Mongolia became a member state of International Maritime Organization in 1996 and acceded to 29 international agreements, conventions and protocols in the field of maritime. The event of ratifying above Declarations and Conventions has become the basis of the legal environment of Mongolia in utilization of sea ports and the beginning of maritime transport in international commerce.
Within the frameworks of objectives to configure national legal environment, Mongolia has approved the “Sea Exploitation Law” in 1999 and renewed version on “Waterway Transportation Law” /domestic waterway transportation field/ in 2007.
The conventions and protocols that Mongolia has acceded to were published in “National Gazette” of Mongolia by the working group appointed by the joint order of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Road and Transport of Mongolia in 2016.
The basic documents to define the state policy in maritime field of Mongolia are “Millennium development goals-based comprehensive national development strategy” /12th resolution by Parliament of Mongolia/ and “Action program of the Government of Mongolia for 2016-2020” /45th resolution by Parliament of Mongolia/.
According to the “Millennium development goals-based comprehensive national development strategy”:
5.3.1. Strategic objective 6. Favorable legal environment shall be created for private sector participation and investment in the sea and water transport, and areas of its operation will be expanded:
-Develop water transport sector, provide it with modern vessels, and support private sector participation and investment in this sector;
-Obtain access to the sea through leasing sea ports and start performing registration of sea vessels independently.
According to the “Action program of the Government of Mongolia for 2016-2020”:
2.117. Expand maritime transportation and ship registration activities, and develop ecologically friendly and safe water transportation for tourism along domestic rivers and lakes.
As part of implementation of IMO Mandatory instruments acceded by Mongolia, the Overall Strategy on the Implementation of IMO Mandatory Instruments was adopted by the Resolution №201 of the Government of Mongolia dated June 27th, 2018. The Strategy is under the implementation.