{"id":38199,"date":"2015-06-05T13:28:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T12:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/mongolie-de-lor-sous-la-steppe-20150605.html"},"modified":"2016-02-10T10:21:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T09:21:56","slug":"lor-mongolia-under-the-steppe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/lor-mongolia-under-the-steppe","title":{"rendered":"Mongolia - Gold under the steppe"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to get there<\/h2>\n

\"MongoliaFew airlines land at Ulan Bator's Chinggis Khan airport, where the only international flag carriers are Areoflot, Air China, Korean Air and Turkish Airlines. From Paris, business travellers therefore have to transit via Moscow, Beijing, Seoul or Istanbul to reach Mongolia. Another option is to use the routes of the national carrier MIAT, which offers two flights a week to Ulan Bator from Berlin. In summer, the airline also offers flights to Mongolia from Frankfurt. However, things are changing, and last summer Mongolian carrier Hunnu Air operated a direct route between Paris CDG and Ulan Bator with two flights a week, on Mondays and Fridays. This initiative should be repeated in 2015, or even extended over a longer period.<\/p>\n

Sublime landscapes, endless steppes dotted with yurts, a people steeped in shamanism: that's Mongolia, in the collective unconscious. A country where tourists come to follow in the footsteps of Genghis Khan in summer, because in winter the temperature rarely exceeds -20\u00b0 in Ulan Bator, the coldest capital in the world. The world's major multinationals also dream of Mongolia, but in a more 'deep-sea psychology' kind of way. This down-to-earth approach is easy to explain: the country's subsoil looks like a new Eldorado. Its almost untouched reserves of gold, copper and coal are among the richest in the world.<\/p>\n

Export nugget<\/h2>\n

Although 6,000 deposits remain unexploited, major work has begun. The mining group Rio Tinto has entered into a partnership with the Mongolian government to exploit the Oyu Tolgo\u00ef copper and gold deposit, literally \"the turquoise hill\". This project, worth almost six billion dollars, began last year in the south of the Gobi desert. When the mine is fully operational in 2021, it could account for 4% of the world's production of these two minerals and half the country's exports. \"Oyu Tolgoi will be a vital contributor to Mongolia's economic development,\" explained Andrew Harding, chief executive of Rio Tinto Copper, in 2012. Another major project in full expansion is Tavan Tolgoi, the \"five hills\", one of the world's largest open-cast coal mines, which supplies neighbouring China.<\/p>\n

\"Dazzling<\/p>\n

Dazzling growth<\/strong>
Mongolia's GDP is expected to grow by 15.3% in 2014, according to The Economist's The World In 2014 study, the second best performance in the world. And the IMF is forecasting growth of 6% to 10% per year until 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its most favourable scenario, the IMF is forecasting Mongolian GDP growth of between 6% and 10% per year until 2018. However, squeezed between China and Russia, the country is seeking to extricate itself from this dependence in order to pursue its development. Its way out: the \"third neighbour\" concept, i.e. the search for trading partners so far away, so close. The United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the European Union: all the major powers expect to be among the lucky ones. Nothing could be more understandable: Ubifrance described Mongolia as an \"export nugget\" at its workshop last year devoted to countries \"where it's good to do business\". Having left the Soviet fold in the 1990s, Mongolia is now resolutely opening up to the outside world. President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has improved the legislative framework for business by facilitating direct foreign investment. At the same time, the State is determined not to be dispossessed of the fruits of this mining manna...<\/p>\n

As a result, the French presence in the country has boomed to a valiant 160 residents, compared with just fifty or so a decade earlier. Similarly, while Franco-Mongolian trade quadrupled between 2003 and 2013, trade between the two countries reached \u20ac34.8 million in 2013. This makes France Mongolia's 13th-largest supplier - the third-largest in Europe - and its 10th-largest customer. The modest size of current relations suggests a future that can only be promising.<\/p>\n

Among recent developments, Areva, which is interested in the country's uranium reserves, probably the second largest on the planet, signed a strategic agreement in 2013 with local player Mon-Atom and Mitsubishi to exploit two deposits on the edge of the Gobi desert. GDF Suez, meanwhile, was recently chosen along with Japan's Sojitz and South Korea's Posco Energy to build a coal-fired cogeneration plant in Ulaanbaatar.<\/p>\n

Emirate in the Gobi desert<\/h2>\n

The economic transition of Mongolia, which some consider to be a small Persian Gulf-style emirate on the edge of the Gobi Desert, is attracting more and more people. In all, around twenty major French companies have set up operations in Ulan Bator, and there are countless more looking to do so. Thales and Arianespace are eyeing up a telecommunications satellite project; Systra, a subsidiary of SNCF and RATP, has its sights set on the 5,000 km of rail track to be built to develop mining freight; the Egis engineering group is looking with interest at all the infrastructure projects to be carried out in the transport, energy and water treatment sectors. To this end, this Caisse des D\u00e9p\u00f4ts subsidiary set up the Egis Tiin Mongolia joint venture with its local partner Ikh Tiin in June 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Sources<\/p>\n

Sources of growth<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While the mining sector accounts for 20% of Mongolia's GDP, ambitious projects are set to further boost this activity. The huge Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit should account for a third of Mongolian state revenue by 2021. Another major project is Tavan Tolgoi, where new licences have been granted to extend the operation of one of the world's largest open-cast coal mines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Formalities<\/strong> Since 25 June and until at least the end of 2015, French nationals are exempt from visa requirements for entry into Mongolia for stays of less than 30 days.
Time difference<\/strong> 6 h in summer; 7 h in winter.
Currency<\/strong> T\u00f6gr\u00f6g (MNT). 1 euro = 2340 MNT (September 2014).
Area code<\/strong> 976.11 (Ulan Bator).
<\/span><\/p>\n

The country, which until recently concentrated its economic activity on subsistence agriculture, must now succeed in converting its natural wealth into sustainable infrastructure - and, above all, into gold for local society. In 2012, the World Bank estimated that 27.4% Mongolians were living below the poverty line. In Ulan Bator, the rural exodus has been in full swing for several years. Former nomads are moving their yurts to the outskirts of the capital, as much to take advantage of the growth as to find better living conditions. In the early 2000s, extremely cold years dealt a severe blow to the local livestock population, killing more than 10 million head of cattle.<\/p>\n

To guarantee employment for all, Mongolia cannot rely solely on its subsoil. Textiles, agriculture and tourism are among the alternatives available to boost its economic fabric. And this could well lead to new ambitions on the part of France. With almost 10,000 travellers a year, France is the country's leading tourist destination. Laurent Fabius, who visited Ulan Bator in October 2013, also signed a cooperation agreement in the agricultural sector. Even before this partnership, Montb\u00e9liarde heifers had begun grazing on the grass of the Mongolian steppes.<\/p>\n

This diversification is necessary not only to underpin the country's emergence, but also to avoid 'Dutch disease', i.e. extreme dependence on fluctuating commodity prices and the good economic health of its partners, as well as a lack of dynamism in other sectors. Today, the mining sector accounts for almost all of the country's exports, nine-tenths of which go to China. During 2013, the IMF halved its estimate of the country's growth, from 22.9% to 12.2%. A figure that would make any Old World leader dream, but which illustrates the negative impact on the country when the economy of the Middle Kingdom starts to hiccup. Hence the importance of finding a third way.<\/p>\n

\"Ulan<\/p>\n

Ulan Bator, between skyscrapers and traditional yurts<\/h2>\n

It's a fact that's rarely misleading when it comes to a country's development prospects: the luxury hotel industry is taking a very close interest in Ulan Bator, the Mongolian capital. Shangri-La, Melia International, Hilton, Hyatt, Sheraton, Movenpick, Radisson: all these groups have announced themselves in \"UB\", although there is no certainty that all these projects will come to fruition. In the coming years, around ten hotels are expected to open to cater for the growing flow of business travellers. They will add to a fairly limited range of hotels, including the historic Bayangol and Ulaanbaatar Hotels, the more recent Chinggis Khan and Blue Sky Hotels, and, in terms of international brands, Ramada and Kempinski, the pioneer of pioneers since it took over the Khan Palace Hotel in 2005. The Gran Melia Ulaanbaatar is due to move into the top 12 floors of a new skyscraper developed by local conglomerate Baz International in 2017.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by its new-found prosperity, UB is taking on new heights. Already, futuristic buildings here and there tower over traditional temples and monasteries, and other developments are expected, such as the MAK Tower, which could house a Hyatt Regency. A luxurious 290-room Shangri-La will be built in 2015 in the Central Tower, as part of a multi-purpose complex of offices and shops. It was here, in this shopping mall, that Louis Vuitton first opened its doors in 2010. In another sign of the times, the streets of Ulan Bator are lined with designer boutiques from Versace, Armani and Burberry, while the streets are filled with large 4\u00d74s and German saloons. There is no doubt that the mining bonanza will profoundly change the face of UB in the years and decades to come. The city centre is undergoing a metamorphosis, which has already seen the renovation of the '40,000 flats' dating from the Soviet era and now offering expatriates and the local elite comfortable accommodation. But, as is often the case in developing countries, this new luxury is accompanied by great deprivation. 60 % of the families living in the capital are former nomads who have moved their gers, or traditional yurts, to the outskirts of the city over the last decade.<\/p>\n

With no access to the public water or heating networks, these inhabitants heat as best they can, preferably with coal, and drive sputtering cars. In winter, the city is covered in thick fog, making it not only the most polluted capital in the world, but also the coldest. Ulan Bator faces many challenges in its transition from an immemorial way of life to infinite modernity.<\/p>\n