"Want to invest in Mongolia--invest in here, not somewhere else"

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Speaker of parliament Z.Enkhbold connects a sharp decline in foreign investments with the Oyu Tolgoi LLC. He said it in an interview with the "Daily news" paper Wednesday. "The Oyu tolgoi project has two stages, the first one has been completed, so no extra investments are needed for the open pit, and works have already begun there, by the way, this open pit's production capability is equal to that of the Erdenet mine," the Speaker said. When a copper ore is extracted from the underground mine, the next part of investments is expected to be utilized, "but the sides (Mongolia's government and Rio Tinto Group) have not agreed yet on the investments' volume." The Mongolian law clearly and comprehensibly explains what is the investments that are made in Mongolia. "They are the investments that are really made to Mongolia and not the expense or investment that are made somewhere else," he highlighted. To a question whether Mongolia is facing an economic crisis the Speaker replied that "it would be groundless to state like that because Mongolian economic growth shows 11 percent, plus, some 30 thousand new job places have been created, whereas in theory, an existence of the crisis is represented by two factors such as decline in this growth and unemployment." A very first step to come out of the economic difficulties the Speaker connects with the investment environment. "The pending law on foreign investments will guarantee that any investor's money will be safe and will not undergo changes due to related laws in future," he stressed. The Speaker also said that a regular session will discuss the state budget. “Due to new circumstances we need to tighten our belt, but before this, at the irregular session we intend to adopt the new law on foreign investment, will pass a resolution on ways of overcoming economic difficulties and approve budget clarifications." In general it is seen that Mongolia wants to solve the foreign investments' matters by the new law, to cut unreal income and to draw a decision on augmenting currency reserves.