How Mongolia’s rollercoaster economy could be about to take off
▻http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-mongolias-rollercoaster-economy-could-be-about-take-off-1510147
“There’s a feeling of Mongolia being open for business again,” says Peter Morley of specialist emerging-markets communications consultancy EM.
“The key word here is ’again’. Mongolia was one of those hot markets that everyone wanted a piece of, but people ended up disappointed.”
Richard Adley, co-CEO of investment bank First Frontier, cautions that portfolio investment will lag with no arrangements yet for prospective investors to set themselves up with a global custodian.
Adley’s company considers Mongolia a “pre-frontier” market, one step behind Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Corruption is an unquantifiable problem. Gordon Turley of Mott MacDonald says it is “much better than it was” and that “we haven’t encountered it”.
Bataa Tserenbat of the Mongolian Association in London believes it is growing. He said: “I can’t blame people who take money out – the system will have to change”.
There are stories of parochial misdeeds such as the building in Ulaanbaatar seized because the developer committed a planning infringement and bought at auction by an official with planning responsibilities; of huge alleged scandals such as the belief Mongolia sells its coal to the Chinese at an uncommercial rate.
Then there are anomalies such as the duplication resulting in 54 power stations for three million people.