Inner Mongolia is a part of Mongolia now it belongs to China it is not a fair.China was a part of Manju ppl (during the Qin Dynasty)So it was the wrong reason that china ppl thoought inner Mongolia is part of their country.This mistakes should be fixed in the future

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Stop yapping. Do something better in your life for once like getting yourself a degree & a good career. Contribute to your nation. Pay your taxes. Hell, become a better person & socialise more often.

You contribute more to Mongolia future that way rather than bull-friggin'-$hitting nonsense like getting Inner Mongolia. Why don't you with God-given brain & intellect try to atleast think how to make Mongolia economy competitive, how to make ordinary Mongolian citizens to earn more income & rise above from poverty level & developed your country's infrastructure?

Seriously, if more Mongolian youths like you wasting time on the Net wondering how to get Inner Mongolia's back while you guys supposedly should have alleviate Mongolians economic, social & development needs, no wonder Mongolia is such a decrepit state.

Be more productive, bub, & contribute to Mongolia!

Kids....

You better pay your fu-kin taxes i do not care we gonna take inner Mongolia back.
Whole world is against your your 56 pieces of China's progress.It makes me happy
Americans and Europeans will teach you soon ;P

One day, people like you will start to have enough audiences and your anti-chinese message will reach some influnecial people in China and Monglia. Such hate, will lead to war, and untimately your defeat. An invasion on Monglia will be so much more easier then TW. No need to launch missles strike, or air bomb, or ferry troops. Just roll in the tanks and the infantry.

We will be member of NATO at that times. OK you know what to do ;p

NATO members? With your economy in the pits? Your armed forces totally outta funds with outdated military equipments? You guys can't even seemed to elect good president for goodness sake.

Learn international politics. China & Russia & several Central Asian nations are military allies in Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Your steppe country is encircled by these nations. Think twice before you spouted nonsense.

By the by, look at Georgia, despite being trained by USA & NATO, the Russians practically stomped Georgian arses & give 'em a nasty spanking & buttkicking.

Genghis Khan would be very ashamed of you. Hell, Kublai Khan will make sure your substandard head nicely separated from your body & that severed head will be displayed for each Mongolians to see.

The leason is; Genghis Khan WOULD NEVER be friends with Europeans. His sons & grandsons eat Europeans for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

You turd, learn the friggin' history!

And yet another dumb post.

Yet another worthless post by a newbie.

Care to contribute?

The same should be asked of you. All you do is troll and flame us in here. Thats not contributing anything.

But he makes rational arguments!

Rational? Stating that we should all "contribute" how does he know that we don't? And saying Kubilai would behead anyone dealing with a European...ironic, I seem to remember Kubilai dealing with Europeans all the time.

dealing on a higher footing sure. Kublai invited Marco Polo but asked for nothing.

And beheaded him right there....wait, nope.

Proto is right.

It's more likely that the OP isn't even Mongolian but intent on driving a wedge between Mongolia its neighbors. If he was Mongolian and truly cared for Mongolia, he would march right on back there and contribute. Mongolia is a piss-poor nation, and instead of topics such as "How can Mongolia improve its economy" or "What steps should Mongolia take in order to create more jobs," we have some idiot wet-dreaming about the "Great Mongolian Empire" by laying claims to both Chinese and Russian land.

And when asked how he attempts to take Chinese or Russian land, he responds with "The USA and NATO will come save us!!!!" I'm sorry, but Genghis Khan would be ashamed.

Flame you, NOT!

Just trying to make you guys its useless to post useless stuffs like Ohhhhh - Inner Mongolians JOIN Mongolia, Mongol PAX MONGOLIA, Greater Mongolia .... with all nationalistic bullcrap!

Better to post things like, Mongol great history, Genghis Khan rise to the fame, Mongol Khanate stomp Ruskies - Chinese - Muslims - Europeans, Mongol during Soviets time.

Hell, a healthy discussion about how to rear the best Mongol horses or living on steppe - Mongol lifestyle is better than crappy posts.

Perhaps discussion regarding modern lifestyle vs old traditions at Ulan Bataar sound interesting than usual OHHHHH MONGOL GONNA THRASH CHINA / RUSSIA / ENTIRE WORLD thingies going round nowadays!

As a matter of fact, Patty boy, why don't you start making Mongol Chat more interesting, rather than login as a newbie & begin your day posting useless craps!

Oh you mean the post I make of YouAgain. Well, Kublai Khan greatly admires intellectuals, indeed many Mongolians are by that time very knowleagable after getting the best Islamic & European knowledge, wisdoms of the Chinese & Korean philosophy.

The way YouAgain posted, well really shows substandard mentality Kublai Khan of Yuan Dynasty really abhors! Intellectual Mongols at that time will be ashamed with this kind of human that would be a laughingstock to Mongol name. Why don't you tell him to get atleast some elementary education before spouting craps OHHHH USA & NATO GONNA HELP MY ITTY BITTY NATION, KILL YOU GUYS FOR SURE!

Shesssshhhhhhhhhh

It is actually the other way around, Outer Mongolia is a part of Greater China.

Just as your great Genghis Khan created the vast empire, his most direct descends ruled the Yuan dynasty instead of its other 3 Kanata. Mongolia is a grass land with extreme weather, geographically, it cannot support a large population and forced warfare among its people and in turn turned them into Barbarians of the true variety. Eventually Mongolia was swallowed by the Qing Empire and was annexed by the British. The Republic of China still maintains that the Outer Mongolia is a part of Greater China.

There is currently more Mongolians living in Inner Mongolian than the country of Mongolia. As many other has already pointed out, Currently, Mongolia's main source of revenue comes from Mining and Dairy Products, these are not industries that can sustain a long term economic growth. People like you who supports the Pan-Mongolia movement cannot even voice their concerns publicly as it will sour the current Sino-Mongolian, Russo-Mongolian Relationships. That in turn, will collapse your already not very strong economy. If you are truly passionate about your issue, at least voice it out in your democratic nation and the international community rather than cowardly making irrational hot tempered comments on a forum that no body gives a damn about.


Oh and did I mention? We have nukes.


Edit: to say that any land that was ruled during the extend of the Qing Dynasty is not a part of "CHINA" because they are Manchu and not "Chinese" is DEAD WRONG. I am Manchu myself and I can tell you, I am as chinese as the the Great Wall. China is not defined its Han Ethnocentrism, but rather the collective 56 ethnic groups that makes up the geographic region known collectivley as China that descended from one of the greatest civilization that still exist. Though we are separated and divided by 2 political entities known as the People's Republic and Republic of China, we are still Chinese.

Don't you ever forget, your barbaric ancestors tried to conqueror China so you can live there, because your Mongolian Plain is a dead hole and breeds only violence upon violence. I can see that the barbarism still runs through your blood.

To think that us Manchu is related to people like you makes me sick.

Use your nukes to kill your starving brothers before they take your food instead of barking around here.

I really do not want to steep to your barbaric level of argument, but I have to point out how you chose to focus the most irrelevant and barbaric point of my argument (Yes I do admit of posting that unnecessary point, but as Former President Ted Roosevelt said: "Speak softly, but carry a big stick". I guess it takes a barbarian to response to nothing but barbaric comments and by pass all logical arguments.

Barbarian, heh
Every single nation we occupied, had their names, culture, language, religion, all preserved.

Civilisation, heh
Every single nation they occupied, had their names replaced, culture destroyed, language replaced, religion discriminated against, ethnicity and pride extinguished for the goal of genocide

I think I'll stick with barbarism, pfft 'civilisation'

And btw bro, wtf you made all this topics you know what the chineses are going to say on their own forum!

I hope you're not talking about China, because China doesn't really do any of that unless the group voluntarily changes itself.

The Cantonese have been "Chinese" for thousands of years but they still have their own language (yes, Cantonese is a separate spoken language) and culture. As for foreign religions, China embraced Buddhism and allowed it to flourish. They didn't persecute Christians, don't hate Jews and are one of the few countries on the planet that makes relative peace with Islam.

If I were in charge this wouldn't be the case, but those are the facts. Don't forget that the biggest threat to world cultures is Westernization. You don't see Tibetans running around in Han clothing, reading Tang poetry. They're wearing Nike and Adidas and listening to cRap and $hithop.

first of all, it is wrong to think that one has to just go for bread and all the material things in life, and forget about other things in life. so it is not off tangent.

however, one must note that such issues are often complicated and subjectable to many side factors. thailand and cambodia conflicted over a small tiny plot of land, whereas the central asian countries steer clear of the issue of uyghurstan. USA is willing to spend so much fighting and rebuilding iraq, but quickly withdraw after getting burnt in somalia.

so what if inner mongolia is historically and culturally mongolian? in today's context, it is far more easier to systematically transmigrate large population to dilute the native population, and one no longer need to perform ethnic cleansing. this make it easy to lay claims to the land and to exert further assimilation. in due time, would inner mongolians change their mindset and think they are chinese (as in not just PRC citizens)? history have tell us that it is again not that difficult to convert the thinking of susceptible cultures over with time. 50 years of nipponification makes some taiwanese look up to the japanese, and another 50 years of sinification makes some taiwanese (not the late migrants) thinks they are chinese.

the economical, political and military power of china is there to be for the next few decades. that is unless mongolia grow as fast as japan once did and china become stagnant due to some issues. and apart from really trashing it out which is not a good idea, i doubt there is a strong will to. if not, why would mongolian government betrayed their own people and sent prince demchugdongrub back to the chinese?

in today's context, people tend to prefer de facto, ie peace and no conflict. so nothing would be done eventually.

and history is never fair. you can't make other government change their policy, neither can you make other forumers change their prejudice. territories remained within whoever administer them now. inner mongolia is part of PRC as much as senkaku is part of japan. inner mongolia should be part of mongolia as much as diaoyu tai should be part of taiwan. IS and SHOULD BE are always entangled together, but are very different. everyone here and there will persist in believing that this and that piece of land IS and SHOULD BE theirs, REGARDLESS of what the native population thinks. and it wouldn't change after my post here. they would either ignore the identity of the native population, find the most tenious links to exert their claims, insist that the native population thinks as they do, or simply threatened other forumers that they are going to break someone's legs if they disagree. many though not everyone are to some extent chauvinistic of their nationality or culture. they cry foul when their younger generation becomes more westernised and wanted to speak the foreign language that either gets them an outlet to the richer nations or feel more trendy with the latest pop, but on the other hand, they feel proud that the minorities in their countries have to speak their language instead of their own mother tongue. this is ironical but true in many places.

in my opinion, there is only one way to deal with things. keep your own mind neutral. if there is anything one can do for the mongolian community in inner mongolia, do so.

if there is anything that an organisation or the government can do, is to provide support for cultural cohesion. if the mongolian government or organisations can set up schools that teaches mongolian language and values, if they can, that would be great. keeping the value and identity of mongolians as mongolians is certainly the crux. and opening one's access to the world is also important. they have to know the right history. for koreans can claim confucious is a korean just like tibet was always a part of china. one wouldn't know the answer unless they are open to widely accepted facts, rather than beliefs confined to each respective community. but how much can an external government do in a place currently controlled by another country is not a difficult guess.

is china going to stop that? would chinese forumers here get upset? most probably yes... but one just have to continue believing in the right things and doing them in the right way, no matter how futile they are. just like gandhi and his idea of non-cooperation. if there is anyone who have a better idea than that, i would love to hear it.

Let me make it clear that I am not supporting the OP's idea, and there are many comments in your post that I agree with. But I don't agree with the idea that Mongolia is a part of Greater China, which you seem to have tried to prove. In the following, I shall respond to each point you have made to support your argument.

- At some point in history Mongolia was a part of Qing Dynasty (which I assume is true for the purposes of this discussion). It does not imply that Mongolia is a part of Greater China. Especially, when the invasion was forced and the event was relatively recent.

- There are more Mongolians in Inner Mongolia than in Mongolia. It obviously does not imply that Mongolia is a part of Greater China.

- China has 56 ethnic groups. Sure, one of them is Mongolian ethnic group. But you know that this list is composed because at this point in history China just happens to have those ethnic groups in it. Just because one ethnic group is in this list does not mean you have to collect all people with that ethnicity into China (supposing that "ethnicity" is a well defined term).

- Mongolia is poor and the land is not fertile etc. I don't know what to say. It is obvious.

- The Republic of China still maintains that the Outer Mongolia is a part of Greater China. Is it true that they appoint the governor of Mongolia, which in my opinion seems to be a joke since Mongolia is an independent country?

- We have nukes. I don't see any point in actually detonating that weapon.

One Mongolia

What do you mean?

Seems he means both inner and outer Mongolia has one.

In answering another post above:
Mongolia signed a treaty in 2005 accepting Chinas borders. In doing so they, supposedly, officially accepted that Inner Mongolia is part of China.

In return China accepted Mongolias border.

Read this: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2...tent_499235.htm

So nothing can really be done. But Mongolians in China could probably migrate to Mongolia if they wanted.

Someone said
Mongolia has great potential.
Read this: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/sponsored_se...liaFA_eBook.pdf


They do have an important agriculture sector. They also raise many animals. Texas is famous for oil and meat production. Mongolia could also be famous for minerals and meat production.

And they do grow crops. Read some agriculture reports: http://www.business-mongolia.com/category/agriculture/

With time other industries not related to Agriculture and Minerals should follow.

I know it they signed it



A Special International Report prepared by Strategic Media
MONGOLIA
Sponsored Section
Mongolia is sandwiched between two of the world’s most important developing nations, Russia and China. For years it has struggled against isolation and domination. Today, as a mining boom takes hold, its geography could prove its salvation as the country becomes an important supplier to the world’s fastest growing market. In this introductory essay titled ‘Mongolia’s New Color,’ PM Elbegdorj Tsakhia explains his country’s commitment to democracy and free market principles, and tells you why you should think again about this Central Asian nation
Many people have the impression that Mongolia is remote and isolated from the rest of the world. However, thanks to modern communications and transportation, that is no longer the case. It takes just an hour and thirty minutes to reach Mongolia’s capital from Beijing, three hours from Seoul, five hours from Moscow and Tokyo and seven hours from Berlin. The number of mobile phone users in the country recently surpassed 15 persons per 100 – a four hundred percent growth in four years. The Internet came to Mongolia just nine years ago, but its users now number 220,000 — 10 percent of the country’s population. In short, Mongolia is no longer at the end of the world.
There was a time when the geographic isolation of Mongolia was an economic disadvantage. It lies between two giant neighbors, Russia and China. Mongolia was both landlocked and boxed in. But today Mongolia is taking full advantage of its location. Its rich mining deposits of copper, coal, gold and other minerals are proximate to the hungry new markets of China, the traditional industries of Russia, as well as to Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Suddenly, Mongolia is more likely to be seen as an Asian Canada thanks to its location and resources. How the world has changed!
Mongolia left its footprint in human history by establishing the largest empire in land area to have ever existed. Opinions may vary regarding Mongolia’s place in history, but in fact, Mongolians have always preferred to live in harmony with the natural world and with tolerance toward the beliefs and customs of others.
Environmentalists will certainly approve of the Mongolian custom of washing from the banks of rivers and lakes. In fact, this practice was law during Chinggis Khaan’s time. Perhaps you already know that Mongolia’s capital city lies in a valley adjacent to the first mountain environment to be preserved by a state. Today almost one seventh of Mongolia’s 933,000 miles territory has been protected in natural preservation zones.
Feminists should applaud the active role Mongolian women take in the political and social life of the country. Historically, women in Mongolia had a strong voice in herder society. Today, women head 90 percent of the country’s many civil society organizations, while 70 percent of university students are female. Mongolian women have certainly contributed their share to the equitable development of Mongolian society by fiercely fighting poverty in their communities during the hardest years of our transition after democracy and a free market economy were established in Mongolia.
Today, we are witnessing a special page of Mongolia’s history. The country, which has seen many spiritual ups and downs - from total religious tolerance in the 13th century to the massacre of Buddhists in the 20th century — dared to opt for a simultaneous transition to democracy and a market economy in 1990.
This historic transition came in the midst of a cold winter, and without bloodshed. There was little international publicity about Mongolia’s peaceful shift away from communism, but for the people of Mongolia it was something they desperately wanted and achieved on their own. Despite a high rate of poverty touching 33 percent of its 2.5 million population, 85-95 percent of Mongolians, when polled, continue to respond affirmatively 15 years later that our shift to democracy was the right decision.
Political change has opened opportunities for free speech, freedom of faith, private property, multiparty elections and the right to travel abroad freely. However, Mongolia’s economic and political transition has not been easy. Every Mongolian had to endure a devaluation of their income and savings under hyper-inflation of up to 300 percent in the early years of transition. At least one wage earner in most Mongolian families experienced unemployment first-hand. Mongolians
UNLOCKING
MONGOLIA’S
POTENTIAL
1
A Special International Report prepared by Strategic Media
Sponsored Section MONGOLIA
went through food rationing, stores empty of goods, mass school dropouts, and lack of fuel in the midst of winter. Still, Mongolians kept voting for democracy.
Democracy, along with a free-market economy, remains their firm choice. There was no ready Asian model to follow in Mongolia’s twin tasks of ensuring democracy and developing a vibrant market economy. At the same time Mongolia addresses issues of lingering poverty and brings a real economic growth. Yes, you heard it right, growth!
The growth rate of the country’s GDP has steadily increased since 1997 reaching 10.6 percent in 2004 while the country’s annual inflation rate has remained in single digits for the seventh straight year. The nation’s banking sector quickly rebounded from a deep crisis in the first decade of economic transition. A housing and office construction boom dramatically changed the face of Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. No one has tracked how many times the number of vehicles has doubled since 1989. Mongolia’s successes and determined efforts to steer a steady course toward equitable, sustainable development earned donor support from Japan, the World Bank, the ADB, as well as the European Union, the United States, the UNDP, and other countries and international organizations for its development. The legalization of private real estate ownership and the establishment of an independent news media occurred with little fanfare. Road construction, repair, and urban planning are yet to catch up with an ever increasing demand for good roads.
Education is one of modern Mongolia’s top priorities. Approximately 98 percent of the population can read and write Mongolian and a substantial percentage of the population speaks at least one other language such as Russian, English, German, Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Not for the first time in recent history, Mongolia is aiming to be bilingual. English is now the second language of choice.
As you learn more about modern Mongolia’s advances, you might wonder what has happened to Mongolia’s colorful, traditional nomadic communities. The traditional lifestyle, with its horseracing, wrestling, archery contests and the comfortable portable dwellings we call gers is thriving. The beautiful four seasons of Mongolia that enable thousands of herder families and their horses, cattle, yaks, sheep and camels to roam across the country’s vast vistas paint a beautiful, timeless and very real image of Mongolia. Fortunately, modern technology has not clashed with traditional lifestyles. It only adds a new color. The last great nomad culture of the Eurasian steppe finds solar batteries, satellite dishes and cell phones completely compatible with the nomadic way of life. Want to know more of Mongolia? Plan your trip online.
Elbegdorj Tsakhia
Prime Minister of Mongolia
Mongolia’s evolution from statist single party rule towards an open market has been largely driven by an ambitious program of privatization.
But while for many in neighboring Russia, privatization has become synonymous with corruption and profiteering by a tiny minority of so-called oligarchs, Mongolia is determined to make state sell offs work for all.
To this end it has drawn up a list of its Most Valued Companies - prize assets which reflect the prestige of the nation, but have sadly underperformed in the business arena.
Mongolia’s privatization effort, which has been underway since the mid 1990s and for which detailed plans already exist for the period to 2008, is not simply about raising capital.
Instead it represents an exchange where outside investors can claim a stake in Mongolia’s national brands - be they in telecoms, banking, or the airline industry - while Mongolian companies benefit in return from the business experience of the developed world.
The major privatization process was initiated at the beginning of this decade with the sell off of Trade Development Bank (TDB) to a Swiss American consortium. That was followed by Ag bank and subsequently by the oil and gas distributor NIC. In each case the trade off was the same - for while the sale prices of each business are unlikely to raise vast sums, the privatizations have seeded first world economic acumen in this emerging market.
Now the state owned airline MIAT is also going under the hammer, but before it does a European Bank of Reconstruction and Development bursary allowed it to be put under foreign management for a while, a tactic which should increase its ultimate share price. After giving their input, local managers are back running the airline.
“From 1998 we began to privatize big companies with thousands of employees,” said Mr. Zandaakhuu Enkhbold, Chairman of Mongolia’s State Property Committee which oversees the privatization process. “In the last 15 years private participation in business has grown from nothing to 80 percent.”
Rarely can another country have had such a precipitous introduction to privatization as Mongolia. Mr. Enkhbold points out that the first real privatization in the country began, not with TDB, but with cows.
Livestock were collectivized in 1959, and the right to private ownership of cattle was only handed back in 1992. With that in mind, it is testament to how far Mongolia has come that only 13 years later internationally reputed Dutch Bank ING is now running the country’s largest bank, TDB.
Also up for sale with national carrier MIAT is the Gobi JSC, manufacturer of some of the world’s finest cashmere, but which has suffered in recent years - as have so many global markets - in the face of surging Chinese production.
The Mongolian government has put a price of $12m on Gobi JSC - again, not a lot by international standards, but the privatization process will be strictly regulated to limit brutal workforce cuts, all the while introducing modern management practises and technologies.
It is a well considered scheme to develop capital and expertise that has so far been plotted until 2008. By then, the Mongolian government hopes, a liberal business market, combined with effective, largely foreign managed, former state institutions – from banks to insurers to airlines to energy producers – will allow a new generation of home grown Mongolian entrepreneurs to flourish.
From Animals to Airplanes: Privatization in Mongolia
2
A Special International Report prepared by Strategic Media
MONGOLIA Sponsored Section
“My biggest challenge is to teach the American public where we are,” remarks Ravdan Bold. Odd words when you consider that this man is Ambassador to the US of the 11th largest country in the world. Nearly eight hundred years have passed since Bold’s forebears presided over an Empire spanning most of Asia, the Russias and Eastern Europe. In 2005, Mongols no longer care for world domination - they would settle instead for people knowing where their country is on a map.
But who are these people we call the Mongols? Surprisingly, the US and Mongolia have a lot more in common than you would expect. Indeed, some Native Americans claim Mongolian ancestry. One theory behind this is that tribes from Mongolia crossed the Bering Straits into what is now Alaska some 20,000 years ago and left their mark before moving southwards. Today, some tribes in the north of Mongolia still live in tee pees and ride reindeer sleighs. And, just like many Native Americans, Mongolians are excellent horsemen. So strong are the associations, the Ambassador says he often receives letters from Native Americans asking for help from the country they consider their ancestral homeland.
Mongolia is sandwiched between two giant neighbors, Russia and China. In Manchurian times, Mongolia was a far-away outpost. Under the Soviets, their most faithful ally.
In recent years, Mongolia has sought to carve out a future for itself as an independent nation, using its geography as its principal advantage, and not as a handicap. Prime Minister Elbegdorj sees his country’s future as being something akin to “China’s Canada,” supplying raw materials to the fastest growing economy in the world. The country could be a platform for companies seeking access into the lucrative Russian and Chinese markets. Notably, it is the only Central Asian country with a thriving democracy, excellent record on human rights and a lively free press. It was also the only country in the region to attempt a dual transition to both free market and democracy in the 1990s. These were trying times for Mongolians as financial support from the Soviets, who contributed as much as 30 percent of GDP in the past, was withdrawn virtually overnight.
Today, the Mongolian government is keen to establish a “third neighbor” policy. Many Mongolians speak a second and even a third language. Russian, Chinese and Japanese are widely spoken and economic ties with neighboring countries are strong. Nonetheless, Mongolia still looks further afield. And, at the beginning of this year, Mongolia chose to make English its official second language. “We need strong political support from the United States,” says the Ambassador.
Mongolia has also sent a small contingent to Iraq. “If one compares our per capita GDP with all the other countries that have sent envoys, ours is the largest participation out of all of them, and the same applies for the number of troops against the size of our population,” says Elbegdorj. The premier is proud of his country’s commitment and says that they did not think twice about standing by their friends. In a bizarre twist of fate, this is the second time that Mongolian troops have been in Iraq - under the Khans they maintained a presence for some 200 years. But nowadays Mongolia is a peace loving nation and is keen to expand its circle of friends in the world, and not its territories.
Mongolia’s PM, Elbegdorj Tsakhia
Rethinking Relations with the US
3

A Special International Report prepared by Strategic Media
MONGOLIA Sponsored Section
Mongolian Mine Rush
Today, minerals account for more than half of the country’s overall industrial output and export, as well as the lion’s share of foreign direct investment.
Mongolia covers more than 933,000 miles of the vast semi desert and desert plains of the Gobi Desert in the south to mountains in the west and grassy steppe elsewhere. In the past, Mongolia’s 2.7 million inhabitants were mostly known for their herding skills and nomadic lifestyle more than any other attribute. But times are changing. Today, Mongolia is carving out a niche for itself in mining circles for its untapped underground riches – metallic and non-metallic mineral resources such as copper, gold, tin, silver, iron, coal, fluorspar, phosphates, tungsten, zinc and oil – as well as precious and semiprecious stones.
In 2004 GDP growth reached an impressive 10.6 percent, largely due to a mini boom in the mining sector. Production of gold increased by 64 percent last year, copper cathode by 54 percent and coal by 20 percent. The increase in gold was mostly due to the commencement of operations last year of Boroo Gold, a Canadian owned company which has mostly paid off its initial investment with an impressive first year of production. The $75m Boroo hard rock gold mine produced 7.5 tonnes of gold and is the first significant foreign investment in Mongolia since 1979. This is testament to an enabling environment internationally recognized to be one of the best in the world, as set out in the country’s Mineral Law.
“The Minerals Law of Mongolia is widely regarded as one of the most well balanced and thus most effective mineral laws in the world,” emphasized L. Bold Chairman of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM). He adds that the “Petroleum Law of Mongolia is also ranked to be within the top ten favorable petroleum laws in the world.” Exploration licenses are granted for seven years and mining licenses for 60 years with a built in right to extend. Imported machinery is exempt from tax and no taxes are imposed on exported mining products. In addition, for projects greater than $2m, the Government is offering stability agreements guaranteeing a fiscal stability for 10 to 15 years.
Previously, in the Soviet era, some exploration work was carried out and several mines were built involving other USSR satellites. Nonetheless, there is still everything to play for as MRPAM estimates that whilst Mongolia counts on 199 deposits, operations have been conducted at only 84 sites.
Recent years have seen a sharp upturn in the number of exploration projects conducted by foreign firms, all keen not to miss out on this last near virgin frontier. Some 51 percent of total licenses have gone to wholly foreign firms and 5,235 licenses have already been issued, of which only 842 are actually for mining, the remaining being for exploration. Meanwhile, only 40 percent of Mongolia’s vast territory is being explored.
Recent finds include one of the largest deposits of copper ore in the world for several decades at Oyu Tolgoi . This important discovery promises to double Mongolia’s GNP with a potential annual output of $1bn. In addition to seven million tons of copper, there are some 21 million ounces of gold at Oyu Tolgoi which is located in the Gobi Desert only 50 miles from the Chinese border. The mine will supply China’s insatiable demand for copper, with China having recently overtaken the US as the world’s largest market for the product. ‘Mongolia has gone from being in the middle of nowhere to an
epicenter of prospecting attention because of the rapid rise ofChinese manufacturing,’ writes the NYT. And rightly so, Chinese manufacturers need copper for a whole range of electrical and other industrial parts as the country rapidly industrializes. Neighbor Mongolia is well positioned to supply the market. Meanwhile, some mining commentators believe that Mongolia could possibly be the next Peru. Today metal producers are doing extremely well, as metallic minerals such as copper and gold, among Mongolia’s main export products, are fetching good prices in the marketplace.
China has an insatiable appetite for oil and Mongolia is capitalizing on that to develop this sector too. Soco International, a $900m UK listed company, and China’s Dongsheng Jinggong are conducting petroleum operations in five blocks. In 2004, they produced some 789,000 thousand barrels of crude, most of which went southwards to service China. Meanwhile, 18 blocks remain to be tapped.
In spite of these humble beginnings, considerable reserves have already been identified. Original oil-in-place at the Tamsag Basin is estimated to total 4.4 billion barrels. “Those results indicate that there are high possibilities of further discoveries,” concludes L. Bold, Chairman of MRPAM.
Notwithstanding all the good news, the Mongolian government fears that American companies may be missing out on the action. Companies have flocked from Canada, Russia, China, Australia, and even South Africa — all keen not to miss out on what could be an important boom. Notably, there is still no significant direct investment from the US. “Mongolia is mineral rich and we welcome American involvement,” stresses the country’s youthful Prime Minister Elbegdorj. The Harvard educated premier is keen to see more US involvement in his country’s fledgling economy: “Our vision is that Mongolia develop as Canada did servicing the American market. But in this case, American companies should see Mongolia as China’s Canada.” With the Chinese market set to claim the 21st century, Mongolia’s future looks bright.
Mongolia’s Top 10 Companies
1. Erdenet Mining Corporation
2. Mongolian Railways
3. NIC
4. APU
5. Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority
6. Mongolian Telecom
7. Magnai Trade
8. Trade and Development Bank
9. MobiCom
10. Miat
Largest Foreign Investors in 2004
1. Boroo Gold (Canada), Mining ¹
2. SOCO International (USA), Oil and Gas
3. Ivanhoe Mines (Canada and UK), Mining ¹
4. Trade and Development Bank (Offshore), Banking ¹
5. Baolinpetrochem (China), Oil and Gas ¹
6. MobiCom (Japan) , Telecoms
7. Sugura Mongolia (Japan), Services
8. Erdmin (US), Metals
9. Bogda Holding (China) , Construction
10. Doshen Petroleum (China) , Petroleum
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Sponsored Section MONGOLIA
Erdenet: More than a Mine
About five hours drive from Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, is Erdenet, Mongolia’s third largest city. It was built up around a Mongolian and Russian joint venture producing copper and molybdenum. Discovered by Mongolian, Russian and Czech geologists in the sixties, and located 250 miles northwest from Ulaanbaatar in the Erdenet Ovoo area, the mine is now one of the top ten copper producers in the world accounting for one percent of global production of copper ore and eight percent of copper concentrate. It is 51 percent owned by the Mongolian government and 49 percent by the Russians.
Erdenet has always been a flagship for Mongolia. Not so long ago, the company accounted for almost 80 percent of the state budget and almost half of the country’s exports. Easy parallels can be drawn with Mexico’s Pemex or Venezuala’s PDVSA and it is clear to see why many saw the company as a milk cow. As it was the largest moneymaking machine in the country, Erdenet was as important politically as it was economically. However, as the free market reforms of the nineties have taken hold, and Mongolia’s export products have diversified, the company has become less synonymous with the nation’s development. Nonetheless, it is still Mongolia’s largest taxpayer.
Construction of the Erdenet mine begun in 1974 with a loan from the Former Soviet Union with operations commencing four years later with a capacity of four million tons of ore a year. In true Soviet style, the construction project included not just the open pit mine and accompanying processing plant, but also infrastructure for the plant and a small town including social and cultural facilities for its employees.
At that time, at the height of the Cold War, the plant was to supply copper concentrate to the copper melting plants of the Soviet Union, namely those plants in the Urals and Siberia, which were suffering from a shortage of the raw material.
According to the intergovernmental agreement governing the project’s creation, the plant was to provide copper concentrate in equal shares to each partner while repaying the loan with which the plant was constructed by selling its share to the lender. But Mongolia was forced to sell the product at an unfair price which took no account of global market prices but which was fixed at a cheaper price set by central planners in the Soviet Union.
Today, the Erdenet mine consists of four main and 30 smaller units including a vast mechanical complex and repairs workshop, the biggest of its kind in Mongolia, its own technical school (part of the Mongolian Technical University offering specialized mining degrees) and even an orphanage. This giant company is a
huge employer with nearly 6,000 people working for it, including some three hundred Russian specialists.
Nevertheless, before the fall of the wall, the ethnicity of the company’s workforce was different: almost two thirds were sent from Moscow. But Mongolians have always maintained good relations with their Russian colleagues. Perhaps because of this, the city of Erdenet, has earned the soubriquet, ‘the city of friendship.’
Following the Soviet Union’s collapse, the mine entered a difficult period as it searched for new partners to buy its products. Then, in 2000, the company was badly hit as the price of copper tumbled to its lowest ever levels on the world market. These days, China, which consumes one fifth of world copper consumption, is the main importer of Erdenet products and has recently overtaken the US as the biggest consumer of copper concentrate in the world. Meanwhile, Erdenet no longer owes debts to Russia. “China is always hungry for copper,” affirms Mr. Narankhuu, Erdenet’s laid back General Director. Meanwhile, Narankhuu is sanguine
about price fluctuations: “If you take a look at historic changes in the world copper market, there is a seven to nine year cycle. The price goes sharply up and comes sharply down and then bounces back, and stabilizes at $1800-1900 per ton.”
Current management at Erdenet has put emphasis on attaining full capacity and reducing costs through technological improvements and through the acquisition and training of new skills. If the company maintains current production levels, the lifetime of the mine is between twenty and thirty years although if there is a breakthrough in technology the mine could be prolonged for anything up to 60 years.
In 2003 and 2004, Erdenet netted a total sales income of $183m and $318m with profits of $49.2m and $152.0m. Naturally, its fortunes are tied to global copper prices and to counter this the company has established a Risk Fund. In order to keep on adding value, the company intends to produce final products and a construction facility to produce pure molybdenum is now complete. Another project to produce 20-25,000 tons of pure copper per year is now underway and a feasibility study was carried out by Ernst and Young. Through Erdenet Concern Co, Erdenet is also diversifying into different areas including gold mining, construction, and even cashmere - perhaps with an eye to the future when the mine is no longer profitable. Clearly, this is a company that intends to play an active role in Mongolia’s development for quite some time to come.
Cashmere Conundrum
Mr. Batbold, the Mongolian Minister of Trade and Industry, is concerned about the impact China’s access to the WTO is having on the Mongolian cashmere sector: “Almost 30,000 people are currently employed in this industry, so this is an issue that is important to the government,” he says. The Minister is keen to secure preferential access to US and EU markets in order to restore the industry to its glory days: “if we are successful in this respect, our textile industry will survive.” In this respect, like the Philippines, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey, Mongolia is suffering from China’s dominance of the sector. Still, the best cashmere in the world hails from Mongolia – as much as 3,000 tons per year or 21 percent of the world’s entire supply. China’s cashmere processing industry is larger than its fiber supply. China produces 10,000 tons of cashmere yearly, but Chinese buyers can blend longer, coarser Mongolian cashmere with finer Chinese and use it more broadly in Chinese cashmere.
Surprisingly, the World Bank has expressed no objection to China’s agricultural subsidies and export rebates. Mongolia, in contrast, has no such measures in place to protect its textile industry. For Mongolians, it is unclear why the World Bank and WTO do not apply pressure for China to reform, as it does with Mongolia. Meanwhile, there is a significant black market in cashmere as traders smuggle the commodity into China. In order to combat this, the World Bank is being encouraged to support Mongolia to remove these obstacles.
Minister of Trade and Industry,
Mr. S. Batbold
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Boroo’s Bullion
About 68 miles along a narrow winding road from Ulaanbaatar sits a state-of-the-art Canadian mining operation in the middle of the rolling Steppes. Its first year of operation produced some 7.5 tons of gold, beating expectations by 25 percent. Indeed, its first year of operations was so successful that it more or less paid for its $75m start up costs. While most gold in Mongolia is placer gold and comes from alluvial deposits, Boroo has pioneered the first hard rock gold mine in the country, a fact that the Mongolian government is keen to trumpet, especially given its status as the first successful example of large scale foreign investment in the country since 1979. Commencing operations in March 2004, by the year-end, the mine had already increased Mongolia’s total gold production by a staggering 66 percent. It is rumoured that a significant chunk of Mongolia’s impressive 10.6 percent growth in 2004 was in large part due to Boroo’s performance. Not bad for a company with 500 employees.
Boroo Gold is owned by Centerra Gold, the largest Western-based gold producer in Central Asia. Drawing on its experience operating the region’s biggest gold mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, the company invested in Mongolia in 2002. Strong results from these mines ensured that Centerra had the best results in seven years for a mining IPO when it listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange last June.
The company is a model citizen and operates its facilities according to the most stringent Canadian and World Bank environmental, health and safety standards. Working closely with local communities, Boroo spent $100,000 in 2004, and intends to spend up to $500,000 in local projects
throughout the course of 2005. These sums are being used to fund small businesses, schools, and other socio - economic projects. A $2.7m fund has also been created to restore the mining site once production ceases. The company says that this money will ensure that there will be something left for the local communities around the mine once mining operations wind down. And, after spending $30m in Mongolia last year, Boroo can fairly claim to have given something back to its host country.
Not surprisingly, Boroo is complimentary about the operating environment. Igor Kovarsky, the Russian born Vice President asserts that “Mongolia has a very comprehensive mineral law, probably one of the best in the world. They have managed to accumulate the best practices from the West, and have provided the best regime to attract foreign investors into the country. It took several years until our company came here, and we really trusted Mongolia.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Kovarksy says that the company is committed to Mongolia for the long term. The life expectancy of the Boroo property is six to seven years by conservative estimates. But as befits a pioneer, Boroo will not be resting on its laurels: “We also have a very promising exploration property called Gatsuurt, 28 miles from Boroo, which we are planning to bring to production. It is a little bit early to say now how big the deposit is, but it is certainly substantial, say, Boroo size and could even be bigger,” says Kovarsky.
Mongolians like to see themselves as China’s Canada. It is a sure fire acknowledgement that Canadian companies see Mongolia’s potential too.
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As Mongolia grapples with its place in the new world order, one of the most telling signs of its steady march towards maturity is the enthusiasm with which it has embraced the English language. Historically, Mongols have been receptive to new languages – a legacy of living for centuries on the Silk Road from Asia to Europe - but under the Soviet regime, Russian, after the native Khalkha Mongol, reined supreme, and English was strictly forbidden. But times have changed. Mongolia has been catapulted into the information society and English now proliferates much of the daily life. Internet sites, cable television, bilingual text messaging, English radio broadcasts and other electronic media have helped it to slowly seep into the country.
The main driving force behind the supplanting of Russian is the government. Prime Minister Elbegdorj, whose own language skills were honed in the US, is one of the foremost proponents of ousting Russian and inviting English. Under his administration’s 2004-2008 Action Plan, a number of policies are promised to ‘enhance preparations for making English a second official language’.
Reasons for the nurturing of English are manifold. Foremost are the perceived economic advantages. “Mongolians see use of the English language as a way to better access the global economy,” says Andrew Miller, Mongolian Desk Officer for the British and Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO). In March a FCO Round Table biennial meeting with Mongolian delegates went so far as to discuss plans to Latinize the nation’s written language of Cyrillic. In the end they settled upon restricting the Latin alphabet, for the time being, to certain forms of communication such as emails and cellphones.
Political incentives also abound, with Mongolia firmlyallying itself with the US and tacitly distancing itself from Russia and China. So important is this that the British Council is now conducting English language training for Mongolian peacekeeping troops stationed in Iraq. Commerce, diplomacy and tourism are all areas set to benefit from efforts to promote communication. In 2004 alone, tourist arrivals in Mongolia were up by 54 percent, and American visitor numbers doubled. Aside from economic and political motives, there are social reasons. “We need this information because the last 80 years or so Mongolia was kept in the dark from world affairs”, says Bayarjargal Damdindagva, Director of the New Choice Volunteer Organisation, an English language school initiative. “We really need to talk with foreigners and experience other cultures…We want to learn about the world and most of the news about what is happening is in English.”
English schools are springing up all over Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. Attempts to retrain half of Mongolia’s Russian language teachers to teach English were made in the 1990s. The 2004-2008 Action Plan promises further substantial investments for teacher training. In addition, the government is looking to increase the number of volunteer teachers, and efforts are now underway to attract qualified teachers from around the globe to come to Mongolia. Improving the quality of English teaching in primary and secondary schools is also high on the agenda.
Cost remains the main obstacle for many Mongolians wishing to take up English as a second language. “The price of an Oxford English dictionary is $8, when you consider that the average Mongolian salary is in the region of $70 per month, you understand that it is a big investment for people here,” says Damdindagva. “But most people want to learn and so will find a way”.
Embracing English
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MONGOLIA Sponsored Section
Mongolia at a Glance:
Area...............................972,491 sq miles
Population.....................2,751,314
Capital..........................Ulaanbaatar 627,000
President.......................Natsagiyn Bagabandi
Religion.........................Buddhist Lamaist 50%, Atheist 40%
Life Expectancy............64.17 years
GDP per capita.............$1,800
GDP growth.................10.6%
Labour force.................1.4 million
Climate..........................large seasonal temperature ranges
Ethnic Groups..............Mongol (mostly Khalkha) 94.9%
Languages.....................Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian
Currency.......................togrog/tugrik (MNT)
Exchange Rates...........togrogs/tugriks per US dollar – 1,210
After abandoning single party communist rule in 1990, Mongolia’s optimistic embrace of open democracy and a market economy was shattered by more than a decade of natural and financial disasters.
But while little could have been done to prevent the devastating winters at the turn of the millennium that slashed the country’s productivity, many of Mongolia’s fiscal problems were self-inflicted – often the result of mismanagement or naivety in the new post-communist business environment. Now however, the country has taken concrete steps to restore fiscal stability which ensure that there will be no more economic problems of the kind that characterized its transition to multiparty rule. At the head of the Mongolian Central Bank, Governor Ochirbat Chuluunbat, recognizes how far the country has recovered in the last few years. “In 2000 just $250m remained in the banking sector,” he says. “Today that is the income for a single large Mongolian company.”
Mongolia’s banking crisis came to a head in 1996, and over the course of the next three years five major banks went bust. At the root of the string of collapses, undermining the confidence in the system, was the high number of failed loans. At the time non-performing loans amounted to more than half the total of all loans made. But while the inevitable financial pressures forced mass insolvencies in the banking sector, it also concentrated minds, forcing the country’s central bank to drive through a new code of professionalism. “What we had to do was reduce the volume of non-performing loans significantly,” says Chuluunbat. “Before they were at 50 percent, today they are at eight to nine percent and we are using much tougher, internationally accepted standards. The result is that the banking sector has regained the confidence of the market and the public.” Unfortunately, just as Mongolia began to recover from the collapse of the banking sector in the late 1990s, the country was hit by several years of severe drought and harsh winters. This catastrophe, known as the Zud, slashed crop yields by a third and saw almost ten million cattle die.
As a result Mongolia’s GDP growth was a modest 3.9 percent in 2002, well below the 6 percent growth that the central bank forecasted before the natural disaster. On a steady footing today, Mongolia’s true economic potential shines through, with a growth rate last year of 10.6 percent. Newfound fiscal stability has been cemented by improving trade ties with Russia and China. But while Mongolia was once overshadowed economically by its northern neighbor and mistrusted the territorial ambitions of China to the south, the two giant countries are now trusted economic partners. In 2003, Mongolia announced that its $10bn debt with Russia had been settled for just $245m in a move that one diplomat remarked had “removed an albatross from around Mongolia’s neck.” This move prompted a general spike in international investor confidence. “Times have changed and now our neighbors are likely to play an important role in the development of oureconomy,” says Chuluunbat. “China has become our numberone trading partner and an important investor. We see our two big neighbors not as large dominating countries but as big investors.”
To encourage such investment, the central bank is considering the creation of a low regulation, minimal tax environment which would mirror the achievements of Hong Kong, Luxembourg or Switzerland, on the steppes of central Asia. “In the last four to five years we have been working hard to create a favourable investment environment not only for Russia and China, but also for America and Japan and worldwide,” says Chuluunbat, adding, “look at the histories of Hong Kong or Switzerland. They are very small places but they have created the most favorable financial environments possible for investors. Why shouldn’t Mongolia do the same? We have two huge markets on either side, and if we create a favourable market in between, money should flow in.”
It is no secret that attracting foreign direct investment is at the top of the government’s agenda, and measures are beginning to pay off. Both the number of companies investing in Mongolia and the amount they are investing has dramatically increased in the first years of the new century, and FDI now stands at an impressive 20 percent of GDP. The development of tourism and the country’s agri-business sectors are key to attracting foreign investment. After all, Mongolian raw cashmere is considered the best in the world.
But above all, it is Mongolia’s mineral wealth that could draw the most interest from abroad. With abundant resources of coal, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, silver, hydro-carbons, uranium, natural gas and precious stones, it is no wonder that prospectors are rushing to a new frontier. The biggest of them all is Ivanhoe Mines - Mongolia’s largest foreign investor - which is due to start production next year at what surveys suggest could become one of the world’s biggest copper and gold mines. While the location of the Turquoise Hill dig, in a remote region of the Gobi desert, may sound daunting, the potential profits are reassuringly vast. According to Ivanhoe’s chairman Robert Friedland, Mongolia’s natural resources make it “a little Asian Kuwait in the making.”
At the central bank Chuluunbat is determined to ensure those resources are properly managed. “Natural resources are not always a guarantee of fast track development,” he says. “Look at Russia, a very rich country in terms of resources and commodities and yet with a fairly low income per capita. The important thing is the development of human resources.” Mongolia’s biggest investor concurs, acknowledging the country’s people is just as important as its buried treasure. “Mongolians are Buddhists,” says Friedland, “and a central tenet of Buddhism is reasonableness. A culture that understands the importance of compromise is very important to us.” “Mongolia,” he adds, “has all the fundamentals to be great.”
Banking Reform Yields Results
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“If Mongolia succeeds economically it will be a good example to other countries in this part of the world,” asserts S. Batbold, Mongolia’s Minister of Trade and Industry, while musing on the benefits of closer economic cooperation with the US. As an adolescent democracy sandwiched between two colossal giants, China and Russia, Mongolia is, understandably, actively seeking to broker attractive trade agreements with the wider world. “We have been building a market economy for the past 15 years…it hasn’t been easy, but we believe that we now have the political support from the US,” continues Batbold, referring to the signing of a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the US last year.
But the real golden goose the Mongolian government is working towards is the signing of a free-trade agreement with the US. The main driver behind this was the expiration of the US quota system for textile exports in 2004. Mongolia is one of several Asian countries now concerned about the future of their textile industries. Those quotas formed part of the Multifiber Agreement (MFA), an international concord ratified in 1974 that uses import quotas to regulate the $350bn world trade in garments.
As a textile exporting country, Mongolia fears that the MFA’s expiry and the end of the US quota system will put them at a competitive disadvantage to cheaper, China-based textile exporters. The US is Mongolia’s third biggest export market, the main part of that trade being textiles. With a 30 percent stake in the global cashmere trade, Mongolia has much to lose. But the outlook is positive. A meeting last year between President Bush and President Bagabandi of Mongolia made some serious headway on the issue of improving economic cooperation and has left the door wide open for future negotiations.
The two presidents agreed to promote bilateral trade and investment in addition to signing the aforementioned trade and investment pact. Closer bilateral economic ties are expected to follow this year. “There are pessimists and sceptics that view a free-trade agreement between the US and Mongolia as pointless since the turnover between the two countries is not, relatively speaking, so big, but trade based on sound principles will not only rapidly expand itself but also accelerate economic and social development”, says President Bagabandi.
Whether of significant proportions or not, the benefits attached to entering a free-trade agreement with the US are various. For Mongolia it would mean an increase in export commodities as well as export tariff discounts or annulments. It would also boost investment in Mongolia from those who are keen to enter the massive US market. At present only eleven countries enjoy free-trade pacts with the US including; Australia, Chile, Israel and Morocco.
“We have always stressed our desire to conclude the free-trade agreement,” says Batbold, “However, we understand that this Investment Framework Agreement is a good starting point, and we remain optimistic about the future.”
For more than sixty years, Mongolian Railway trains have sped along one of the longest stretches of unbroken track in the world, connecting via the Trans-Siberian railway onto Russia and Europe to the north and to Beijing and the rest of Asia southwards. It is a remarkable feat of civil engineering stretching 870 miles in Mongolia alone. When you add the four branches of the network, offshoots serving various mining operations and connecting cities, Mongolia is served by a total 1128 miles of rail network.
The importance of the Mongolian railroad should not be underestimated. Mongolia’s ground transportation is not particularly well developed and, while the country has 1911 miles of roads, only 810 miles are paved. Freight trains constantly speed through Ulaanbaatar pulling wagons full of coal, minerals, timber, animal products and even petroleum in and out of Mongolia. An important branch line also connects major coal mines with the power plant used to operate the Erdenet copper mine. The railway is clearly the preferred mode of transporting freight; almost 98 percent of all goods are forwarded by rail. The railway is popular with passengers too. Some 51 percent of travellers opted to use the network compared to 31 percent travelling by car. This translated as approximately four million passengers in 2004 – quite remarkable considering this figure is 1.5 times the population of Mongolia. For ordinary Mongolians the railway has earned a special place in their hearts.
Over the years, the railway has made a major contribution to the economic development of Mongolia, playing an historic role as the country’s main transport network, connecting new industrialized regions, mineral deposits, and large and small towns and urban centres across the country.
The network is also the artery for landlocked Mongolia to connect with European markets, Eastern and South East Asia, and of course the country’s neighbors Russia and China. The main line constitutes an integrated part of the international rail network. It is also the fastest way to transport freight from Europe to Asia.
These days, the Mongolian Railway is a victim of its own success. While it was built with a capacity of 20 million tons, it shipped almost 15 million last year. And, although it still has spare capacity, it will soon have to consider options to relieve potential bottlenecks. The railway has already been contracted to carry six million tons of oil across its network this year, more than double for the previous year. Meanwhile, profits over the last four years have tripled and are set to double again this year. Operational technologies have been revised and new transit facilities are being considered to meet the surge in demand, as new road networks are built to increase connectivity. At the same time, talks are underway to consider the electrification of the track. Finally, the construction of a parallel line running the length of the north-south access is now being planned. Such ambitious proposals do not come
Presidents Bagabandi and Bush
Working Towards a US Free-Trade Pact
Mongolia’s Answer to the Panama Canal…..a Railway?
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MONGOLIA Sponsored Section
ulations. Mr. Chimed Saikhanbileg, the Authority’s 36-year- old head will oversee the ambitious program: “Our master plan is called ‘E Mongolia.’ It consists of six sub-programs; e-commerce, e-education, e-health, e-business and e-citizen.” If successful, this project will transform the way that Mongolians go about their daily lives.
Online distance learning and telemedicine are two areas where simple IP connections, implemented over the next 6 years, are to make a huge difference to rural regions. ICT improvements will allow e-commerce to flourish throughout the Mongolian steppe, overcoming the huge distances between business and customer that have so far hindered growth in the country. But those improvements are not just for herders and rural communities. Electronic systems are to simplify life for all, with a smart card system to be introduced in Mongolia’s social security and national health networks. The government is also keen to roll out banking, insurance, customs, e-payments and e-businesses, to take the strain from the paper-heavy bureaucracy that is currently seen as a bar to development. The internet will also be introduced as a matter of course into Mongolia’s schools – whose students already have the highest literacy rate in the world – as well as hospitals and universities.
The strategy is in place. And so is the legislative platform. Since the mid 1990s, the Mongolian government has liberalized the entire telecommunications sector and established an effective regulatory body known as the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC). The open market has prompted huge expansion in the sector. Tele-density in the mobile and fixed telephone market is approaching 25 percent – up from only 13 percent in 2001. It is a rapid development that proves Mongolia’s medium term communications strategy is benefiting not only urban and rural Mongolians, but businesses and investors too.
cheaply - it is estimated that the addition of this second line could cost up to $2bn.
In 1995, digital telephone switches were installed for thousands of subscribers living alongside the railway, as Mongolian Railways has its own fibre optic cable network along the north south axis, providing a PSTN connection and international connectivity.
In March this year, Mongolian Railways made history when the first freightliner left Huhhot in northern China for Frankfurt in Germany.
Connecting Mongolia
With its tiny 2.7 million population spread across a vast wilderness of central Asian steppe, Mongolia represents one of the world’s greatest challenges for the communications industry.
Eight hundred years ago, the Mongolian Empire was the largest continuous land empire the world has ever seen. Built upon technology, the Khans introduced the world to the first reliable long distance postal service, connecting outposts in what are now Baghdad, Moscow and even Budapest. More recently, Mongolia’s remarkably low population density and traditionally nomadic rural populations did little to encourage the rolling out of fixed line telecommunications infrastructure, or internet services throughout the country.
But now, with the development of wireless, mobile and satellite communications, Mongolia’s government has come to see information technology as a potential blessing, rather than an infrastructure headache. In October 2004 the government established the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Authority to oversee implementation of the 2010 blueprint. The ICT Authority sees communications technology as key to reducing the economic and social isolation of rural pop11
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Eight hundred years after the Mongols created one of the greatest empires in the history of the world, Mongolia has conceived an ambitious new project to emulate the lustrous reputation of its ancestors. While the names Chinggis Khan and his grandson Kublai Khan live on in popular imagination, global fame is the stuff of dreams for modern Mongolia. Even the most enthusiastic citizen of Ulaanbaatar recognises that many foreigners trying to locate the country on a map would instinctively point to its very edge.
“People in the United States think that Mongolia is at the end of the world,” remarks Prime Minister Tsakhia Elbegdorj. “In fact Mongolia is bordered by two of the world’s giant states, Russia and China, and has a lot to offer.” Elbegdorj has a dream, a dream that will rescue Mongolia from its modern reputation for remoteness and bitter cold and rebrand it with the magic of its former glories. “We intend to change the capital city,” he says. “It is a project close to my heart. In fact it is close to everyone’s heart.” The premier radiates such enthusiasm because the site of the new capital is to be none other than Karakorum, capital of the ancient Mongol empire.
Kublai Khan may have decreed a sacred pleasure dome be built in Xanadu. But it was his Grand Father Chinggis Khan who was the real architect of the Mongol Empire, and he established its capital at Karakorum, which remains one of Mongolia’s chief tourist attractions about 300 miles south west of capital Ulaanbaatar. In its hey-day Karakorum was the heart of an empire that stretched from modern day Beijing to Budapest - rivaling the British empire for the title to the world’s largest ever domination of landmass. The city formed the supply hub for the rapid expansion of the Mongol Empire in the first half of the 13th century, as Chinggis Khan subjugated first his Chinese enemies to the east, then Arabs and Europeans to the west.
As an administrative base it was also celebrated, the nexus of a web of trade and postal routes that criss-crossed and perpetuated the efficient organization of the vast empire. Such was the success of Chinggis Khan’s Karakorum-based dominions that it was often said a woman carrying a sack of gold could walk from one end of the empire to the other in perfect safety. The ancient city’s renown as one of the world’s greatest ever administrative and trading hubs is assured. But now Prime Minister Elbegdorj is determined to make the glories of ancient Karakorum live again.
Without damaging the ancient ruins, the project will see a new city rise from the steppe, where business and transport links can thrive in the modern world just as they did almost a millennia ago. “In 2006 we will be celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Mongolian Empire which was established by Chinggis Khan,” says Elbegdorj. “We hope to create out of Karakorum a city which will be a model community in Mongolia. Not many Mongols have the opportunity to visit advanced countries like the US, so we would like to build a model community to teach the Mongols more.”
At first glance the project makes obvious sense. The mountainous region around current capital Ulaanbaatar, subject to the destructive forces of permafrost, further isolate the capital in what many consider an already isolated country. But there are other advantages too.
“Up to now the largest sectors of the economy have been
agriculture and mining,” says Ts. Oyungerel, adviser to the Prime Minister. “But the Karakorum project will allow cultural tourism, an international airport, hotels, a high tech industry park and a casino in the short run and the air hub in the longer run, which will be very important drivers for economic diversification of the Mongolian economy.” While business parks of the kind that thrive around every airport in the developed world will help get the project off the ground, it is long term strategy of developing Mongolia as an air-hub that is considered its most exciting feature. The current airport at Ulaanbaatar is far from perfect. Flights are only able to approach the runway from a single direction and it is ringed by mountains. In the winter it is plagued by fog, in spring by strong tailwinds from the northwest, in summer by gusts from the south east. In fact it only reaches international usability standards in September.
According to Mr. M. Dagva, the General Director of Mongolia’s Civil Aviation Authority, a new airport is vital to fuel the country’s development. “In the future we expect Mongolia to become a big international air hub,” he says. “Cargo transportation would become a focus, because Mongolia is located not only between Russia and China, it is also connecting points between Europe, North America and Asia”. He goes on, “There are 40-45,000 flights a year already passing over Mongolian airspace, and we expect the number to double by 2010.” The Prime Minister and his government do not expect a huge new city to rise from the steppe overnight. In fact Elbegdorj has outlined, at first at least, a modest, practical vision for the new Karakorum.
“We would like to make it a small administration city, a city of universities and new knowledge,” he says. “There is a lot of undeveloped land available, which we can provide free of charge to investors. This is why we believe we can make it into an international hub.” Despite the scale of the new development, every care will be taken to preserve and conserve the archaeological site. “Preserving the environment and historical remains in Karakorum are two central elements of the model city development plan,” asserts Oyungerel. “Stringent rules for preserving the cultural, historical and natural environment will be implemented.” But none of the realism or rules can mask the excitement at the heart of Mongolia’s administration about the prospect of revitalizing and reanimating one of the world’s most famous cities.
“In the time of Chinggis Khan, we were two million Mongols and we ended up ruling over 100 million people,” remarks Elbegdorj whistfully. “Today we are a nation, and our aspiration is to make this land again a great place to live again.”
Cashing in on the
Beijing Games
A delegation from the Mongolian Ministry of Tourism and Transportation and the local flag carrier MIAT recently traveled to Seattle to meet with Boeing. The group went to secure Boeing’s support for the expansion of the airline. They came back with a Memorandum of Understanding to lease three 737-800s and the provision of technical support.
This was something of a coup for MIAT, the Mongolian national airline, which is currently being prepared for privatization. For almost two years, up until the end of 2004, the firm
Reviving the Ancient Capital of Karakorum
12
A Special International Report prepared by Strategic Media
MONGOLIA Sponsored Section
had been managed by an Irish airline consultancy with a view to a sale. Thus far, there were no suitable buyers although that has not perturbed the Mongolian government who realize that (if a worthy suitor has to be found) they have to put in more groundwork to make the business more attractive.
One option already on the cards is to increase the number of flights. But many Mongolians also believe that the best way to improve MIAT’s future is by making Mongolia a transit hub for air cargo - either by developing a new site at Karakorum, the ancient capital, or by building a new airport close to Ulaanbaatar. Baltav Tsogoo, the company’s Managing Director explains the logic behind this: “Even today, our cargo transportation is profitable. We have plenty of big cargo orders, and quite often we do not have enough cargo capabilities to deliver, so there certainly is demand and we need to buy new planes to meet it.” Mr Dagva, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority agrees, pointing out that research from the International Civil Aviation Organization bears out the viability of the development of a cargo hub; “There are 40-45,000 flights a year passing through Mongolian airspace and we expect this number to double by 2010”. In fact, Mongolia sits in the middle of several important routes connecting Europe, North America and Asia. Such ambitious plans show officials’ willingness to think big and out of the box. Certainly, if the project does get off the ground, it may take several years and will entail a multi-billion dollar investment in airport infrastructure.
In the short term, Mongolia is well positioned to take advantage of an increase in air traffic and transit through the country in the run up to the Beijing Games in 2008. Already scheduled to be the most expensive Olympics ever – costing up to six times that of the Athens 2004 Games - they are also likely to be the most popular with record numbers traveling. “Even if a small percentage of the numbers attending the 2008 Games visit Mongolia, it will be significant for us,” says Dagva.
Meanwhile, in a drive to make Mongolia a more popular destination, the Ministry of Tourism is making the development of the sector a national priority. Some 300,000 visitors traveled to Mongolia in 2004, and plans are afoot to increase numbers substantially. Yet Mongolia’s charm still lies in its rawness, as well as the incredible warmth of its people.

Never going to happen so you should accept Inner Mongolia is a part of China, besides your writings are Russian scrips while inner Mongolians uses classical Mongolian scripts which no inner Mongolians is willing to accept.

Inner Mongolia is invaded by Chinese.This is mistake and should be corrected !!!

No, they were invaded by the Manchus and had been part of the Qing empire. That is a good thing otherwise they would be wipe out by the Cossacks by imperial Russia, many Mongolians from that time living in what is now Russia beg the Qing emperors to take them in or they would be enslave or exterminated. Outer Mongolia got luck they got independence after the fall of Tsar Russia, but only to fall under USSR influence.

I repeat that I don't support the idea that Mongolia should actively try to get Inner Mongolia back, but Type98G should get you facts straight. Inner Mongolia did not beg Manchu to take them in because of the Russians or Cossacks, but it was the combination of Manchu emperor's tricks and stupidity of Mongolian lords.

I know i mean now they invadaded by Chinese

All the Mongolians in this world should protest against Chinese occupation.
We should protest like Tibetans and East Turks are protesting.
Though China is very powerful and strong enough to kill the people but cannot kill the truth.
So lets stand up and gather and PROTEST PROTEST PROTEST
That is the best weapon to win back what belongs to us, though it will take time back eventually truth will prevail.
China is wrong to occupy Mongolia Tibet and East Turkistan.
We all should combine together as one to protest and fight against China.
China could kill one but can't kill all three.
China does not have experience in war after that F Head Mao.
So Stand Up Stand Up Stand Up Fight for your country like every nation is fighting.
Look at East Timor, Look at most of the East Europien nations under Soviet Union there fought too for their nation which at present time everybody is enjoying the pride of Nation.

PAAH
Chinghiz Khan's grandson Hulegu Khan tried to make military alliance with europeans against mamluks of egypt so did the other Il khanids

An alliance with them is nice

hey mongols, before mongols took over that area. the area was belonged to Liao and Jin & XiXia after. There were no mongols! If your mongols could take over that area, why Chinese couldn't take over? Your outer mongolian now could only last 2 hours battle if there was a war against mongolia from China. How could you want to take inner mongolia back?

China keeps the name inner mongolia is for one day taking outer mongolia together. Otherwise, China could change it to any other name. So, don't make China angry!

Wow!!! That's quite impressive. Asia's Canada. Yes, in fact Navajo are considered those Mongolians that traveled to America a long time ago. Well, I look forward to our government doing business with your government. Thanks for the info.

LOOOOL, mongols, after 800 yrs, still dreaming on their "land"

Come on, how many times I need to repeat that modern warfare dont depend on how many horses you own, so your horse=horse $hit in the battlefield now

If there is war between China and Mongolia I think it will take us 1 week to conquer you entirely, dont feel flatter by the time we need, the only reason why I say we need a week its because its take times for our tanks to roll over your vast wasteland, you know, unlike the typical mongols here who are obviously on some serious crack, I am a practical man thats why I wont say we will crash you in a day or something, the tank force simply could move that fast

And we all know in a war with China, your resistance will be pretty much non-exist and can be ignored

Therefore you should be happy there is a outer-mongol which is still exist as country there, maybe being a piece of no nature resource, complete cold-fu-king wasteland with a group of retarded minortiy are the main reasons prevent us from claim outer-mongolia, but I am not so sure about our current position regarding outer-mongol wont change in the future, especially if you can discover some huge nature resource in your wasteland (through I doubt it).

Anyway enjoy the peace which is here and now, dont think too much about future and have a big bottle of mongol horse piss and relax

^a chinese nerd who spends 99% of his time making new accounts lol

[quote name='MyEmpire2000' date='Feb 20 2009, 05:29 AM' post='4136626']
LOOOOL, mongols, after 800 yrs, still dreaming on their "land"

I wonder what did your parents do when Japan occupied chinese Land.

Come on, how many times I need to repeat that modern warfare dont depend on how many horses you own, so your horse=horse $hit in the battlefield now

Probably you forgot how Mujahidin of Afganishtan kicked out Mighty Russia.


If there is war between China and Mongolia I think it will take us 1 week to conquer you entirely, dont feel flatter by the time we need, the only reason why I say we need a week its because its take times for our tanks to roll over your vast wasteland, you know, unlike the typical mongols here who are obviously on some serious crack, I am a practical man thats why I wont say we will crash you in a day or something, the tank force simply could move that fast

And we all know in a war with China, your resistance will be pretty much non-exist and can be ignored

Yeah! You are right. when you and your commie brothers role into Mongolia, we will just watch you role like turtle.
While you role in like turtle, up the hill we will be waiting with anti-tank and take all the time to aim to your tanks.
And I doubt it the 50 cents commie would dare to take step out their tanks.

Therefore you should be happy there is a outer-mongol which is still exist as country there, maybe being a piece of no nature resource, complete cold-fu-king wasteland with a group of retarded minortiy are the main reasons prevent us from claim outer-mongolia, but I am not so sure about our current position regarding outer-mongol wont change in the future, especially if you can discover some huge nature resource in your wasteland (through I doubt it).

Won't you chinese happy when Japanese occupied the chinese Land?
So why chase out Janpanese? If you guys did not resist the Japanese wouldn't have smashed you guys like dogs.
Anyway Japanese left chinese Land because of entire nation in facking garbage and the chinese girls couldn't give a nice blow Job to Japanese armies.
Well the Japanese left chinese Land because Mao would do the remaining job to wibe out the retarded chineses.

Anyway enjoy the peace which is here and now, dont think too much about future and have a big bottle of mongol horse piss and relax

You chineses have enjoyed 30 years of economic boom, now it is time to slow down and drink that cheap Made in chinese Land alcohol and die like dog. Filthy chineses

Japanese tried and failed 65 yrs ago while your country have been destoried 600 yrs ago, so when you can quit your wet dream and begin to face the reality here and now

Come on, how many times I need to repeat that modern warfare dont depend on how many horses you own, so your horse=horse $hit in the battlefield now



The only reason why mujadim can fight against russians is: there are lots mountains there (unlike your huge plain) and at that time, China and USA give those freedom fighters TENS OF BILLIONS of USD's military and civil aids.



Good plan, the only problem is your anti-tank missiles are far less than the tanks we have



As for japanese, they were tried during the civil war time of China and failed, I doubt they are capable to give us any more than a poor-man's Korea War if CCP could united China a little bit earlier

And the war has ended 65 yrs ago, like I said before, how about facing the reality and learn to deal with the truth here and now instead of wanking things happend 600 yrs ago when war is fight with horses instead of missiles



Sorry, but Chinese seldom drinks, drunk the cheap horse-piss every day and night and then sleep in the street is a patented proud culture of Mongol retards

I know how Mongolia can take Inner Mongolia back, use their world renowned Mongolian Navy.

we are outbreeding your women now (reality) and you cant do nothing but watch(truth hurts) however, their vaginas are so big like cow but what do you expect from nomadic quality like mongols, bunch of hobo beggars without a stable home nevermind a civilizatgion you mongols are just footpatch sleeping barbarians who hump goat and drink camel and horse milk
how do you like it when the big slavic cocks shoving up your women @$$ look at your bastard children a mongol faced with blonde and green eyes what kind of bastard breed is that? mongols? lol a joke now
just dont forget you have lost half of mongolia to us all you can is whine
if you got the balls just bring it, what you going to do with us? attack us with bow and arrows ? we will machine gun you dirty mongol pigs

we will shot you secretary of the state with arrow then you state are to collapse wi will free your press so your peasants are to riot

u are a weak state so

They'll give it back if you destroy Russia and America.

This a pretty funny thread. Okay, here's my analysis of a potential war between the Mongols and Chinese.



To be fair, Let's assume that the Mongols are using AK-47 and the Chinese are using Chinese repeating crossbows. Putting the Mongols at a significant technological advantage.

AK:
has a range of 400m
rate of fire is 600 round/min
30 rounds per clip
5 seconds to reload
Assuming Mongols are expert marksmen and can hit every single Chinese they shoot. 100% accuracy. 100% efficiency

Crossbow:
has range of roughly 80 yards = 73m
rate of fire is roughly 1bolt/1.5seconds
Assuming that Chinese can't aim and only hit 10% of the time and it takes two bolts to kill a Mongol. 10% accuracy. 50% efficiency

1. For the Chinese to get to with in range to use their crossbows, they would have to move 400m - 73m = 327 meters.
2. The average human can run at roughly 8m/s
3. (327m)/(8m/s)=40.875s. So the Chinese would have to brave roughly 40s of AK fire to get within range.
4. (30 rounds)/(600 rounds/60s)= 3 seconds. The Mongols will empty 30 bullets in 3 seconds.
5. Assume that it takes 5 seconds to reload an AK. Therefore, to reload and fire 30 round will take 5 + 3 = 8 seconds.
6. 40s/8s = 5. Each Mongols will be able to unload 5 clips with in 40s. 5 x 30 = 150. 150 rounds with 100% accuracy = 150 dead Chinese.
7. There are 2 951 786 Mongols as of 2007 and 1 321 851 888 Chinese as of 2007.
8. 2 951 786 x 150 = 442 767 900. If 2 951 786 are able to shoot 150 Chinese each before we reach crossbow range, 442 767 900 will be dead.
9. 1 321 851 888 - 442 767 900 = 879 083 988. 879 083 988 Chinese will be still left standing.
10. Since the Mongols have just finished off their last round and are reloading, The Chinese will have 5 seconds to fire the crossbow before Mongols open fire.
11. 5s x (1bolt/1.5s) = roughly 3 bolts. Within 5 seconds, 3 bolts will have been launched.
12. 879 083 988 x 3 bolts = 2 637 251 964 bolts. If each Chinese launches 3 bolts, 2 637 251 964 bolts will have been fired.
13. 2 637 251 964 * 10% = 263 725 196.4. If the average Chinese have a 10% accuracy with the crossbow. 263 725 196 bolts will actually hit target.
14. 263 725 196 bolts / 2 951 786 Mongols = 89 bolts / Mongol. Since there are only roughly 3 million Mongols to take the 250 million+ bolts, each Mongol will get shot roughly 89 times.

Conclusion: China wins with 879 083 988 out of their 1 321 851 888 still alive. Mongols looks like giant porcupines averaging with about 89 bolts stuck in each Mongol. Mongol invasion fails. Since there are no Mongols left, Chinese invade and annex Outer Mongolia. Later, the Chinese decides the land to be too worthless to use. China sells Outer Mongolia to Russia for one year supply of cheap vodka.