Government
officials have said off the record that in the event of Mongolia deciding to
build a narrow-gauge railway to help export its mineral resources, through
ports in either Russia or China or both, mostly Chinese people would be holding
all the technical jobs on it. This is because local railway technicians lack
the skills and training to operate a system they are not used to, and the new
railway, if it is built, will be using up-to-date world standards. These
standards are much more advanced than those presently used in the railways of
Mongolia and the Russian Federation. It will take time before there is a
sufficient number of Mongolians who have mastered 21st-century concepts of
radio communication and electronics.