After 8 years without high-level health talks, South Korea and Mongolia have resumed their healthcare dialogue. At a meeting in Seoul on October 30, South Korea offered to help train Mongolian medical professionals while signalling its interest in expanding its presence in Mongolia’s pharmaceutical market.

• 👉🏻 The 7th Korea-Mongolia Health Care Consultative Body marked the first vice-ministerial meeting between the 2 countries since 2018. The talks build on a 2011 health cooperation MOU, which the 2 sides revised in July.

🩺 Training Teams, Not Just Individuals

One of the key areas of cooperation is medical training. South Korea will support Mongolia’s plan to train 1,000 doctors and specialists, starting with a pilot programme in November.

• 🪢 Under the programme, 6 Mongolian medical professionals will spend 4 weeks training at Korean hospitals, focusing on cancer treatment and heart transplantation. Rather than training individuals separately, the programme will train medical teams together, a first for South Korea.

Beyond the pilot, Seoul will also help train staff for Mongolia’s planned second national cancer centre and share expertise in health information systems, medical AI, cybersecurity and patient data protection.

📦 From Healthcare Cooperation to Market Access

The talks also have a commercial dimension. South Korea is already Mongolia’s third-largest pharmaceutical supplier, shipping approximately ₩36.2 billion worth of medicines in 2025, equivalent to 12.3% of Mongolia’s pharmaceutical imports. Germany and Slovenia ranked first and second, with shares of 14.4% and 13.6%, respectively. Now, South Korea wants to strengthen that position by helping its pharmaceutical companies compete for public procurement contracts.

• 🎯 The tender opportunity: South Korea pledged to support its companies in bidding for Mongolia’s planned single-supplier tenders for essential medicines. It will also share expertise in biosimilars and contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), while helping train specialists in drug safety.

Finally… Medical training may be the most visible part of the renewed cooperation, but pharmaceutical procurement could have the bigger commercial implications. Under Mongolia’s planned single-supplier model, each tender could award one company the contract to supply a particular essential medicine. South Korean companies are positioning themselves to compete for those contracts.