being carried out by the government in the sector as well as the current state of the situation, challenges being faced, and outlook. 

Due to operations being halted over the last two years, it has become highly necessary for the sector to receive support from the government, noted the representatives.  


In 2019, the sector made an income of MNT 1.6 trillion, creating monetary flow amounting to 7.2 percent of the country’s GDP. Due to the halt in operations, the tourism sector’s income decreased by over 70 percent worldwide in the last two years. As it is only from very recently that signs of recovery began to show, a thorough discussion took place on results of previous meetings as well as issues that can be resolved in the near future. 

The participants informed the Prime Minister about various issues that are causing difficulties in operations, such as suspension of bank accounts due to non-payment of immovable property tax as well as others, and the need to postpone payment of social insurance contributions that have accumulated in 2020 and 2021. They also put forth requests and suggestions, which included taking appropriate measures to reduce the prices of tickets for flights being conducted by the national flag carrier to Frankfurt, and resolving certain issues that are faced when dealing with public organizations in charge of tax, social insurance, and monitoring and inspection. 

At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister L.Oyun-Erdene announced that starting from this week, discussions taking place during the first hour of all Cabinet meetings will focus on preventing the rise in price and shortage of key commodities as well as issues concerning the tourism sector. 

Noting that the sector’s operations affect many issues, he highlighted that the Government will put all its efforts into boosting the sector’s recovery in the next two years. 

Issues such as the suspension of bank accounts due to non-payment of tax, and having MIAT Mongolian Airlines increase their number of flights and reduce their ticket prices will be resolved by the end of this week, he said. 


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