Selenge-Zuunkharaa, a road
construction company, has been in the news for building hard roads for MNT80
million per kilometer, while the usual market rate is MNT700. Its head, Ch.
Batsaikhan, says they have built more than 13 km of such road in the past four
years. All of it is 6 meters wide and 17 cm thick. He explained there were many
reasons why their costs are low. First, their roads are of concrete, and not
tar. Then, almost all the raw material is supplied free by the soum
administration. Local citizens supply food to the workers. Some donation also
comes from both foreign and domestic sources.

Batsaikhan said they do not use expensive modern technology and all workers are
local but the company brings in a foreign specialist for two months to oversee
the work. He feels concrete is a better choice in many areas because of its
lower cost but long-term durability. He would like the experiment of local
initiative, enterprise and collaboration to be replicated elsewhere, so that
some employment is generated and the community gets at a low cost something it
needs.