Category Archives: Infrastructure

Recollections of an Airport

By Julian Dierkes An international airport is a gateway to a country. For me, apart from a Transsiberian trip in 1991 (watch my Twitter account later in July for a mini 30-year commemoration of my trip), the Ulaanbaatar airport has … Continue reading

Posted in Change, Infrastructure, Social Change, Tourism, Ulaanbaatar | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ministers in Khurelsukh’s Cabinet

By Julian Dierkes, Marissa Smith and Bulgan Batdorj Byambajav has already provided a brief introduction to the 16 ministers who have been appointed to PM Khurelsukhs post-2020-election cabinet. Since a number of them are not MPs and have not been … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Foreign Policy, Governance, Health, Ikh Khural 2020, Infrastructure, Law, Military, Mining, Policy, Politics, Public Policy, Society and Culture, Tourism | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Electoral District Demographic Analysis

By Robert Ritz The current election saw a switch back to the block voting system used in 1992 and 2008. This system has both positives and negatives, and this system has much larger election districts than the previous single-member districts of … Continue reading

Posted in Countryside, Demography, Employment, Ikh Khural 2020, Inequality, Infrastructure, Mining, Population, Robert Ritz, Social Issues, Ulaanbaatar | 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

Guest Post: China’s Belt and Road Initiative

By Connor Judge and Sanchir Jargalsaikhan Myriad conferences, expos, forums and articles have recently elevated the profile of acronyms “OBOR” and “BRI” to a par with “blockchain,” the latter being a ground-breaking technology that few fully understand, but which has … Continue reading

Posted in China, Connor Judge, Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, International Relations, Mongolia and ..., Policy, Russia, Sanchir Jargalsaikhan, SCO | Leave a comment

Challenges Arising from Growing National Herd

By Julian Dierkes On an August 2018 trip to Western Mongolia, I heard a lot of countryside reports that the value of animal products, especially meat, is rapidly declining, exacerbating poverty, unemployment, migration to towns and cities, etc. When you … Continue reading

Posted in Countryside, Diversification, Flooding, Grassland, Health, Infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Technology Assessment Needed: Solar Power

By Julian Dierkes To: PM Khurelsukh CC: Minister of Energy Davaasuren; Min of Science Tsogzolmaa; Min of Environment Tserenbat, Officer of Intl Cooperation, Min of Environment, G Tsogtbaatar; Min of Light Industry Batzorig; Dir, External Affairs, Green Climate Fund Oyun Climate … Continue reading

Posted in China, Climate Change, Countryside, Development, Diversification, Environmental Movements, Geography, Gobi, Infrastructure, Renewables, Russia, Sovereign Wealth Fund | Tagged | Leave a comment

Preliminary Results of Tavan Tolgoi Study: Irresponsible State, Disenfranchised Drivers

By Mendee Jargalsaikhan & Byambajav Dalaibuyan  The Mongolian Institute for Innovative Policies conducted a human rights assessment in areas affected by Tavan Tolgoi coal mining and transportation operations in Tsogt-Tsetsii, Bayan-Ovoo, and Khanbogd soums of Umnugobi province in March – … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Environment, Erdenes Mongol, Gobi, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Mining, Mining Governance, Policy, Public Opinion, Tavan Tolgoi | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Present and Past of Mongolia: 15 Years of Changes as Observed by a Civil Engineer

By Kenji Maruoka Translated from Japanese by Ts Jangar Originally published as 「谷川, 聡. (Tanigawa Satoru).(2017). モンゴルの今と昔~2000 年から土木技術者として見てきた15 年の変遷~. KON BAINA UU. No16 It was my first visit of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where I came to work for Japan’s ODA program in the early May … Continue reading

Posted in Bilateral Aid, Change, Development, Infrastructure, Social Change, Ulaanbaatar | 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

Mongolia at Davos 2018: Party like it’s 2009?

By Marissa Smith In recent years, Mongolia has regularly sent a delegation to the World Economic Forum at Davos. This year was somewhat less eventful than some years, when President Elbegdorj himself attended and presided over a “Mongolia Night” and … Continue reading

Posted in China, Development, Economics, Environment, Environment, Erdenet, Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, International Cooperation Fund, International Relations, Mining, Mining, Mining Governance, Mongolia and ..., Oyu Tolgoi, Policy, Politics, South Korea | Tagged | Leave a comment

Thoughts and Comments on Organic Mongolia

By Julian Dierkes Early in December a bit of inspiration struck after I had read an ADB blog post and received a lot of responses to a tweet about that post. I wondered aloud whether it would be possible for … Continue reading

Posted in Countryside, Development, Environment, Grassland, Infrastructure, Policy, Public Policy, Regulation, Tourism | Tagged | 3 Comments

What if Mongolia Went All-Organic?

By Julian Dierkes I recently re-tweeted an ADB tweet about one of their blog posts, “The Foreseeable Future of Mongolia’s Agriculture” So important to note that “#Mongolia’s agriculture […] is organic, less polluted” thus huge, high-value potential in East Asia.#yummy … Continue reading

Posted in Cashmere, Countryside, Development, Environment, Grassland, Infrastructure, Policy, Policy, Public Policy, Regulation, Tourism | Tagged | 5 Comments

Potential Northeast Asian Economic Corridors: Differing Chinese and Russian Priorities

Sitting at a strategic crossroads between Europe and East Asia, Mongolia and North Korea are potential economic corridors for the wider Eurasian landmass. However, the realization of such corridors depends in large part on Chinese and Russian policy priorities, since … Continue reading

Posted in China, Economics, Infrastructure, International Relations, Japan, Mongolia and ..., North Korea, Russia, South Korea | Tagged | Leave a comment

Rosneft Pipelines to and Through Mongolia

Events in Ukraine create both uncertainties and opportunities in Ulaanbaatar. A changing balance of power in Europe and closer ties between two regional powers, Russia and China, certainly create new uncertainty for Mongolia. With their country’s “regionless” fate of living … Continue reading

Posted in China, Infrastructure, International Relations, Mongolia and ..., Russia, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment