With the financial world in turmoil and mining in Mongolia still in the doldrums, the cheer and optimism that marked the two-day session of the Euromoney Mongolia Investment Forum in Ulaanbaatar in September was markedly absent at the Euromoney Mongolia-Asia Investment Forum 2009 in  Hong Kong on March 31. Instead, there was some somber reappraisal and a determination to go ahead.
The Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Mongolia (FIFTA) was the Government supporting organization of the conference, while Khan Bank and Trade and Development Bank were the Lead Sponsors, the Newcom Group the Co-Lead Sponsor, and BCM the Supporting Organization.
After the opening keynote address by Mr. M.Enkhbold, the Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister, the participants listened to panel discussions and attended workshops. There were four such panels during the day. The first was on Mongolia’s economic outlook in the face of a global economic turmoil, and the speakers, who included Dr. G. Batsukh, Ambassador of Mongolia to China, and Mr. Peter Morrow, Chief Executive Officer, Khan Bank, offered their views on such issues as the vulnerability of Mongolia to the global economic slowdown, and to the commodity cycle, and on managing the current account balance and inflation.
The second panel was on political, economic and legal reforms and speakers including Mr. Jim Dwyer, BCM Executive Director, and Mr. B.Enkhbat, Vice President, Eznis Airways, discussed what changes needed to be made to make the legal and political framework more accessible and transparent for international investors.
The third panel dealt with Mongolia’s infrastructure needs, and the participants included Mr. Alisher Ali Djumanov, Managing Partner, Eurasia Capital Management, Mr. Alain V. Fontaine, Managing Director, Investel Asia Limited, and Mr. Onon Orkhon, First Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Trade and Development Bank. They discussed how much harder it is now to access project financing than 12 months ago, the main bottlenecks hindering the private sector’s participation in building Mongolia’s infrastructure, and ways to strengthen private-public partnerships, and also took a close look at the performance of infrastructure funds in Mongolia.
The last panel discussed development and reform in the mining sector. Among the panelists were Mr. Eric de Seze, Chief Executive Officer, Areva Mongol, Dr Gerald Harper, Senior Vice President, Mongolian Operations, Western Prospector Group, and Mr. Alexander Molyneux, President, South Gobi Energy Resources. The subjects they covered included the prospects of ending the impasse on large mining projects, if new mining laws will boost competition, the impact of the downturn in commodity markets on investments in Mongolia, and the effect on the Chinese economic downturn on the Mongolian mining sector.
Of the two workshops, the one on “Mongolia's Financial System in Transition” was hosted by Khan Bank, and the other, on “Mongolia’s Financial Climate”, by Trade and Development Bank.