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in punkto Vertrauen und Glaubwürdigkeit:
hier:Mongolia is attempting to attract new foreign investors to balance China and Russia, its dominant traditional partners and neighbours, as it embarks on a series of privatisations and initial public offerings of its extensive mineral assets.
The democratic country of under 3m people has opened itself for large-scale mining and mineral development in recent months after years of debate and in-fighting about the country's investment regime.
Mongolia's untapped deposits of coal, copper and uranium are located near the Chinese border.
Mining companies from China and Russia - that have dominated Mongolia historically - are among those vying for licences to develop Tavan Tolgoi, a state-owned deposit that contains more than 6bn tonnes of coking coal.
But in a programme of privatisations starting soon, Mongolia's government will balance the applications of Chinese and Russian companies against those from the US, India, South Korea and elsewhere.
This is the commercial corollary of its "third neighbour" foreign policy, which seeks to recognise the importance of its two neighbours even while inviting third-party interests.
"We welcome investment both from our neighbours and our third neighbours," said Dashdorj Zorigt, Mongolia's minister for mineral resources and energy.
"There is the issue of commercial interests," he added, "and ensuring that any deals we make are in line with our foreign policy. We will not base our decisions purely on political considerations, but they will also not be based purely on business considerations. We will be balanced."
The government has been expecting an investment boom since October, when it agreed a crucial contract with Canada's Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, joint venture partners. The Oyu Tolgoi investment agreement, named after the Mongolian copper-gold deposit that Rio calls the best untapped copper resource in the world, had been under negotiation since 2004.
Mongolia imposed conditions such as a windfall profits tax. Ivanhoe and Rio called the tax unacceptable and the national debate over the agreement intensified. In August, the country repealed the policy.
Bidding for licences to develop Tavan Tolgoi are Shenhua of China, Peabody of the US, Jindal of India, Mitsui and Sojitsu of Japan, among the list of more than 10 parties. A decision on licensing "will be announced soon", Mr Zorigt said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/...de-9fb5-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
