Parts of Speech

The mining sector could very well carry Mongolia for the next 50 years.”
Parmeshwar Ramlogan, IMF Resident Representative for Mongolia.

“Mongolia has always been here. With all our riches, with all our hearts, we were trying to reach ou t to the West. The West noticed us too late, fortunately for us. If we were Czechoslovakia, they would have grabbed us in the first five years and everything would have been snatched. We suffered through 200 years of Chinese rule, 70 years of Soviet rule and 20 years of being ignored by the West. In retrospect, we had time to educate ourselves. We learned all the tricks of privatization.”
C. Ganhuyag, Vice Minister of Finance,

“The people here who are running the system still think like Communists or Socialists. The Soviet Union made Mongolia fully dependent. Giving cash handouts now is economic infantilism, a product of those educated under the Soviets. If the people are fed like children from this guy who acts like the father and promises cash money, free education and everything free because the state is getting richer and richer—that is the bad side of this sudden wealth.”
B. Baabar, intellectual and
commentator.

“National security concerns is code for concern about the possible use of the railway for military intervention. These Cold War concerns are still being played out all over Mongolia. They consider the Russians their Big Brothers, their friends, and for 70 years they’ve been told there’s a yellow evil to the south. From our perspective, Mongolia places too much [emphasis] on national security interests and not enough on economic interests. Instead of basing decisions on what’s good for the economy of Mongolia, decisions are based on geopolitical considerations.”
Graeme Hancock, until recently the senior mining specialist for the World Bank in Mongolia.