Mongolian and German leaders, entrepreneurs, economists and researchers gathered in Ulaanbaatar on Monday for the “Digitalization, Automation and Industrial Revolution 4.0” Mongolia-Germany Economic Forum.
Speakers delivered presentations on “Government Support for Innovation and Research”, “Mongolia’s Economic Outlook”, “Significance of Digitalization and AI to Developing Countries”, “Digital Technology – Opportunities for Bilateral Economic Relations” topics.
Organizers noted that they selected topics and ideas that German investors haven’t divulged into in Mongolia. In other words, they wished to attract German investors into new sectors and development in Mongolia and provide information about an array of business opportunities.
“Germany and Mongolia is collaborating on several mining projects. We’re bringing in technical and technological assistance for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Rebecca Schmuecking, managing director of German-Mongolian Business Association.
At the forum, Member of Parliament Ts.Garamjav briefed participants on Mongolia’s economic outlook. He said that by category, mineral products account for 86.6 percent of all exports of Mongolia. China is Mongolia’s largest consumer, while European countries only make up 4.7 percent of national exports and European Union takes up 3.1 percent, according to Ts.Garamjav.
Although Mongolia isn’t one of Germany’s top 100 economic partner countries, member of the German Bundestag Stefan Kaufmann believes there’s considerable room to increase bilateral trade and economic relations between Mongolia and Germany.
“Germany spends three percent of its GDP on innovation and research. We’re hoping to increase this to 3.5 percent by 2025. On the other hand, Mongolia spends 0.2 percent of its GDP on the science sector from what I understand. I believe Mongolia has many opportunities to pay more attention to and develop in this direction,” Kaufmann added.
Small and intermediate production has been identified as Germany’s biggest challenge in industrialization, according to Kaufmann. He says that the German government has started discussing effective ways to investment in this area and train skilled personnel. He also underlined the importance of AI in sustainable economic growth.
