Guest post: Mongolian democracy and its oligarchs
By Julian Dierkes of the University of British Colombia
Over the weekend Mongolia will host the seventh ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies, a global caucus of democratic nations formed with the intention of fostering democracy around the world. For Mongolia, holding the chairmanship and hosting the ministerial conference are confirmation of its achievements in democratic development. Continue reading »
Mongolia: change of tack to get foreign investors back
By Terrence Edwards of bne in Ulan Bator
Mongolia’s parliament passed an amendment on Friday to its controversial foreign investment law of last year, which should allow over 100 pending investment deals in the country to now progress.
The Strategic Entities Foreign Investment Law (SEFIL) was rushed through parliament in May 2012 as protests grew about the increasing foreign (ie Chinese) control over the country’s vast mineral wealth. But the wide-ranging nature of the law caused foreign investment to fall through the floor. Continue reading »
Guest post: Mongolia doesn’t have resource nationalism – for now
By Julian Dierkes of University of British Columbia
With the increased level of interest the world has taken in Mongolia given its blistering economic growth rate, resource nationalism is mentioned more and more often as a threat. But what exactly is this resource nationalism?
In Mongolia there is a parade of ideologies and slogans that are being lumped into the category of resource nationalism. They range from the obscure fringes of blood-line focused nationalism to the concerns of dedicated and serious politicians who are genuinely grappling with the challenges that rapid, almost instant, economic growth on the basis of a resource boom is bringing with it. Lumping these different streams together into a single category suggests that there is a coherent ideology that unites them. This is not the case. Continue reading »
Mongolia: can’t live with China, can’t live without China
Mongolia and China have never exactly gotten along. For the past millennium the two countries invaded and ruled each other in turn. In the thirteenth century, Kublai Khan swept into China and founded the Yuan dynasty, putting Mongolians on the Chinese throne for nearly a century. Then in the 17th century Mongolia was conquered by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty.
Both have gone their own way for the past hundred years, but the history lesson is worth remembering, because Mongolia’s mining development today is dependent on its giant, resources-hungry neighbour. Continue reading »
Mongolia: wrestling, coalition building, and resource nationalism
Let the political wrestling begin
This week Mongolia is celebrating Naadam, a holiday marked by horse races, archery competitions, wrestling, and lots of airag, which is fermented mare’s milk.
But amid the festivities there is also some serious political wrestling taking place. Mongolia’s new parliament, sworn in July 6, has been in the process to see which parties will form a coalition government to rule the country for the next four years. Continue reading »
Guest post: Mongolian election signals growing voter cynicism
By David Sneath of Chatham House
Mongolia’s June 28 election is set to produce a coalition government with no party in overall control but with the right-leaning Democratic Party commanding the largest number of seats in the nation’s parliament, the Ikh Khural.
Tellingly, voter turnout fell to a historical low of around 65 per cent, from 74 per cent in the 2008 parliamentary elections and 82 per cent in 2004. This signals a steadily rising public cynicism regarding party politics, which has failed to deliver improved living standards for the majority of the population despite the recent ‘mineral boom’ that boosted last year’s economic growth to 17 per cent. Continue reading »
Former Mongolian president arrested on corruption charges
By Oliver Belfitt-Nash of business new europe
Nambaryn Enkhbayar, former president of Mongolia and current opposition leader, has been arrested on corruption charges. Uniformed and plainclothes police seized him in a dawn raid on a house to which he had fled after refusing to answer questions about corruption, the government said.
Given that the arrest occurred just hours after Enkhbayar (pictured left) released a transcript of a security council meeting concerning the supposed illegitimacy of the 2008 elections that led to deadly riots, and only weeks before Mongolians go to polls in June for general elections, analysts suspect darker motives. Continue reading »
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