ICMC

Compliance with the Company Law is Mongolia is still a relatively rare thing.  Most companies are not publicly listed and are owned by single shareholders so therefore do not feel the need to follow the Company Law.

Under the Company Law of Mongolia there are a number of decisions which must be approved by a shareholder’s meeting held at least once a year, including the appointment of members of a board of directors, approving annual reports, and the reorganization or liquidation of the company, amongst other matters.

While these aspects of the Company Law may not be strictly enforced in Mongolia yet, they nevertheless remain important features of properly maintaining a company.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Government of Mongolia imposes foreign worker quotas on businesses operating in Mongolia, both foreign-invested and Mongolian-owned companies.  The quota ranges from 5% to 80%, depending on the sector, the amount of investment and the total number of employees a company has.  For all foreign-invested companies the default business activity is “foreign trade,” which carries with it a quota of 5%, meaning a company must employee 20 Mongolian employees for every expat it employees.  Quotas go up from there depending on the sector – for example any company with a mining or exploration license has a quota of 10% while a company that extracts oil or natural gas can employee up to 80% of its workforce as expats. Read the rest of this entry »

In a surprise announcement last week, the Prime Minister of Mongolia S. Batbold reported that Mongolia will cancel the auction of the exploration and mining licenses associated with the Tavan Tolgoi (TT) coal deposit in the Umnugovi province of Mongolia.  The TT deposit is located in southern Mongolia and is considered one of the largest untapped coal deposits in the world.

Previously it was understood there was going to be a 51%/49% ownership structure between the Government of Mongolia and the private company(ies) awarded licenses to exploit the TT site.  Based on the understanding that TT was to be developed as a joint venture, much like Oyu Tolgoi (OT), a number of high profile companies were in the running for receiving a license to develop a section of the TT deposit, including USA’s Peabody, China’s Shenhua, BHP Billiton, Vale of Brazil, as well as Jindal from India and consortiums from both South Korea and Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

Visas – those little bits of paper in our passports that allow us to enter and leave the country.  If you happened to be lucky enough to be born in the US, Europe, Australia or other countries considered the “West” then you can probably travel fairly freely without the worry of getting a visa.  Of course when it comes to employment we all need visas in order to live and work in a foreign country.

While it would seem to make sense that Mongolia would make it relatively easy for people to apply for and be approved for visas, this is not necessarily always the case.  Mongolia, especially during the summer season, actively seeks to increase the number of tourists that visit the country each year.  In a country that has a viable tourist season of only three to four months, one would think applying for a tourist visa would be made as easy as possible.  Read the rest of this entry »

Mongolian and English are hardly two of the most compatible languages.  Vastly different in their origins and structure, translation from one to the other can be a difficult prospect.  Mongolian is a Turkic-Altaic language that generally uses a subject-object-verb structure, which takes some time for Westerners learning Mongolian to get their heads around.  Translating from one language into the other takes a certain amount of care and finesse.  Read the rest of this entry »

Visas are the bane of travelers everywhere, except possibly diplomats, especially if you are a business traveler. W hen you are traveling you may spend as much time queuing for a visa as actually enjoying your trip.  Visas to visit, live, or work in Mongolia are somewhat readily available but advanced planning is definitely necessary.

The visa and immigration system of Mongolia is covered by the Law of Mongolia on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens. This law covers everything from diplomatic immunity to the deportation of foreign citizens and everything in between. The English language translation of the law is a short 9 ½ pages, so needless to say the Mongolian Immigration system is quite basic at the moment, which is actually nice in many ways.

When applying for a visa to Mongolia the simplicity of the system will keep you from going crazy trying to figure out the Immigration Office’s rules and regulations. On the other hand when a situation arises that is outside of the scope of the Immigration Law, things get a little bit stickier, although the simplicity does make my job of dispensing visa advice that much easier.

Most visitors will really only have the need for four visa types – a J (tourist), B (business), HG (work) or T (Investor’s) visa.  In the following, text, we will cover these visas as well as some common Mongolian visa issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the Actual Plague, For One

As the title implies, you will probably want to actually avoid the plague in Mongolia. While Mongolia has definitely not reached this level…

…the fact of the matter is that the plague is present in the country.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Ouy Tolgoi Investment Agreement was officially signed on the auspicious day of October 6, 2009.  The ceremony was broadcast live throughout Mongolia on Mongolian television and can be seen here:

The stars finally aligned on October 6, 2009 as senior members of the Mongolian Government hosted senior officials from Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc and Rio Tinto International Holdings. October 6 was chosen as the signing day because according to Buddhist lams it is an auspicious day on the Buddhist calendar.

The Oyu Tolgoi site (Turquoise Hill in English) is predicted to be one of the largest reserves of gold and copper in the world, with an estimated mine life of 40 years.  It is also the largest development project and foreign investment in the history of the country.

On a related note, it has been reported that one of the signers of the investment agreement, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister D. Zorigt, yesterday won the by-election for the Parliament seat left vacated by the current Mongolian President Ts. Elbegdorj, who was elected in June of this year.