为期两天的2016蒙古国经济论坛当地时间3月31日在乌兰巴托落幕，本届论坛的主题是“教训、挑战和应对”，蒙古国总统和总理分别在论坛发表演讲，均对蒙古国当前经济困境的原因进行反思。

蒙古国总统额勒贝格道尔吉指出，当前经济低迷的主要原因在于蒙古国近几年糟糕的政治现状，许多蒙古国政治家为了选举而进行不负责任的政治表演，一些议员置国家利益于不顾，阻止一些大型矿业开发项目。

蒙古国总统额勒贝格道尔吉：五至十年前，当矿产品价格高的时候，如果积极推动矿产品出口，企业就不会面临当前这样的困难，几年前确实是发展经济的好机会，但是蒙古国却丧失了唾手可得的良机。

蒙古国总理赛汗比勒格也批评一些政治家打着爱国的旗号来阻止相关大型矿业项目的进展，影响了蒙古国对外来投资的吸引力。赛汗比勒格在演讲中说，要解决当前的经济困境，各政党和民众要革新对经济发展的认识，要与经济发展中的消极力量作斗争。

乌兰巴托邮报4月1日电

April 1st, 2016 | Posted by The UB Post

Mongolian Economic Forum focuses on solutions for diversifying the economy

By Ch.KHALIUN

The seventh annual Mongolian Economic Forum held from March 30 to 31, under the slogan, “Lessons, Challenges, and Solutions”, underlined solutions for diversifying the nation’s economy and determining its future trends.

During the opening ceremony of the forum, Prime Minister Ch.Saikhanbileg emphasized that current economic difficulties in Mongolia were not impacted by any external impacts, but by poor state policies.

The PM said that since Mongolia adopted democracy, the country has faced several economic challenges, some of which derived from domestic issues and some not. He underlined that when Mongolia’s economy was improving, Mongolians made a choice to expand its consumption, not learning from its prior mistakes and crises.

“When the prices for coal were drastically increasing in 2011, Mongolia could have move forward on Tavan Tolgoi, and started building its railway. And if government didn’t take back TT from the private sector in 2013, they would have completed the railway and Mongolia’s coal export would have looked differently,” said the PM.

Ch.Saikhanbileg stressed, “Current difficulties facing the country can be considered not as the world’s, but Mongolia’s; not business, but political; and not economical, but mental diffulties. In order to overcome difficulties, poltical parties, the state, and the public need to treat their poltical and economic mentality, otherwise, the nation’s politics and economics won’t be treated.”

Saikhanbileg noted that a country can’t be developed based only on its natural resources, and Mongolia needs advanced technology and qualified personnel. He underlined that Mongolia needs to develop other sectors and diversify the economy.

Even though Finance Minister B.Bolor reported last week that the government’s overall debt has reached seven billion USD, during his speech, the PM noted that the government’s debt is 4.9 billion USD and Mongolia’s total debt owed to commercial banks and the private sector has reached 21 billion USD.（巴图君在这里禁不住感慨一下：my God，一个300万人口的国家总负债居然达到了210亿美元，人均7000美元！！！当然，210亿美元中只有部分是属于政府债务。按照财政部长上周的说法，政府债务为70亿美元；而按照总理演讲中提到的说法，政府债务为49亿美元。即便是49亿美元分摊到300万人口头上，人均也“拉“1600多美元的“饥荒”。）

Director of International Finance Corporation’s East-Asia Department Vivek Pathak underlined that Mongolia needs to equally develop other sectors, and not focus only on the mining sector. “By developing all sectors, including tourism, agriculture, and focusing on meat exports, Mongolia will overcome economic difficulty and become a big player in the global market,” said Pathak.（巴图君为这老兄的观点点赞，在当前形势下，蒙古国经济中难得的亮点也算是出路吧，在于发展旅游、农业和肉类出口等产业，不能再延续过度依赖采矿业的老路。在这些领域，应该说，中国政府对蒙古国释放了极大的善意和给予了不小的支持。对于想投资蒙古国或与蒙古国开展贸易的朋友们而言，这几个领域可以多关注一下。）

The Chairman of the Office of the President, P.Tsagaan, said that he hopes the issues and solutions discussed during this year’s economic forum will be important in determining the nation’s future economic trends.

Attending the second day of the forum, President Ts.Elbegdorj emphasized that if Mongolia had implemented its mega projects earlier, the nation’s economy wouldn’t be facing its current difficulties. Ts.Elbegdorj underlined that because the country’s economic situation is difficult, seniors and women take out loans against welfare allowances for food and medicine. He added that the numbers of financially viable entities are decreasing day by day, and they are taking out loans to pay employee salaries.

“Mongolia’s budget sees approximately one trillion MNT in deficits annually, and an amendment is made to the state budget. Amending the budget means cutting loans for citizens and businesses. If we had implemented mega projects, many new jobs would have been created and entities would have money. Mongolia is not a luxury country that can lose opportunities. We don’t always get chances. We are losing our opportunities because of politics. That’s why we need to talk about politics not economics. We need regulations on making politicians accountable,” the Mongolian President said.（巴图君特别认同总统的这个观点：因为政治原因，我们正在失去很多机会。这也是为什么我们需要讨论政治而不是经济。我们需要建立让政治家负起责任来的规则。）

The second day of the forum was held under the theme of “Business Environment”.

On the second day of the forum, Director of Mongol Idea Kh.Khaliunbat underlined that other countries don’t succeed in implementing the mortgage loan programs being carried out in Mongolia. He said that available apartments have been in excessive supply several times. “Prices for apartments fall when surplus exceeds demand, in accordance with market principles. The prices for apartments are not decreasing in Mongolia, and apartments worth 8.7 trillion MNT are frozen in the domestic market,” Khaliunbat claimed.

Subconferences of the forum were held on “Safe Food – Sustainable and Efficient Business”, “Social Insurance Upgrade”, “Partnership for Development”, and “Accurate and Capable Government”.

Organizers of the forum underlined that this year’s forum focused on solutions, while forums held in previous years discussed only challenges and issues that need to be tackled, and were not focused on solutions.

They also underlined that over the past three years, the forum organizers followed a policy to not invite foreigners to the forum. They said that Mongolia needs a podium for discussing its domestic issues. The organizers announced that they are going to hold a business summit in June with foreign investors.

Speaker of Parliament Z.Enkhbold presented closing remarks at the two-day forum.

巴图君小结语：

关于蒙古国的投资环境及从官方到民间的对华态度，一直想写点东西与大家分享，让大家了解一个真实客观的蒙古国，既非从百度搜到的那些“一夫多妻”、“****”之类的智商不达标人士津津乐道的蒙古国，也非部分不良商业中介或翻译及“割草队”口中充满商机的蒙古国。欢迎大家多关注蒙古资讯平台，巴图君会在今后陆续写一些原创文章，为大家全方位解读蒙古国。

总的来说，现在的蒙古国，机会少，风险大。当然，任何事物都具有双面性。祸兮，福之所倚，福兮，祸之所伏。收益和风险是成正比的。

蒙古国总统和总理在本次经济论坛上对这些年蒙古国经济败局的反思还比较客观，对于改善蒙古国投资环境开了个好头。但是，政治精英的正确观点，未必会在当前被广大基层民众认可和接受。多数人在切身经历着经济低迷带来的生活水准的下降，心中有不满和怨气，他们完全有理由认为是政府不行。大呼拉尔选举即将到来，且看蒙古国民众的选择吧，也希望能平稳进行。选举结果在一定程度上也能反映出蒙古国民众的水准。