3,381.64
N.Dorjdari of the Open Society Forumhas told the Mongolian Mining
Journal
that the Government has not revealed its thinking or decision on several
aspects of the Tavantolgoi agreement. It has not specified how the sale price
is to be fixed, whether the coal will be sold against orders or only on the
spot, whether it can be used as collateral, or whether the Government can do
any of these unilaterally with its share of the output. “Many of the provisions
of the agreement read very well in principle, but their failure to be specific
is disturbing,” he has said, adding that this does not permit an informed
public debate on the matter. He fears that the Government is so much in a hurry
to get the project moving that it is leaving things vague. It will be much
better, he thinks, to have terms that are unambiguous and will not be open to
contradictory interpretations during implementation of the project.
He also feels the Government is “getting involved in many things beyond its
competence”. For example, he sees no justification for the state to be mining
coal, an activity that should be left entirely to the private sector. In its
haste to emphasize how it is delivering the people’s property to the people,
the Government is ignoring the more important point that it would be even
better if the people could receive something more profitable. The people prefer
direct distribution as they have no faith in the government investing the money
on their behalf and then distributing handsome dividends. State performance has
been so poor that people do not hope for anything from it and would like to get
whatever is available, instead of waiting for more profits later.
