The Director of the newly established
Economic Policy and Competitiveness Research Center, Ch. Otgochuluu, says the
Memorandum of Understanding recently signed with the Global Competitiveness
Research Center in Switzerland will help fulfill the desire of President
Ts.Elbegdorj that a Mongolian institute should take up the job of analyzing and
evaluating the status of the country’s competitiveness.

This is something that is now done
by only foreign organizations, but the results of such studies, by the World
Bank and other international organizations, sometimes vary significantly as
they use different methodologies. Also many organizations, particularly in the
government, have a tendency to provide inaccurate estimates of their human
resources capacity, either because of insufficient data or because they wish to
protect their status.

In most countries such evaluation and monitoring work is done by the civil
society and independent professionals but no similar practice has so far
emerged in Mongolia, even though it is an essential demand in a market economy.
Now things will change, Otgochuluu hopes, as the center will conduct
independent studies using internationally accepted methodologies and standards
with the help of the Swiss institute, which has already produced
competitiveness reports for 50 developed countries so far.

Their experts are already here and working with Mongolians on identifying
relevant competitiveness indicators such as the government’s capacity to
formulate policy, the legal environment, the state of infrastructure, etc. Some
300 indicators will be identified and analyzed to produce a comprehensive
report.