PARTS OF SPEECH

* “A company like Rio Tinto does not offer bribes. Maybe Chinese companies do, but Rio Tinto is in a different league. It is a public company, operating openly in financial markets, and does not indulge in corrupt practice. To whom else could we give Oyu Tolgoi? The Chinese, of course. Can Russia compete with China and take it? It can’t.”

N.Altankhuyag, First Deputy Prime Minister.
 

* “The Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement has taken full and binding effect. We plan to be a partner in Mongolia for decades to come and are looking forward to moving into the development phase of the project.”

Andrew Harding, Chief Executive of Rio Tinto’s Copper Group

* “Oyu Tolgoi will be one of the world’s greatest mining centres. Our discoveries, combined with the application of the Zeus induced-polarization exploration technology and our ongoing exploration drilling, mean that Oyu Tolgoi still will be powering Mongolia’s economy a century from now.”

John Macken, Chief Executive Officer, Ivanhoe Mines.

* “After nine years of discoveries at Oyu Tolgoi, a piece of the future of copper and gold in Asia is poised to become a reality. With this Investment Agreement taking full effect, we now have a long-term partnership and a definitive blueprint to start building that future at Oyu Tolgoi.”

Robert
Friedland, President and Executive
Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines.

* “We have made investments there and we are fairly bullish about Mongolia. We believe that country is starting its journey in the mining space so that would be one of the many countries that we would look at.”

Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments
at Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings.

* “The only way that makes sense is the narrow-gauge railway straight down to China. It’s a no brainer. It’s what every expert suggests. However, a section of Mongolian society thinks that if they build the southern connection, then Russia won’t build the eastern one. And there may be some truth to that.”

Adrian Ruthenberg, the Mongolia country director for
the Asian Development Bank.

 

* “The uncertainty over Oyu Tolgoi where the dispute lingered over such a protracted period of time obviously slowed down investment and put off some of the smaller investors, but it was healthy – they debated and got the public involved and finally reached an agreement, and that has now opened the floodgates for more investment.”

Roland Nash, an analyst with Renaissance Capital.

* “Ivanhoe Mines cannot be called ‘the investor’ as it has been allowed time to look for financial sources. It is thus, legally and financially, not an appropriate organization with which to sign an agreement.”
The National New Party, in a statement calling for annulment of the Oyu Tolgoi agreement.
“We are still interested in the Tavan Tolgoi project, despite the Mongolian Government deciding to keep 100 percent of the deposit. We have followed the Tavan Tolgoi project for seven years. We have the edge and we are actively bidding for it.”

Ling Wen, President, China Shenhua Energy.

* “We hope to participate in Oyu Tolgoi. Since Chinalco is the largest non-ferrous metal company in China, and China has a geographic advantage with Mongolia, we believe that having a company like Chinalco involved would give some helpful impetus to the project.”

Xiong Weiping, President, Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco).

* “The completion of the Investment Agreement as part of the coalition government action program to develop the largest mine in Mongolia’s history will allow this ‘Centennial Development Project’ to give a significant boost to the economic and financial development of Mongolia, create large-scale infrastructure projects and the establishment of new urban centers and improve the livelihoods of Mongolian families.”

The Mongolian Government, in a statement.

* “I fail to appreciate why certain politicians continue to play politics with something of overriding national importance.  They had enough time to discuss everything related to the political side of the Oyu Tolgoi project but now that work is about to begin, they are back scrutinizing things through their political prism, twisting issues to gain political mileage.”

D.Zorigt, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

* “The railway is very important to us. We can’t give permission to build private rail lines if it doesn’t fit into the Government’s plan… Russia has lots of control. Strategically, geopolitically, Russia will block the narrow-gauge railway from being built in Mongolia. …Politically they can do it somehow. China favors the southern route, naturally, but they don’t have the means to block the eastern route. Russia already is in Mongolia, the Chinese are not.”

D. Nemekhbayar, head of the Finance and Investment
Department of the Mongolian Ministry of Roads, Transport,
Construction and Urban Development.

* “Successful businesses bring development, add jobs, strengthen people-to-people relationships and provide the revenues needed to fund needed health and education services. Our embassy would do everything within its power to support the private sector in deepening and sustaining a positive relationship between our countries.”

Jonathan Addleton, U.S. Ambassador

* “The Government must hold talks on raising salaries. Our demand is for minimum wages to be fixed at MNT216,000. The Ministry for Social Welfare and Labor has talked abut increasing salaries by 20 percent, but the time for such sops is over. Our demand covers salaries in private organizations also.”

S.Ganbaatar, President, Mongolian Labor Union

* “Governments play a key role in spurring productivity, encouraging investment and fostering international competitiveness and so must approach tax reforms with caution. It is imperative that the impact of any policy and tax changes of governments around the world on sectors of economies should be well understood, and not hinder investment and the capacity of economies to grow.”

Don Argus, outgoing chairperson, BHP Billiton.

* “All agreements made with several countries like Russia, China, and Great Britain to attract foreign investment during the instability of the 1990s should now be reviewed as circumstances have changed and there is no longer any justification for granting exceptional advantages to foreign investors.”

T.Altangerel, Director of the Policy Implementation
Regulation Department at the Interior Ministry.

* “Privatization yields no benefit if the buyer does not make fresh investments in the company, as happened in many of the 5,000 items of State property that have so far been privatized through both open and closed tenders. We should now try for privatization through IPOs so that the additional capital raised can then be used on renovation and extension.”

L.Ganbat, Director of the State Property Bureau.