Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Authors: Byambajav Dalaibuyan, Mongolian Institute for Innovative Policies and Julian Dierkes, UBC
On the morning of 24 June 2020, Mongolian social media was abuzz with posts of Ulaanbaatar residents proclaiming to have voted in the election. Some were wearing colourful deel — Mongolia’s national costume — to emphasise the sense of civic duty and respect attached to the act of voting. Polling stations closed 15 hours later amid heavy rain, localised flooding and even hail.
Authors: Byambajav Dalaibuyan, Mongolian Institute for Innovative Policies and Julian Dierkes, UBC
On 24 June 2020, Mongolia will hold its eighth parliamentary election since adopting its 1992 democratic constitution. This election is significant at a time when democracy worldwide increasingly appears under threat. It will assess the state of Mongolia’s democracy — which has exhibited signs of weakening — and whether the country can buck a global democratic backsliding trend.
Author: Julian Dierkes, UBC
Mongolia’s economy hummed through 2019 on the strength of brown coal exports, regaining some footing following the near-disaster state of government finances in 2017. Repayment of several sovereign bonds looms in coming years and coal and copper prices will have a major impact on Mongolia’s finances, as will the ability of political parties to resist the temptation to buy victory in the 2020 parliamentary election with populist presents. Read more…
Author: Gan-Ochir Doojav, the Bank of Mongolia
The government of Mongolia has been implementing the IMF’s three-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility since May 2017. The government’s program aims to stabilise the economy, reduce the fiscal deficit and debt, rebuild foreign exchange reserves, introduce measures to mitigate the boom-bust cycle, and promote sustainable and inclusive growth. Read more…
Author: Julian Dierkes, UBC
After the excitement of the 2016 parliamentary and 2017 presidential elections, and the 2017 International Monetary Fund-brokered bailout, Mongolia’s relatively quiet 2018 was welcome respite. Rather than continuing to follow the meandering path of political advancement of previous decades, Mongolia is getting bogged down in an unhealthy mix of popular frustration, corruption and a powerful party duopoly. Read more…
Author: Colonel Amarbayasgalan Shambaljamts, Mongolian Armed Forces
During the era of Communist rule in the former Soviet Union, Mongolia was integrated into a Soviet collective security system. Since the breakup of that system in the early 1990s, land-locked Mongolia has sought a way to get along with both of its large and powerful neighbours, China and Russia, and to ensure its own security through defence and diplomacy. Mongolia’s post-Cold War efforts to develop an independent security policy offer insight into the delicate strategic balancing that its geographic location ‘between the hammer and the anvil’ demands. Read more…
Author: Julian Dierkes, UBC
2017 was the year when corruption in Mongolia changed from being a taxing nuisance and moral outrage into a systemic block to political decision-making. Read more…
Authors: Evelyn Goh, ANU and James Reilly, University of Sydney
As the dust settles from the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress, one of the strongest edifices left standing is Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative — the US$1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Two members of the BRI Leading Small Group, Wang Hunning and Wang Yang, secured five-year positions on the reshuffled Politburo Standing Committee. The BRI even received an awkward mention in the revised Party Constitution. Read more…
Authors: Julian Dierkes and Mendee Jargalsaikhan, UBC
In the last 20 months, Mongolia has seen a parliamentary and presidential election, three changes in governments and several associated bureaucratic personnel rotations, all in the context of a sovereign debt crisis. This political turnover has led to serious neglect of the real challenges facing Mongolia. Read more…
Author: Sharad K. Soni, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The inauguration on 10 July 2017 of Democratic Party (DP) candidate Khaltmaa Battulga as Mongolia’s new president was important for maintaining political balance in a parliament dominated by the opposing Mongolian People’s Party (MPP). Battulga ran masterful anti-China rhetoric during his campaign to defeat his rival Miyegombo Enkhbold, the leader of the ruling MPP. Read more…
Author: Frank Adam Negri, Alaska National Guard
Mongolia is quickly becoming known for its global military presence. With China and Russia as its only direct neighbours, Mongolia faces a conundrum. Mongolia’s foreign policy is dominated by the necessity to balance the influences of its powerful neighbours and the need to gather support from like-minded countries. Mongolia refers to this as their ‘Third Neighbour Policy’, which aims to allow for economic and political self-determination independent of both China and Russia. Mongolia’s military is key to the execution of this policy. Read more…
Author: Julian Dierkes, UBC
It has been a momentous year both economically and politically for Mongolia. But not in a good way. Just five years ago Mongolia was flying high. It was the world’s fastest growing economy with a wealth of resources to fuel further development, a solidly institutionalised democracy and a young population with a high standard of at least basic education. It seemed like the eternal blue sky was the limit. Read more…
Author: Kathleen Buckingham, World Resources Institute
China has the highest afforestation rate in the world, resulting in a 9 per cent increase in forest cover over the past 30 years. This is not for reasons of altruism. Read more…
Author: Anthony Rinna, Sino-NK
On 14 April 2016 the foreign ministers of Mongolia and Russia signed what they termed a Medium-term Strategic Partnership Development Program in Ulaanbaatar. Plans to establish a strategic partnership between Mongolia and Russia date at least to September 2014, when the presidents of the two countries met in the Mongolian capital. Read more…
Author: Martin Foo, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
In February 1987, a pair of junior American diplomats arrived in pre-democratic Mongolia to lay the groundwork for establishing a US embassy — no simple task in Ulaanbaatar, the world’s coldest capital. When the embassy opened a year later, its American staff resided in a ramshackle apartment building that they nicknamed ‘Faulty Towers‘. Much has changed since then.
