The Mongolian Parliament has approved the Government’s railway
policy, developed mainly by the Ministry for Road, Transportation and Urban
Development. MPs took two sessions of discussion before the majority among them
voted in its favor.

The plan is to build four railroads with broad
gauge. The first
will cover the 400 km connecting Tavantolgoi-Tsagaan Suvarga-Zuunbayan, The
second will be 350 km long, and link Sainshand and Baruun-Urt. The third, 290
km long, will connect Baruun-Urt with Khuut and the last will be laid along the
150 km connecting Khuut with Choibalsan.   

The whole plan seems to be more advantageous to Russia.
The track to Choibalsan will be connected to the Russian railway system through
Vanino and Habarovsk. Commodities will be exported from there to South Korean
and Japanese markets. This way of entering the world market is significantly
longer than the route through China but the MPS agreed with the Government that
without a railway, the heavy industry complex proposed to be built in Sainshand
will be isolated and ineffective.

This line of thought ignores the view of many who urged
the government to arrange for strategic minerals to enter marker circulation as
soon as possible. A railway in the southern regions, with access to the Chinese
railway network will now not be built until the west-to-east railroad is
constructed.

After the vote in Parliament, the Government presented
every MP a memento saying, “Thank you for your contribution to Mongolian
development.”