January 2010
Let me ask you a most important question. Is Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold a genuine reformist only because he has said 2010 will be the “Favourable Business Environment Year”? All it means is that the Mongolian Government will work on creating a favourable environment for all local and foreign investment. Such promises were made several times before, but nothing happened, so what is new in S.Batbold’s pledge?
I’ll tell you what is new. The Prime Minister made the announcement at the end of last year when he received a mining delegation and also met with the representatives of other business entities. He followed this up by saying he would organize an economic conference in February and promptly assigned to the National Development and Reform Committee the task of organizing the event. This is what I see as new; S.Batbold does not make empty pledges only to grab headlines. He looks for concrete results.
This has to be seen along with the message his successor as Foreign Minister, G.Zandanshatar, sent to all Mongolian missions in foreign countries on the eve of the new year. He asked them to acquaint their host countries with Mongolia’s economic orientation in its foreign relations. In all his visits to foreign countries since he assumed office, the Minister actively promoted this approach.
When these separate events are taken together they show that Mongolia is beginning to pay more attention to promoting national economic interests in its foreign relations and to creating a sustainable legal environment. In several of his recent speeches the Prime Minister noted that Mongolia’s competitiveness had been on the decline for the last few years. S.Batbold is prepared to introduce consolidated reforms in the economic and business environments. He has also announced that he would initiate budget management reforms and reforms in the banking sector.
State participation in the economic and business sectorsignificantly increased in the days when S.Bayar was Prime Minister between November 2007 and October 2009. The period was also marked by widespread authoritarianism and dictatorial trends. S.Bayar attempted to rule the country with political imperatives, but the new Prime Minister stresses the need to revive the economy by promoting business and freeing it from state shackles. We wish him all success.