Yesterday, Minister of Construction and Urban Development G.Munkhbayar held an open discussion with representatives of NGOs from the construction sector to present the Ministry’s priorities and exchange views about future activities. At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister introduced his team members, and highlighted that the Ministry now consists of professionals. “A total of 7,000 companies own special licenses in the construction sector. Even though the Construction Development Center issued 1,400 new special licenses, companies that requested licenses are not commencing their operations. We will work to issue licenses online in the future. Construction companies also have to build schools and kindergartens, in addition to thinking about profits. At that time, the State Commission will grant licenses,” Minister Munkhbayar said. The Minister underlined that he will focus on construction technology. He said, “Everyone knows that in constructions being built in Ulaanbaatar and the provinces, occupational safety and fire safety are a concern. A fire can break out at any time during and after the construction process. That’s why we want to find a solution for this issue. In order to do that, we will establish a factory that produces stone wool insulation. The wool will be fire-resistant. Now we are using foam for insulation. Our priority is to support factories that will produce stone wool insulation, and export their products in the future.” Minister Munkhbayar said that the Ministry will also pay attention to engineering solutions. “For many years, we didn’t improve engineering. Engineering is directly connected to ger district redevelopment. When I was the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar, I worked on a tunnel system for the ger district; an underground city. I will continue this job. If we establish five pipelines underground, it would mean that we would not have to break up roads to change pipelines,” he noted. The Construction Minister also said that the Cabinet will continue issuing eight percent annual interest rate mortgage loans. He added that the working group in charge of the mortgage loan program will make a decision on the program’s future regulations. The working group is also studying the possibility of lowering the interest rate and monthly repayment requirements in the provinces. The open discussion was led by authorities of the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development, and MPs A.Undraa and Batzorig