A total of 95 members attended the first monthly meeting of the year 2011, held on January 24, with Mr. B. Byambasaikhan, Managing Director, Newcom Group, in the chair. Vice Director Ser-Od Ichinkhorloo reported that renewals to date were 149, as against 119 in the same period last year. He noted that members who have not renewed their membership by January 31, 2011 will be removed from the BCM mailing list and will not be able to attend BCM monthly meetings and other BCM members only events.

Ser-Od added that the BCM Tax working group successfully organized a two-day tax seminar to senior tax inspectors on January 14-15, 2011.

Ser-Od introduced two new working group co-chairs: Adam Bornstein, Country Director of International Finance Corporation in Mongolia, has been elected as the co-chair of the Capital Markets working group; James Liotta, Executive Director of Lehman, Lee & Xu Mongolia, is elected as co-chair BCM Legislative Committee.

Ser-Od also introduced the seven new members since the last meeting. They are:

1. Swedish Trade Council (Beijing Office), supports Swedish companies wanting to establish themselves, or grow, on the Chinese market. Present since 1994, they have today offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong. Their consultants in the Beijing office also cover the market of Mongolia.

2. Credit Mongol LLC, established in April 2000, is one of the pioneering non-bank financial institution (NBFI) in Mongolia. They provide micro, consumer, small and medium enterprise (SME) loans and financial services to customers in 6 provinces throughout Mongolia, including rural remote areas more than 700 kilometers from the capital city.

3. Nomadic Expeditions has been a leading provider of cultural, educational, and adventure travel in Mongolia since 1992. They offer a diverse selection of trips throughout Mongolia, as well as Tibet, Bhutan, Siberia, and China. With offices in the United States and Ulaanbaatar, Nomadic Expeditions has provided travel services for thousands of travelers during nearly two decades as the most respected name in travel to Mongolia. 

4. Mongolia Property Development, a subsidiary of Chuang's Consortium International Limited a Hong Kong based property developer, have purchased the Group's first piece of land in UB in 2010 under the name of MPD. They are going to build a Grade A office tower in the city centre of UB. Other than Hong Kong, they also have business in some of the major cities in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

5. Glogex LLC, established in January 2008 and with 27 employees and 10 consultants conducts business in ABC (Mongolian Standard) resource estimation, feasibility studies, due diligence in mining projects, detailed engineering of various processing plants, market research of various commodities.

6. WM Mining LLC owns Ikh Tokhoirol LLC which is the first US invested mining company in Mongolia. The company owns 7712A, 7713A, and 4121A gold mining licenses. The Ikh Tokhoirol (Big Bend) mining project is a Gold mining project in the Zaamar Goldfield located in northern central Mongolia. Ikh Tokhoirol intends to develop the gold resources of the Project by introducing modern, efficient placer mining methods to the Zaamar Goldfield.

7. Absolute Mining LLC, founded in February 2010, provides mining services such as exploitation feasibility study, geosypnoptics management, professional advice on mining, drilling and explosion management, mining process optimization, mining equipment selling and renting. Absolute Mining LLC is an accredited representative of “China Coal” state owned company, China as well as official representative of “Wilo” LLC, Germany and has partnerships with “Drako” LLC, Germany.

Mr. Byambasaikhan commented on the future events to which BCM will participate which are Coal Mongolia 2011, Mongolia Economic Forum and Mines & Money which will be held in Hong Kong. In addition, BCM will organize two trade shows in March.

The first presentation of the evening was by Mr. O. Adiya, Head of Secretariat, Consultative Council on Investment Climate and Private Sector Development (CCICPSD). Mr. Adiya started his presentation by introducing the CCICPSD’s composition and the structure. He commented on some issues that were resolved through the Council among one is according to the Council’s recommendation to improve legislations on purchase and sells of power, the Energy Regulatory Authority and the Newcom Group, the first private company invested in the wind energy sector, came to bilateral consent on fundamental issues of the draft agreement favorable to investors. The Newcom Group has established an “Energy Purchase and Sell Agreement” with the Energy Regulatory Authority.

Next, Mr. L. Naranbaatar, General Director, Glogex Group, talked about the upcoming Coal Mongolia 2011 International Conference & Exhibition which will be held on February 24-25, 2011 in the Chinggis Khaan Hotel. He began his presentation by giving some statistics numbers on current coal extraction and export. Then explained the objectives of the conference which are to put Mongolian coal on the international market, to expand channels of coal sales, to attract investment onto coal exploration and extraction projects, to develop supply network of the coal sector and to publicize Coal sector policy and planning of Mongolia to the investors. He expressed special gratitude to BCM for supporting the event and invited all BCM members to attend the conference. BCM members will get 30%off the registration fee.

The last presentation of the evening was by Mr. Jonathan Addleton, Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Mongolia. He commented on the US-Mongolia bilateral relations in 2010 and on the expectations for 2011. The Ambassador urged BCM to strengthen its own efforts to present a unified voice to Mongolian politicians as well as to the Mongolian public on the major policy decisions.