The President’s
Office last week organized a two-day conference on proper development of the mineral
sector under the auspices of Davos Economic Forum, an organization set up under
suggestions from President Ts.Elbegdorj. It was attended by representatives
from the Government, investors, civil unions and experts in the field.

The delegates
discussed ways out of problems, shared opinions and gave suggestions. They did
not focus on individual projects but talked about developing a  model mining investment agreement, and
referred to the good and bad points in several such agreements  in the mining sector.

With little
experience in such things, Mongolia has generally followed agreements in vogue
in other countries, only to find that they are not very suited to local
conditions. In most cases the agreements have been found to be more partial to
the investors than to national interests. The conference aimed to identify the
parameters of a model agreement with mining investors in Mongolia.

Deputy Director
of the Global Industry Center at the World Economic Forum, Alex Wong,  said the work would take between 18 and 24
months to prepare a model as all existing agreements  will first have to be studied thoroughly.