S.Ganbaatar, President of the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions (CMTU), answers questions on the new state budget management procedures, the stability fund, and the need to decentralise power and responsibility.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Budget recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the CMTU. Does this mean you can now participate in discussions on the budget, monitor its implementation or submit proposals?

Not many people know about this or are aware of the significance of the development, so I am happy you asked me abut this. Now that the national economy is set to receive a significant injection of funds from the mining sector, we have to make sure these are used properly and not squandered away. Even the investing companies, foreign and domestic, who will produce this revenue by hard work, are concerned about this.

The CMTU signed the memorandum because of its concern that mining revenues are used to improve people’s life. I have been saying for the last 5-6 years that any negotiations with mining investors should be held so that the final agreements bring as much money as possible for us. But our politicians are inexperienced and unprofessional, so the nation finally lost out on the Oyu Tolgoi deal. Whatever that is, now that the investment agreement has been signed, we must concentrate on finding the best ways of using whatever money comes in.

First of all, all mining receipts must be transparent, and we must clearly know how much money the State earns. Then people must be involved directly in debates on what to spend them on. We don’t want to remain victims of populist promises of politicians. Projects such as Oyu Tolgoi, Tavan Tolgoi, and Nariin Sukhait should not be like Erdenet Copper, which bears all the financial burden of the nation’s education and health care, and that of civil servants’ salaries. The money coming from new projects has to be used differently. And this, too, has to be decided in a transparent way, with the people’s active participation.

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