Category Archives: Foreign Investment

Rio Tinto/Turquoise Hill Offer on Debt Forgiveness for Oyu Tolgoi Stake

By Julian Dierkes On the morning of December 13, PM Oyun-Erdene “unveiled” an offer he received from Rio Tinto/Turquoise Hill that appears to be intended to form the basis for a new agreement to jumpstart underground development at Oyu Tolgoi. … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Erdenes Mongol, Foreign Investment, JD Mining Governance, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Public Policy, Sovereign Wealth Fund, Taxes | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fragmented Power

By Julian Dierkes A recent article in The Economist compares political contestation around the Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan and Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia. There a number of aspects to that comparison that make it very interesting: Democratization: Kyrgyzstan has – … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, EITI, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, JD Democratization, JD Mining Governance, Kyrgyz Republic, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: A BIT of Project Finance Arbitrage in Mongolia

By Kinnari Bhatt As Jennifer Lander observed last week, RIO is getting out the big guns. My new book – Concessionaires, Financiers and Communities: Implementing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Land in Transnational Development Projects, shows how investors like RIO use … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Kinnari Bhatt, Law, Mining, Mining Governance, Mongolia and ..., Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Research on Mongolia, Taxes | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Investor-State Arbitration and Mongolia’s Rapidly Shrinking Policy Space

By Jennifer Lander On the 20th of February, Rio Tinto initiated arbitration proceedings against the Government of Mongolia at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) through Oyu Tolgoi LLC. The escalation of the dispute over the alleged … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Jennifer Lander, Law, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Taxes, Trade | Leave a comment

Toward a Transition Away from Coal

By Sandeep Pai and Julian Dierkes In November 2018, Tsenguun T and Aldarsaikhan T wrote a guest post describing the Mongolian podcast scene. Since then, more podcasts have sprung up, for example, recent guest post co-author Boldsaikhan S is involved … Continue reading

Posted in Air Pollution, China, Climate Change, Development, Diversification, Energy, Foreign Investment, Infrastructure, Podcast, Policy, Policy, Renewables, Sandeep Pai, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Energy Independence and Internationalism: Oil Extraction and Refining in Mongolia So Far

By Marissa J. Smith As Julian penned his request for a study on renewable energy potential to members of Mongolia’s cabinet and other relevant policy-makers two weeks ago, London stock exchange-listed  Petro Matad continued its campaign of exploration drilling in … Continue reading

Posted in China, Energy, Foreign Investment, Foreign Policy, India, Oil, Russia, Trade | Tagged | Leave a comment

Rio Tinto in Mongolia

By Julian Dierkes Recently, Bulgan B and I pointed out that there have been as many CEOs at Oyu Tolgoi over the past ten years as there have been PMs of Mongolia. I also appeared on a live BBC radio … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Nationalism, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy | Tagged | Leave a comment

Implications of Power Politics for OT and Elsewhere “Offshore”

By Marissa Smith About a week ago, Mendee and I agreed to write a pair of blog posts on the question of how OT and the current wave of corruption investigations and arrests, most recently involving former Prime Ministers Ch. … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Development, Foreign Investment, Infrastructure, International Agreements, International Relations, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, North Korea, Oyu Tolgoi | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: A quick reaction to the on-going Facebook conversations on Oyu Tolgoi agreement and the role of Mr Bayartsogt in signing it

By Undariya Tumursukh The news that the Swiss are investigating the possible corruption case involving the former Finance Minister S. Bayartsogt (DP) and Rio Tinto has triggered some agitated discussion, including on Facebook, about Mr. Bayartsogt’s central role in concluding … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Mining, Oyu Tolgoi, Undariya Tumursukh | 1 Comment

SOMO Report “Mining Taxes”

By Julian Dierkes The Dutch Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) published a report focused on a whole list of issues related to financial and governance structures for the Oyu Tolgoi project. The report was written by SOMO’s Vincent Kiezebrink and … Continue reading

Posted in Canada, Corruption, EU, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, International Relations, JD Mining Governance, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Public Policy, Taxes | Tagged | Leave a comment

SOMO Report Preamble: Assumptions

By Julian Dierkes It struck me while reading the SOMO report on Oyu Tolgoi governance and tax structures that there are a number of big assumptions and elements in the Mongolian context that are not discussed explicitly, but that are … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign Investment, International Agreements, JD Mining Governance, Mining, Mining Governance, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Public Policy, Taxes | Tagged | Leave a comment

Unequal Match: Mongolia versus Rio Tinto

By Mendee Jargalsaikhan If one describes the bargaining game between Mongolia, a small and isolated resource-rich state, and Rio Tinto, a giant multinational corporation, through the Mongolian national pastime sport – wrestling, it is truly an unequal match between the … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign Investment, International Agreements, Mendee Jargalsaikhan, Mining, Mongolia and ..., Oyu Tolgoi | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Agreement between Canada and Mongolia for the Promotion and Protection of Investments – a Glance at Its Nature, Significance and Features

By Bajar Scharaw On 8 September 2016, Canada and Mongolia signed an international Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments (the Canada-Mongolia Investment Agreement). The Agreement entered into force on 24 February 2017 and created legally-binding obligations for both … Continue reading

Posted in Bajar Scharaw, Canada, Foreign Investment, Foreign Policy, International Agreements, Law, Trade | 2 Comments

Resource Nationalism?

By Julian Dierkes One of the dominant foreign views of Mongolian politics is that they’re rife with “resource nationalism”. This perspective is reproduced in many conversations with people in the mining or financial industry and is often repeated by visiting … Continue reading

Posted in Foreign Investment, JD Mining Governance, Mining, Mongolia and ..., Nationalism, Policy, Politics, Populism, Social Movements | Tagged | 4 Comments

Guest Post: Mongolia 2016 – Will there be light at the end of the tunnel?

By Stefan Hanselmann If the development of the last quarter of 2015 can serve as an indicator, we can eventually expect for next year some real light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, Mongolia had to learn the hard … Continue reading

Posted in Bilateral Aid, Business, Development, Diversification, Economics, Foreign Investment, Ikh Khural 2016, Inflation, Mining, Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Politics, Stefan Hanselmann | Leave a comment