http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcast en-us Copyright © 2010 Mongolia Business Blog Mongolia Business is the first and only podcast about business and investment climate in Mongolia. Join us each Friday as Mergen, Bobby, and Lhagva discuss current and trending topics. Hopefully, you will gain real insight into doing business and investin Mongolia Business Blog Mongolia Business is the first and only podcast about business and investment climate in Mongolia. Join us each Friday as Mergen, Bobby, and Lhagva discuss current and trending topics. Hopefully, you will gain real insight into doing business and investing in Mongolia. Brought to you by Mongolia Business Blog. Mergen Chuluun is the Founder and Managing Director of WebGuru Co Ltd, an internet marketing & web development company in Mongolia. Bobby Barnes is the General Manager of ICMC Mongolia, a corporate management company. Lhagva Erdene is a PR Manager at Xac Bank. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. Please send your questions and thoughts to MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com. Mongolia Business is the first and only podcast about business and investment climate in Mongolia. Join us each Friday as Mergen, Bobby, and Lhagva discuss current and trending topics. Hopefully, you will gain real insight into doing business and investing in Mongolia. Brought to you by Mongolia Business Blog. Mergen Chuluun is the Founder and Managing Director of WebGuru Co Ltd, an internet marketing & web development company in Mongolia. Bobby Barnes is the General Manager of ICMC Mongolia, a corporate management company. Lhagva Erdene is a PR Manager at Xac Bank. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. Please send your questions and thoughts to MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com. Mergen Chuluun mergen.chuluun@gmail.com Copyright © 2010 Mongolia Business BlogBusiness/Business NewsBusiness/Management & MarketingNews & Politicsno Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Go Help, UK Charity, in Mongolia Our guest speaker today is Dulguun Batkhishig from Go Help, a UK based Charity with operations here in Mongolia. The trustees and founders were interested in doing charitable activities in their spare time. The idea came with the main idea, a Mongolia Charity Rally where people drive by car from London to Ulaanbaatar. The idea is to raise awareness of development issues and charitable projects in Mongolia as well as to take people to physically and actively engaged in the process of getting involved in charitable work. Go Help has been operating in Mongolia since June 2010... For more information about Go Help and the Charity Rallies, please visit www.gohelp.org.uk and www.charityrallies.org... Sponsors of the show are ICMC, a corporate services company, and Webguru, an internet marketing and web development agency. Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101015.mp3 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:55:55 +0800 00:24:58 charity rally, go help, uk charity, uk mongolia, mongol rally, mongolia rally, charity rallies, uk charity mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/9uzHeZ1eyBY" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/9uzHeZ1eyBY/mb20101015.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101015.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/GoHelpEp35.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development in Mongolia Today, we have with us two guest speakers and two participants. Our guest speakers today are Anna Lin and Francis Vierboom. Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) program is a program for 18-30 year olds to work on development projects, mainly in the Asia Pacific. The program has been running since about 1996 and has operations in 25 countries. Mongolia has about 20 volunteers. Most of the volunteers in Mongolia are here for a year... The application process is very similar to a job appliation. Applications vary by the job, but they are becoming more popular. There were about 900 applications for 140 people selected for positions... For more information on AYAD, please visit www.ayad.com.au. Sponsors of the show are ICMC, a corporate services company, and Webguru, an internet marketing and web development agency. Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101008.mp3 Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:12:23 +0800 00:26:13 australia, mongolia, australia mongolia, australian youth, work opportunity for australians, international work for australians, australian youth ambassadors, australian youth ambassadors for development no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/WP9IEfyCCZU" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/WP9IEfyCCZU/mb20101008.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101008.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/AustralianYouthAmbassadorsEp34.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Doing internship and gaining career skills with AIESEC in Mongolia Our guest speakers today are Evelyn, Narantsogt, code name Nate, and Tomas. With Bobby being out of town, Lhagva and Mergen host the show. Our topic today is about AIESEC and its operations in Mongolia. AIESEC is an international not-for-profit student-ran organization that was established in 1948 and has presence in over 100 countries... AIESEC opporations include teaching students career related skills, bringing in foreigners for internship in Mongolia, as well as sending students from Mongolia abroad for internship abroad... For more information on AIESEC, please write to email aiesecmongolia@gmail.com. Sponsors of the show are ICMC, a corporate services company, and Webguru, an internet marketing and web development agency. Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101001.mp3 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:58:00 +0800 00:20:33 aiesec, aiesec mongolia, mongolia career, internship mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/l1tp8hILZBY" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/l1tp8hILZBY/mb20101001.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20101001.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/aiesecEp33.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Employment opportunities in Mongolia for foreigners and expats Our guest speakers today are Jeffrey Cole from Asia Pacific Investment Partners, Thomas Flahive from MICC (Mongolia International Capital Corporation), and Trevor Syrad from Talk Talk English. Thomas used Princeton in Asia to find his work opportunity... Jeff had made contacts in Mongolia from his earlier visits... Trevor prefers to hire teachers from people who are already here and recommends people to come here after doing some networking... Tomas and Jeff spoke about being able to do what no one in their early or mid-twenties can dream of doing in, say, Manhattan... Mentioned topics: Princeton in Asia, internship opportunities in Mongolia, teaching opportunities in Mongolia... Sponsors of the show are ICMC, a corporate services company, and Webguru, an internet marketing and web development agency. Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100924.mp3 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:59:00 +0800 00:21:54 mongolia employment, working in mongolia, work in mongolia, foreign employment, mongolia, expats, teaching Mongolia, internship mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/8fYy5BMeT3c" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/8fYy5BMeT3c/mb20100924.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100924.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/EmploymentOpportunitiesEp32.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Marketing in Mongolia Joining us this week is Roy Dongen of Ganymedes and Steve Ujvarosy of Telchar Systems. With Mergen unavailable for this episode, Lhagva and Bobby host the show. Altan Taria is under heat for their pricing... Anticompetitive laws may get changed... University tuition has increased 16-20 percent or more... Sponsors of the show are ICMC, a corporate services company, and Webguru, an internet marketing and web development agency. Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100827.mp3 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:05:00 +0800 00:28:16 mongolian marketing, mongolia, marketing, altan taria, pricing, anticompetitie law no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/AB7hRft8kgQ" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/AB7hRft8kgQ/mb20100827.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100827.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MarketinginMongoliaEp31.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Nadam and Summertime in Mongolia Naadam and Summertime in Mongolia Episode This time we talk about summertime in Mongolia, the Naadam Festival and the change in the city when city people leaving and country people coming in town. Joining us this week is Patrick, the intern from WebGuru. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100723.mp3 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:58:52 +0800 00:26:36 mongolian summertime, mongolia, naadam, summertime no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/IFiQ29fsGtI" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/IFiQ29fsGtI/mb20100723.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100723.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/NaadamSummertimeEp30.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Mongolian Tourism Industry with Emeline Bettex, owner of Ciel Mongol Tours and Guesthouse The Investment Environment in Mongolia with Marc Higgins of Dig Dog and Steve Ujvarosy Mini bus drivers block roads to protest the Ulaanbaatar government’s decision to remove them from the roads…the Parliament decided on the rail policy, which is to build a wide gauge track north towards Russia…the Government’s plan to cut 7,000 jobs has been postponed until 2011…Joining us this week is Emeline Bettex of Ciel Mongol, a tourist company and guesthouse aimed at French speakers from around the world. Ciel Mongol has been operating since 2006. Emeline talks about how the tourism industry has changed since 2006, most notably in the growing numbers of tourist who come to Mongolia every year. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100702.mp3 Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:59:44 +0800 00:19:00 mongolian tourism, mongolia, business mongolia, invest mongolia, mongolia investments, capital, financial capital, emerging markets no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/cLx0I7TEgjk" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/cLx0I7TEgjk/mb20100702.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100702.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/TourismInMongoliaEp29.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Mongolian Agribusiness with Roberto Matus of CHF Mongolia Agribusiness in Mongolia with Roberto Matus, Program Manager CHF Mongolia and Steve Ujvarosy Vast natural resources have been found in Afghanistan, similar to the situation in Mongolia…government says it is unable to resume child care payments…government held a “meat fair” that brought meat prices down slightly…Roberto Matus is a program manager with CHF Mongolia, an international NGO working in the country. He works on the agribusiness program with CHF, which has included such projects as a pig farm in the Darkhan area. CHF is specifically working on pork, dairy, market linkages and business development services through a sister NGO called Development Solutions. Roberto feels that there are opportunities for expanding on agribusiness in Mongolia, but there are challenges. The transition from the planned economy marked the end of large intensive farms to more individualized agriculture. CHF provides training for entrepreneurs in agribusiness to help increase the chances of success of those working in agriculture. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100618.mp3 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:55:22 +0800 00:29:08 mongolian agribusiness, mongolia, business mongolia, invest mongolia, mongolia investments, capital, financial capital, emerging markets no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/VZKmBjLWNwc" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/VZKmBjLWNwc/mb20100618.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100618.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MongolianAgribusinessEp28.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Investment Environment in Mongolia with Marc Higgins of Dig Dog The Investment Environment in Mongolia with Marc Higgins of Dig Dog and Steve Ujvarosy Mongolian government may cut 7,000 jobs…Child-care payments will be put on hold…UB mayor cancelled several license of night clubs but granted additional licenses for the World Cup…Mongolian stock exchange will bring in outside advisors for assistance…Marc Higgins is the executive director of Dig Dog. To Marc individually and Dig Dog as a company Mongolia represents one of the best opportunities in the world at the moment to enter into the market and do well financially on a personal level as well as a company-wide level. With all of the large projects that will be coming on-line within the next five to ten years there will be large markets to sustain companies in sectors from mining supply to the service industry. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100611.mp3 Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:57:30 +0800 00:21:40 investment environment, mongolia, business mongolia, invest mongolia, mongolia investments, capital, financial capital, emerging markets no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/FGOlgf0YBvs" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/FGOlgf0YBvs/mb20100611.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100611.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/InvestmentEnvironmentEp27.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Private Equities with Mandar Jayawant of Frontier Investments Chin is now studying the feasibility of free trade with Mongolia... Oyu Tolgoi may obtain funding from IFC and EBRD... US-based company called Mongolia Forward to join forces with MonAtom to process uranium here in Mongolia... Petroleum prices went up recently. This is causing criticism and suspicion from general public... Mongolian Ministry of Finance and Goverment of Mongolia are discussing budget revision for 2010. The new budget could put additional inflation pressure... Our guest speaker today is Mandar Jayawant from Frontier Investments. The company is looking to change its name soon. Mandar chose to start investment fund in Mongolia because Mongolia has rather open, free, and secure regime and yet the market is not saturated compared to some other East Asian and Central Asian countries. Company is in the process of raising 50 million USD and will be investing them in companies looking to grow but are fully collaterized already. Company will not be focused on mining, but rather infrastructure (transportation, logistics, etc), agriculture (cashmere, meat, milk), and industry. Additionally, the company tries to focus on the good side of private equity... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100528.mp3 Fri, 28 May 2010 18:58:54 +0800 00:26:49 private equity, private equities, mongolia, business mongolia, invest mongolia, mongolia investments, capital, financial capital, emerging markets no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/uh6Q0yk8VHI" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/uh6Q0yk8VHI/mb20100528.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100528.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/PrivateEquityEp26.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Young Leadership Program with Walt Jenkins of Zorig Foundation USA South Gobi Resources has decided to put a hold on its railway link from mine site to China due to pending government decision on railway gauge size and other decisions... Just Group has obtained the rights to mine the Oloon Ovoot mine, which was held by Mongol Gazar, the company owned by Myanganbayar and responsible for failures of several banks here in Mongolia... The Zorig Foundation was started in 1999 about a year after the death of Zorig. Young Leadership Program under the Zorig Foundation was started in 2003. It is a program for young college graduates between the ages of 22 and 25 and is eight months long... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100521.mp3 Fri, 21 May 2010 18:45:33 +0800 00:27:05 young leadership program, young leaders mongolia, mongolia leaders, leadership development, mongolia, mongolia business, zorig foundation, zorig foundation north america no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/gRM7LWk9Dr0" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/gRM7LWk9Dr0/mb20100521.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100521.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/YoungLeadersEp25.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Managing Mongolian Staff with Trevor Syrad of Talk Talk English We have quite a few listeners giving us feedback on iTunes... New mining licenses will not be issued, however, transactions of existing mining licenses will be allowed. Mongol 999 has named board of directors which include Myanganbayar of Mongol Gazar, the company linked to failure of few banks and company purported to have borrowed few hundred million dollars from Goldman Sachs... Trevor Syrad came to Mongolia in 2006. He has over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management. Trevor believes that doing business in Mongolia is much easier than doing business in China or Vietnam. Anybody who is considering doing business in Vietnam or China, should come to Mongolia. Market is smaller and a lot nicer here... Trevor is now starting a HR branch. Talk Talk English business is already well established now. Human resources management tend to have administrative focus. Often, the responsibility is given to Human Resources so that people do not have the responsibility. In reality, human resources should be the responsibility of everyone... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100514.mp3 Fri, 14 May 2010 19:28:33 +0800 00:25:33 mongolian staff, human resources mongolia, mongolian employee no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/ca3QkKE6Wk8" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/ca3QkKE6Wk8/mb20100514.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100514.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/HumanResourceEp24.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Banking in Mongolia, State Bank, Bank Failures, Zoos Bank, Anod Bank, and Government Ownership in Bankingwith Ben Turnbull of State Bank Mongol 999 now has over 1000 members. The group had its first meeting today at 3pm. To become a member, Mongolian companies can pay the membership fee of 1 million tugrugs, equivalent to about... Mongolia is expected to grow by nearly ten percent through 2014... Ben Turnbull is the CEO of State Bank. Mr. Turnbull has been in the banking industry since 1970. Mr. Turnbull has over 5 years of experience in Mongolia. He was Deputy Cheif Officer of Khan Bank and Acting CEO of Zoos Bank. He is now the CEO of State Bank... Bridge Bank is not a new method for managing failed banks... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100505.mp3 Wed, 5 May 2010 19:32:05 +0800 00:34:24 mongolia, banking, mongolia banking, state bank of mongolia, zoos bank, bridge bank, bank restructuring, state owned bank, bank failure no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/aUumVpY96lk" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/aUumVpY96lk/mb20100505.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100505.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/StateBankEp23.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Financial Sector and Investments with S. Munkhsukh, Managing Director of Investments and Portfolio Management at Newcom Group Mongolia has placed a freeze on issuance of new mining licenses and transfer of existing licenses amid concerns of illegal activities, as per the President... Khaan Bank CEO Pete Morrow will resign next week, according to some sources... National companies are joining forces to create a company called 999, which will bid on the Tavan Tolgoi and others. The local consortium is already comprised of more than 700 local companies who each donated 1 million tugrugs each... Government agreed to raise pension by 30% effective October 1, 2010... Mongolian government, instead of completely eliminating the windfall tax, is looking at leaving 5% that increases to 7.5% or 10%... Our guest speaker today is Mr. Munkhsukh, who is Managing Director of Investment and Portfolio Management Department at Newcom Group. Newcom is an investment company that fully or partially owns various investments in Mongolia, including Mobicom, the largest telecom company in the country, and EZnis, the largest domestic airline in country. In about 5 years, we should have well developed stock exchange. Once there are improvements in the stock exchange, there should be a snowball effect... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100430.mp3 Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:19:31 +0800 00:28:36 mongolia, business mongolia, finance, financial sector, mongolia economy, mongolian economy, investments, invest mongolia, mongolia investment no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/wyiITr8zHH4" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/wyiITr8zHH4/mb20100430.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100430.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/FinancialSectorEp22.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Tavan Bogd History and Distribution Business Evolution with D Hulan, Executive Vice President of Tavan Bogd Group, one of Mongolia's Leading Holding Companies More strikes demanding increases in salary. Strikers propose the minimum wage to be 180,000 tugrugs instead of 108,000... Khan Resources case continues. A claim is being filed in the capital administrative court arguing that the Nuclear Energy Agency does not have the authority to invalidate their licences... Last week, top 100 firms were awarded from the Chamber of Commerce and Trade. Top five banks were named, but somehow the Trade and Development Bank was not inlcluded... Since being founded in 1995, Tavan Bogd has now evolved into a group comprising of 12 daughter companies, 2 joint ventures, and 4 large companies in which company own a large share... Since democratization in 1990, many people were going into trading. We started doing the same with Fuji Film... Getting started with Fuji Film was quite an interesting story. When Ms. Hulan's husband took a photo of a Mongolian person in the countryside, he was able to get nearly a whole sheep in return for the color photo... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100423.mp3 Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:12:14 +0800 00:23:23 mongolian business, democratization, distribution, mongolia, distribution, electronics no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/UXgcLGJwXHc" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/UXgcLGJwXHc/mb20100423.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100423.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/HoldingCompanyDistributionEp21.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Starting a Mining Supply Company with Marc Higgins of Dig Dog Mongolia National debt equals state budget. Altan Taria is decreasing its flour pricing. Railroad workers demanding increased salary rates. Khan Resources mining and exploration licenses to mine uranium in Dornod province has been canceled by the Nuclear Energy Agency. There are suspicians of possible talks of Mongolia developing the mine with Russia. In response, Khan Resources may take case to the courts... Marc Higgins is CEO of Dig Dog Mongolia, a company that will be supplying excavator buckets for mining companies. After speaking with some people in the industry and doing some research, in November, it became pretty clear that there is an opportunity. As such, the company was formed in December. Things tend to move a bit slower here in Mongolia, but the opportunity is good. There is a dominant player in the buckets market, but the market will change as new players show up... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100416.mp3 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:04:32 +0800 00:25:22 mining supply, dig dog, excavator buckets, mongolia, mining mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/X6kAsCgIGko" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/X6kAsCgIGko/mb20100416.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100416.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MiningSupplyBucketsEp20.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Nuclear Energy & Uranium Mining with Undraa Agvaanluvsan, Deputy Director at Institute for Strategic Studies, National Security Council of Mongolia Our guest speaker is Nuclear Energy expert Undraa Agvaanluvsan, who is Deputy Director at Institute for Strategic Studies, National Security Council of Mongolia. She is also a Visiting Professor at Stanford University. We cover nuclear energy field on international world scale, global warming perspective, and in Mongolia... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100409.mp3 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:44:52 +0800 00:41:27 nuclear energy, uranium mining, mining, uranium, dornod, dornod uranium no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/5ZDV_IKXiAQ" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/5ZDV_IKXiAQ/mb20100409.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100409.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/NuclearEnergyEp19.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Responsible Mining with Ch. Undram, Executive Director of Responsible Mining Initiative (RMI), Rebecca Darling, Policy & Advocacy Specialist for EPRC-USAID Project, & Amy Sexton, Senior Advisor with Sustainability East Asia This week, we cover responsible mining with Ch. Undram, Executive Director of Responsible Mining Initiative (RMI), Rebecca Darling, Policy & Advocacy Specialist for EPRC-USAID Project, & Amy Sexton, Senior Advisor with Sustainability East Asia... First some news highlights... Tugrug has risen against the US Dollar to 1372 tugrugs... New bill on casina has been submitted to the Parliament by two Parliament Members. One percent of the profits will go towards non profit organizations... Starting in April 1st, Japanese will not need visa to stay in Mongolia for up to 30 days. Minister of foreign affairs mentions that this is part of a long term strategic partnership with Japan... RMI is a non-governmental, non-profit organization created from multiple stakeholders... You may get additional information on the RMI initiative at www.rmi.mn... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100326.mp3 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:14:04 +0800 00:29:53 responsible mining, responsible mining mongolia, mining, mining mongolia, responsible mining initiative, rmi, corporate social responsibility no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/oCxdeUCP8Bs" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/oCxdeUCP8Bs/mb20100326.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100326.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/ResponsibleMiningEp18.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Investing in Mongolian Real Estate with guest speaker Jess Lampe of Asia Pacific Investment Partners (APIP) This week, our guest speaker is Jess Lampe of Asia Pacific Investment Partners. APIP has a few subsidiaries, including Mongolian Properties, real estate agency and property development company. We will be talking about Mongolian real estate market: where to invest, investment options, property vs land, land vs real estate ownership, etc... 2nd Annual Mongolia Investment Conference will be taking place at the Westin Beijing Hotel on March 25th... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100319.mp3 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:08:04 +0800 00:25:12 real estate, properties, overseas properties, overseas properties investment, overseas investment, overseas real estate, mongolian real estate, mongolian properties no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/oZGewf-poto" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/oZGewf-poto/mb20100319.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100319.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/RealEstateEp17.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Environmental and Social Risk Management with guest speaker Amy Sexton of Sustainability East Asia This week, we cover environmental and social risk and how to manage that risk with guest speaker Amy Sexton of Sustainability East Asia... Topics include, mining environmental risk, migration of new people into new areas, social risk from company perspective and social perspective, etc... Goldman Sachs may have filed case against Government of Mongolia... Salary levels in Mongolia may have risen 50-100% year-over-year... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100312.mp3 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:08:04 +0800 00:24:31 social risk, environmental risk, social environmental risk, environmental social risk, social risk management, mining social risk, mining environmental risk, mongolia social risk, mongolia environmental risk, environmental risk management no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/aa1RrJmcN-k" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/aa1RrJmcN-k/mb20100312.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100312.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/SocialRiskEp16.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Transparency 101 with guest speaker Demir Yener of USAID Part 2 of 2 ...So, why are Mongolian companies not fully transparent? Is that because companies in Mongolia have something to hide or do they just do not understand the benefits of transparency? This is probably a little bit of both... The leading banks are some of the most transparent organizations in Mongolia. Mongolian energy and mining companies are on their way. BTW, the biggest mining company in Mongolia, Erdenet, is not transparent. We don't recall ever seeing the financials or in-depth information about the managers... What exactly are the benefits of being more transparent for companies? Mongolian companies tend to have two balance sheets to avoid taxation. Maybe this means the government has high taxes or need to look at the structure. However, the existing tax structure in Mongolia is very low, so there should be little motive for people to not pay their taxes. It's possible that people are not paying taxes because they are used to not paying taxes, so they continue out of habit... Transparency benefits include better financing, better protection of company rights... Some fears of Mongolian executives that prevent them from making their companies more transparent.... For more information on being more transparent, please visit frc.mn... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100305b.mp3 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:21:04 +0800 00:23:04 transparency, transparency mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/QTM_aPW3Y6M" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/QTM_aPW3Y6M/mb20100305b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100305b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/Transparency101Ep15b.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Transparency 101 with guest speaker Demir Yener of USAID Part 1 of 2 An update on the Dzud: Mongolian herders are learning from this experience to possibly plan better next time. 12 or 13 years ago, Mongolia had 11 million heads of herds. Today, Mongolia has 45 million heads of livestock. Plus, the balance has changed with drastic increase in goats. Mongolia is considering exporting livestock on foot... Transparency and disclosure seem to be twin words. Both relate to accessing finance, whether it is a loan from a bank or looking to sell stock shares or debt instruments. Lack of transparency causes shares to not reach their potential. Disclosure is the method through which information are made available public. Mongolia follows some of the old soviet regime in terms of disclosure. There is consensus forming around ways to make information available public... Today, the information on the ownership of companies is not publicly available. Lack of information leads to speculation... Investing in Mongolian stocks is speculation. When trying to invest in Mongolia, two years ago, the information I got on a company was similar to a marketing brochure... The standard information from Mongolian Standards organization is not publicly available for free today. The organization charges fees. How can the Mongolian government promote standards by charging money for reports? ...About two years ago, Mongolian Chamber of Trade and Industry did a survey. There are 380 companies listed publicly. Out of this 380, 56 of them did not report anything, no annual reports and no board of directors meetings on record. Therefore, the Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC) suspended 200 some companies; Please note that the copanies were not delisted, but simply suspended... The question is how are the rights of the minority shareholders' rights protected? Also, lack of transparency by Mongolian companies probably prevents them from reaching their own potentials. There are many investors and investment bankers interested in helping Mongolian companies be listed on the stock exchange, but their transparency requirements seem to be much higher than what Mongolian companies doing today... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100305a.mp3 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:58:00 +0800 00:25:04 transparency, transparency mongolia, mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/VtSA2iJK4pE" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/VtSA2iJK4pE/mb20100305a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100305a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/Transparency101Ep15a.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) World-Class Thoroughbred Race Track and Horse Jockeys in Mongolia with John Gorton Part 2 of 2 ...Plan is to not hold races during the Naadam to respect the traditional Mongolian holiday... Mauritius, which has the same population as Mongolia, has 150 million USD a year in betting. Mongolia has a chance to make just as much as Mauritius and more... The key is to be responsible through licensing, education, as well as support of local non-profits, orphans, children, and hospitals... Mongolian racing will be clockwise, following the sun. There is another additional very exciting possibility is to develop world-class jockeys in Mongolia who can then race all over the world. The fact that children at age five can race on horse bareback gives Mongolians an exceptional and a natural advantage to become great jockeys... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100226b.mp3 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:19:26 +0800 00:24:26 thoroughbred racing, horse racing, mongolian horses, horse race track, horse jockey no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/vx12b3rg5fo" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/vx12b3rg5fo/mb20100226b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100226b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/HorseRaceTrackEp14b.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) World-Class Thoroughbred Race Track and Horse Jockeys in Mongolia with John Gorton Part 1 of 2 Bobby and Lhagva are both sick and not with us today. Steve Ujvarosy of Telchar Systems is with us again today... Mongolia now has joined the ranks of oil producing nations with 200 ton reserve... Depate on the higher education has been interesting. There has been talks of a four hundred million dollar project to build a campus by the airport... John Gorton trained horses in Beijing from 2003 to 2006. The system ran on Hong Kong system and it was fantastic. Hong Kong Jockey club is the biggest in the world. John was here in 2006 and met someone wanting to set up a horse race jockey club... Nowhere in the world is the horse revered as much as in Mongolia. In most countries, there are only a handful of parliamentary members interested in horses. However, in Mongolia, there are more than 50 percent of government officials with horses... Today, the Government of Mongolia makes no money from Naadam races. There is a lot of money to be made. 8 percent of the Hong Kong government income comes from the Hong Kong Jockey Club... In order for Mongolia to benefit from this, there needs to be changes in the current law. Current law states that each totalizer be taxed at 80,000 USD per month, which is fine. The law also states that each of the betting unit, the terminals, themselves will also be taxed as one unit. If we take an example of a large pub that is centrally located in Ulaanbaatar, now we are talking about 5 times 80,000 USD plus the 80,000 for the totalizer itself every month, and this is too much. Unless the law is changed, we cannot even start... Amount bet on the horse field is 1/3 the total amount bet; 2/3 comes from overseas through the totalizer... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100226a.mp3 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:55:00 +0800 00:24:31 thoroughbred racing, horse racing, mongolian horses, horse race track, horse jockey no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/SVgcLl-ZAeg" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/SVgcLl-ZAeg/mb20100226a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100226a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/HorseRaceTrackEp14a.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Corporate Governance in Mongolia with Demir Yener of USAID Happy New Year everyone. This is now the Year of the Iron Tiger. Traffic in the middle of the Ulaanbaatar was quite low, but the outskirts of city near the ger districts was quite busy... 2 million livestock were lost going into the Iron Tiger Year. Many Mongolians and Buddhists are talking about not having kids in the Year of the Tiger. Ice Festival and Eagle Festival just took place. Everyone had two days off, so people had four days off total. On Wednesday, the first day back from holidays, many government workers were in their office to greet each other in the morning and left early after lunch... Head of Leighton feel confident that the company may be hired as contract miner for Tavan Tolgoi... Mr. Jargalsaikhan, an economist, is worried about Mongolia's planned 1.2 billion dollar bond sale overseas as noted by Finance Minister Mr. Bayartsogt. He is worried about Mongolia falling into such debt so early in its economic development. The amount comes out to about 60 million dollars at the end of every year for 5 percent interest. Because of Mr. Batbold's decision to own the mines, Mongolia has to come up with the money to mine the mines themselves. If Mongolia cannot implement the model implemented in Greece and do not repay this government debt, it is going to be drastically less appealing for foreign companies to invest in Mongolia. Mongolia and Greece are different economies and the same models may not exactly apply. The bonds should really be implemented as revenue bonds... In Mongolia, corporate governance has been been named as "company zasaglal". Corporate governance is not a new subject to government of Mongolia. Since the privatization days of Mongolia, it has been on the table. Corporate governance refers to sets of mechanisms, legal and structural, to deal with relationships between shareholders, board of directors, and the management... For more information regarding corporate governance, please visit www.cgdc.org.mn and www.eprc-chemonics.biz... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100219.mp3 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:20:22 +0800 00:29:57 corporate governance, corporate governance mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/VkhJ2bN19TY" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/VkhJ2bN19TY/mb20100219.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100219.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/CorporateGovernanceEp13.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Being an international consultant with Steve Ujvarosy of Telchar Systems Mongolia Economic Forum took place on February 8th and 9th of 2010. Famous economist De Coto was present. A national think tank has been born out of this conference... The State Fund that is giving out 70,000 tugrugs states that 900,000 people have received the funds, according to the daily papers... Big news in mining regarding contract mining... Tsagaan Sar is also coming. Happy Tsagaan Sar... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100212.mp3 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:04:00 +0800 00:30:44 consulting mongolia, it consulting, international consulting, tsagaan sar, mongolian new year no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/Yc1MzuimYzk" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/Yc1MzuimYzk/mb20100212.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100212.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/ConsultinginMongoliaEp12.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Microfinance in Mongolia with Jim Anderson, Hugh Sinclair, & Matthew Kuzio This week, we are recording an hour long special on microfinance in Mongolia, which we will release as a double header of two half-hour long podcasts. Guest speakers today are Jim Anderson, Manager of Financial Services at Mercy Corps, Hugh Sinclair, Head of Business Development at Micro Service Consult, and Matthew Kuzio who's working at eco-products at Xac Bank... First off, we cover some feedback from our listeners... On to headlines... Rezidor Hotel Group is opening up a Radisson hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Tavan Tolgoi is now going to be 100% state owned. The 70,000 tugrugs are being handed out to senior citizens and children. There are big lines at banks. People are standing in lines starting at night. There are already inflation in general goods... Overview of Microfinance and Microfinance Institutions (MFI's) in Mongolia. Xac Bank and its eco-friendly microfinancing projects that reduce air polution. Top Five reasons why MFI's fail in Mongolia... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100205b.mp3 Fri, 5 Feb 2010 19:55:00 +0800 00:25:47 microfinance mongolia, microfinance, developing country, developing economy, microfinance eco sector, microfinance failures no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/H6EhhLpiyh0" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/H6EhhLpiyh0/mb20100205b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100205b.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MicrofinanceEp11B.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Microfinance in Mongolia with Jim Anderson, Hugh Sinclair, & Matthew Kuzio This week, we are recording an hour long special on microfinance in Mongolia, which we will release as a double header of two half-hour long podcasts. Guest speakers today are Jim Anderson, Manager of Financial Services at Mercy Corps, Hugh Sinclair, Head of Business Development at Micro Service Consult, and Matthew Kuzio who's working at eco-products at Xac Bank... First off, we cover some feedback from our listeners... On to headlines... Rezidor Hotel Group is opening up a Radisson hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Tavan Tolgoi is now going to be 100% state owned. The 70,000 tugrugs are being handed out to senior citizens and children. There are big lines at banks. People are standing in lines starting at night. There are already inflation in general goods... Overview of Microfinance and Microfinance Institutions (MFI's) in Mongolia. Xac Bank and its eco-friendly microfinancing projects that reduce air polution. Top Five reasons why MFI's fail in Mongolia... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100205a.mp3 Fri, 5 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0800 00:33:49 microfinance mongolia, microfinance, developing country, developing economy, microfinance eco sector, microfinance failures no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/uRj_Bq7Vloo" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/uRj_Bq7Vloo/mb20100205a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100205a.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MicrofinanceEp11A.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Freezing Zud and International Quality with Barrie Evans of Churchills Quality Recently there was a severe zud in the countryside, affecting lives of 1-1.5 million people. Quite a lot of herds have died. Mining companies, such as Energy Resources, have been helping local herders. Many herders took out loans. Now, with large chunks of the herds dead, the herders have fewer herds and actually owe money to banks on remaining herds. Some bloggers have made a point about why some should be helped and others not when there are many businesses that are struggling. Argument is that herders should be able to plan for zud, the freezing winter storm and weather, since it occurs once every two or three years. Some possible solutions to this issue is better education for the herders and also focus on breeds that withstand the weather better... SouthGobi Energy Resources is a star in the Hong Kong IPO. The shares were 4 times oversubscribed... Two Deputy Directors of Central Bank submitted resignation letters, which were accepted... In 2009, amount of gold submitted to the government declined by 3.2 tons. Due to the windfall tax, Altan Dornod had stopped their operations. It alone exports 2 tons annually... Mongolia Economic Forum to take place on February 8th and 9th... Churchills Quality has been in business here in Mongolia for 10 years with 5 or 6 years in the quality field. Traditionally worked with large post-state companies that were privatized, such as Darkhan Nekhii, Darkhan Meat Impex, etc. Now, the company is starting to work more with the private sectors. Quality is definitely an in word. Churchills Quality worked with Tiger Brewery, which now has been certified to two international standards... Thank you for listening. You can reach us via email at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100127.mp3 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:55:00 +0800 00:30:45 mongolian standards, international standards mongolia, international quality mongolia, zud, dzud, freezing weather no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/W4gWuzF5xbY" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/W4gWuzF5xbY/mb20100127.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100127.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/InternationalQualityEp10.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Low Cost Housing with Charles Jolliffe of Habitat For Humanities Ivanhoe Mines got to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange along with Mr. Bayartsogt, the Minister of Finance. Khan Resources welcomes lifting of mining license from suspension. Mongolia Economic Forum will be held this February before the Tsagaan Sar. Prime Minister would like to set up three state owned companies in infrastructure, energy, & mining? Prime Minister is looking to reform Mongolian Stock Exchange and establish capital market system in Mongolia. Habitat for Humanities (HFH) is a NGO with the focus of helping families from low income bracket obtain housing. HFH came to Mongolia in 1999 and was registered in 2000. HFH calls the borrowers as partners rather than beneficiaries. In the past 10 years, HFH has helped 1,600 families and hopes to help the same amount over the next three years. How does Habitat for Humanities prevent people from applying for low cost housing in order to flip it? HFH targets families with household income between 250-300 thousand tugrugs. HFH is a Mongolian NGO that partners with the international HFH organization. Habitat helps families get a street address. Families are saving 50% on heating costs by moving to new housing built under the HFH program. HFH is running the Blue Sky Build project coming up this summer... Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100122.mp3 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:15:00 +0800 00:31:02 housing mongolia, low cost housing mongolia, habitat for humanities, habitat for humanities mongolia, capital markets mongolia, charles jolliffe no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/iJ49trTiYvw" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/iJ49trTiYvw/mb20100122.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100122.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/HabitatForHumanitiesEp9.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Mining News, SME Loans, Accounting & Fun in Mongolia Lots of mining news last week. Is Ivanhoe for sale? SouthGobi Hong Kong IPO this month. Stock price of Rio Tinto grew threefolds since January 20th, 2009. Centerra expects to product 640-700 thousand ounces of gold this year and have $300 million USD cash reserve. Ivanhoe expects to spend $758 million on Oyu Tolgoi this year... Ex-President of Mongol Gazar Myanganbayar is under investigation for loan application fraud from Anod Bank & Zoos Bank... Small business loans are very expensive in Mongolia. SME's get interest rates of 2-3% per month with collatoral... Mongolia Economic Forum to be organized 7th or 8th of February... Within one month all of the Parliament Members will have to declare their income and possessions. There is quite a discrepancy between their possessions and their incomes... Accounting and Fun in Mongolia: Roy Dongen is Ex Dir. One of the biggest challenges with accounting in Mongolia is lack of implementation of international accounting standards. This is one of the biggest costs with doing business in Mongolia because people . Employee salary calculation in Mongolia is a bit interesting in a sense that employers need to pay salaries and taxes before the month is over. There is also not enough time to finish accounting reports. Mongolia has a flat tax rate that is a low 10 percent. The difference is that they cannot have the various small expenses that are tax-deductible. Social security is paid for everyone, including foreign consultants who are here for only a few months... There is VAT on export products. There are hardly any countries that do this. Typically, countries want to encourage exports to make the countries more competitive. There is no VAT on export services... Maybe the biggest issue with VAT is clarity of law or standards on VAT... Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100115.mp3 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:06:00 +0800 00:26:00 mining news, mining mongolia, accounting mongolia, sme loans, sme loans mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/ZntHJkvB2Rk" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/ZntHJkvB2Rk/mb20100115.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100115.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/AccountingFunEp8.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Parliament approves money handouts, 2009 highlights, & coping with winter weather in Mongolia Parliament recently approved to allocate 324 billion tugrugs, roughly 220 million USD, which essentially gives money away to Mongolian citizens. Human Development Fund distribute 120,000 tugrugs for each citizen, 70,000 before Tsagaan Sar, or Mongolian New Year, and 50,000 tugrugs after the Tsagaan Sar... SouthGobi Energy Resources may spend up to $800 million USD to improve operations and better supply customers in China... Some big events in 2009 were headed by the signing of Oyu Tolgoi (OT) agreement on October 6, 2009, a very good auspicious day. There was a collapse of two major banks and a merger of two other banks. In March 2009, Mongolian tugrug fluctuated from 1100 tugrugs to up to 1700 tugrugs before heading back down to 1500 tugrugs. Prime Minister Bayar resigned... Weather in Mongolia is currently -30 to -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Celsius is -40 degrees Fahrenheit). How do we cope with it? 1. Stay inside. 2. Dress with too many layers or wear fur 3. Eat Mongolian diet 4... Why Mongolians crank up the heat to about 25 degrees (85 Fahrenheit) inside? It's freezing outside, but people are wearing shorts inside.... Black stuff on roads is the ice. Another tip to stay warm? Turn into a ninja. Only show your eyes and cover everything, wear layers of clothing, eat mutton, and don't go out too much... Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100108.mp3 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:28:00 +0800 00:21:18 winter mongolia, mongolian winter, weather mongolia, mongolia 2009, mongolia 2009 highlights no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/_CplryImv5w" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/_CplryImv5w/mb20100108.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20100108.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/WinterWeatherMongoliaEp7.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Special holiday episode covering cultural norms and customs for doing business in Mongolia Mitsubishi invests in Areva. New bar Sky Lounge opens. More H1N1 to be sent to Mongolia. Sant Maral Foundation reported that perception of corruption being an issue declined along with average annual payment by families for corruption declined. Mongolia is receiving more foreign assistance. Japan and ADB are helping improve banking... As for cultural norms and customs, "Sain baina uu" is for saying hello and typical response is "Sain" which means well even if you do not feel at your best. Make sure to give and receive with both hands or your right hand. Make sure to establish and focus on establishing relationships rather than trying to get a deal done. Make sure to offer guests and accept as a guest hot drinks... Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091223.mp3 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:58:00 +0800 00:19:53 mongolian customs, mongolian cultural norms, mongolia culture, mongolian business culture, mongolian business cultural norms, mongolian business customs no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/eqngY-DTK3k" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/eqngY-DTK3k/mb20091223.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091223.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/CulturalNormsCustomsEp6.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) 76B tugrugs to MP's, Mongolian Law, & Lehman Lee & Xu Managing Director James Liotta Mongolia has a developing judicial system, sometimes even described as "rotten to the core". People need to do due diligence before coming to Mongolia to do business. Following the law to your best ability from the beginning will help prevent issues later... For business news, the state budget containing 76 Billion tugrugs or 1 billion tugrug per each MP, has been passed, even after a veto by the President of Mongolia. Millennium Challenge Account is investing more than hundred million USD for clean air and road infrastructure projects. Boroo Gold mining company has agreed to donate 1 million USD for new national park being developed in Ulaanbaatar... For podcast related news, we received some recommendations from one of our listeners. We also received a five star review on iTunes... Podcasters: Bobby Barnes, Mergen Chuluun, & Lhagva Erdene. Guest Speaker: Jim Dwyer, Executive Director of Business Council of Mongolia (BCM). Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091218.mp3 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:59:00 +0800 00:25:12 mongolian law, legal environment of mongolia, doing business overseas, james liotta, lehman lee & xu no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/JeUnTe9EZM4" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/JeUnTe9EZM4/mb20091218.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091218.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/MongolianLawJamesLiottaEp5.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) 20th anniversary of Mongolian democracy, railroad, & BCM Executive Director Jim Dwyer December 10th is a very important day in Mongolian history. On this date, Mongolians gathered at the square and peacefully protested for democracy of Mongolia. It was one of the most peaceful yet succesful demostrations in history... There is a dispute over the railroad between the private sector and Mr. Battulga, the Minister of Road and Transportation. Additionally, there is a need for a railroad in South Gobi. Current transportation methods do not meet the needs to transport the mining resources. Leighton LLC has just been contracted to build the railroad, separately from the mining contract... Jim Dwyer, Executive Director of Business Council of Mongolia (BCM), has been in Mongolia for a total of 8 years. The membership of BCM has far outpaced expectations. Membership is now over 140. The needs of the business community, both foreign and Mongolian, are the same. BCM represents business community as a whole. Half of the 14 member board are represented by Mongolian companies... More: working with the government, working groups, workshops, Mongolian currency law issues, Mongol Bank Deputy Director Enhhuyag, BCM newswire, Mongolian stock exchange, BCM mining supply chain database, regulatory environment, foreign & mongolian companies, Oyu Tolgoi agreement... Podcasters: Bobby Barnes, Mergen Chuluun, & Lhagva Erdene. Guest Speaker: Jim Dwyer, Executive Director of Business Council of Mongolia (BCM). Thank you for listening. Please let us know how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can email us at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com and follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091211.mp3 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0800 00:21:14 mongolian democracy, mongolia railroad, bcm mongolia, business council of mongolia, bcm no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/S9L2mXmwt3Q" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/S9L2mXmwt3Q/mb20091211.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091211.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/BCMJimDwyerEp4.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Enforcement of new traffic laws and Mongolian hackers & IT industry with guest speakers Bayarsaikhan and Tamir This week, we discuss traffic laws, Mongolian IT industry, and Mongoilan hacker vs. a peeping Mongol. Mongolians and ex-pats alike may have noticed that cars are no longer stopping on pedestrian crossings. There is a reason for that. For the past two weeks, any automobile that stopped past the traffic stop line for cars, was fined 5,000 or 10,000 tugrugs (3-8 dollars). This is 3-8 percent of minimum wage. There is also an upcoming jaywalknig law with fines as much as 20,000 to 30,000 tugrugs... Bayarsaikhan started Singleton LLC three years ago. After some employee and startup challenges, the web development is starting to pick up steam. In March, the company launched BizNetwork.mn, the Mongolian version of LinkedIn. It is now already a top 20 website and by far the best website in its category. We also discuss a very interesting story from this summer where a Mongolian "white hat" hacker exposed the people behind an oft-despised underground website. The ensuing happenings engulfed all of Mongolian young office workers as the two parties duked it out... Podcasters: Bobby Barnes, Mergen Chuluun, & Lhagva Erdene. Guest Speakers: Bayarsaikhan of Singleton LLC and Tamir of Mongolian Software Industry Association. Thank you for listening. Please give us feedback on how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can reach as on Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz and at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091204.mp3 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:25:00 +0800 00:24:24 traffic mongolia, it mongolia, mongolian hacker, software mongolia, outsource mongolia no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/BqruzKa_gc8" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/BqruzKa_gc8/mb20091204.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091204.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/TrafficITindustryEp3.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) Alcohol Marketing, Sky Resort, Visa & Doing Business Interview with Bobby Barnes This week, we briefly highlight marketing behind few of the vodka and beer brands before discussing the grand opening of Sky Resort and interviewing our very own Bobby Barnes of ICMC Mongolia. Topics covered: Beers Jalam Khar, Fusion, and Yahoo; vodkas Black Chinggis, Gold Chinggis, and Horse Chinggis; regulatory agency fines, intellectual property rights, Sky Resort, Mongolian visa issues, working & living in Mongolia. Podcasters: Bobby Barnes, Mergen Chuluun, & Lhagva Erdene. Thank you for listening. Please give us feedback on how we can improve our podcast. Please let us know if you would like us to cover any specific topics. You can reach as on Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz and at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091127.mp3 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +0800 00:34:01 mongolian visa, alcohol, beers, vodka, sky resort, chinggis, chinggis vodka, mongolia, mongolia business, business no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/uiplIdwC8KQ" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/uiplIdwC8KQ/mb20091127.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091127.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/AlcoholSkyresortVisasEp2.mp3 Mongolia Business Blog (MBB) H1N1 situation and recent Corruption Perception Index downgrade Join Bobby, Lhagva, & Mergen on our first podcast episode. We cover the H1N1 flu outbreak situation and containment efforts at the ground-level. We also share our thoughts regarding the recent downgrade of Mongolia on 2009 Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Please let us know of your thoughts. You can reach as on Twitter.com/MongoliaBiz and at MongoliaBusinessBlog (at) gmail (dot) com. http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091120.mp3 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:00 +0800 00:31:55 h1n1 mongolia, corruption mongolia, corruption, h1n1, mongolia, mongolia business, business no<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~4/IK673LOgimU" height="1" width="1"/>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MongoliaBusiness/~3/IK673LOgimU/mb20091120.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/archive/mb20091120.mp3http://mongoliabusinessblog.com/podcasts/audio/H1N1CorruptionEp1.mp3 Mongolia Business BlognonadultMongolia Business is the first and only podcast about business and investment climate in Mongolia. Join us each Friday as Mergen, Bobby, and Lhagva discuss current and trending topics. Hopefully, you will gain real insight into doing business and investin