Ulaanbaatar, February 28, 2023 /MONTSAME/. A working team headed by the Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan worked in Japan between February 3-12. Over the course of this visit, several meetings were held on extending collaboration in the areas, including professional training, information technology, and capacity building of the university hospital. 

Minister of Education and Science expressed gratitude on behalf of the Government of Mongolia.

During the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Mr. HAYASHI Yoshimasa, Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan expressed gratitude on behalf of the Government of Mongolia to the Government of Japan for their economic assistance, support, and valuable contributions to many sectors, especially economic, social and education sector development, since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. 

For his side, Mr. HAYASHI Yoshimasa said, “In addition to the official visits of the President of Mongolia U. Khurelsukh, Prime Minister L. Oyunerdene, and Minister of Foreign Affairs B. Battsetseg, I paid an official visit to Mongolia as well. This time, the Minister of Education and Science of Mongolia is paying an official visit to Japan, which is demonstrating the fact that the cooperation between our two countries has been actively developing. We will cooperate with Mongolia in the education sector which develops and inspires “Human”, a basis to strengthen relations and cooperation between people of the two countries in all sectors.

Readiness expressed to cooperate in education sector

During the visit, Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan met with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan Keiko Nagaoka and put forth several proposals to cooperate. For instance, there are three Japanese-style KOSEN (College of Industrial Technology) colleges in Mongolia, where around 1000 students are studying. In the further, introducing the KOSEN education system to about 40 Vocational Training Centers and colleges of Mongolia and preparing highly skilled technical engineers will be our main goal. To that extent, the Minister of Education and Science requested the Japanese side to extend the operation period of KOSEN representative office in Mongolia.

In regard to agriculture, opportunities to train Mongolian students in Namegata city, Ibarake, let them do their intern there and gain best practices were also discussed. Number of students who study in Japan has drastically decreased due to the pandemic. Now the goal to increase the number to the same level as prior to the pandemic by 2027 has been set. Furthermore, since the 1000 Engineers Program has successfully completed, the Minister of Education and Science proposed to re-start the 2^nd Program and cooperate on business projects of innovative start-up companies of Mongolia.  

At the meeting, the two parties also exchanged opinions regarding the growing need for functional enhancement and human resource development at Mongolia-Japan Hospital affiliated to the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences and agreed to cooperate on this matter.

While expressing her readiness to support the cooperation in education sector, Ms. Keiko Nagaoka said that it is better to implement the investment projects through the JICA based on the agreement between Governments of Mongolia and Japan.

A new educational platform of Google will be introduced in Mongolia.

Minister of Education and Science L. Enkh-Amgalan, met with the representatives of the Google company and discussed their educational online tools for teachers and students. 

During the meeting, the parties agreed to:

- Tailor the curriculum of information technology courses to the characteristics of each grade of secondary schools and Vocational training centers.

- Cooperate on equipping teachers with computers, and implement project to improve quality of education

- Introduce Google’s modern software and innovative applications for education and corporate digital solutions to eliminate the burden of outdated program, ease teacher’s work load and improve digital environment.

The 2nd phase of the Mongolia-Japan hospital project will be jointly implemented with JICA. 

The officials from the Ministry of Education and Science working in Japan held a meeting with Tanaka Akihiko, President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at JICA headquarters. The Mongolian side put forth proposals to implement projects in science and innovation and cooperate in supporting start-up companies following the Mongolian Government’s policy.

The JICA side presented their decision to start the 2nd phase of the Mongolia-Japan hospital project, which was built using JICA grant aid, to build hospital expansion, prepare highly-skilled doctors and supply advanced medical equipment with high accuracy. 

The sides then discussed implementing joint projects with Japanese university hospitals and health research centers.