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Agro-Industry Development In
the late 1980s, agriculture was a small but
critical sector of the Mongolian economy. In
1985 agriculture accounted for only 18.3 percent
of national income and 33.8 percent of the labor
force (see table 7, Appendix). Nevertheless,
agriculture remained economically important
because much of Mongolia's industry processed
agricultural products-foodstuffs, timber, and
animal products, such as skins and hides-for
domestic consumption and for export. In 1986
agriculture supplied nearly 60 percent of
Mongolia's exports (see Industry; Foreign
Economic Relations and Comecon , this ch.).
Mongolian agriculture developed slowly. An
abortive attempt to collectivize all arads
occurred in the early 1930s; efforts to
encourage voluntary cooperatives and arad
producers' associations followed. In the 1930s,
the government also began developing state
farms, and by 1940 there were ten state farms
and ninety-one agricultural cooperatives. In
1937 the Soviet Union provided ten hay-making
machine stations to prepare fodder for
livestock. In 1940 agriculture represented 61
percent of national income, and it employed
approximately 90 percent of the labor force.
In
1990 Mongolia
abandoned its
70-year-old
Soviet-style
one-party state and
embraced political
and economic
reforms.
Democracy and
privatisation were
enshrined in a new
constitution, but
the collapse of the
economy after the
withdrawal of Soviet
support triggered
widespread poverty
and unemployment.
Once
the heartland of an
empire stretching to
Europe under Genghis
Khan, Mongolia is a
landlocked country
dominated by
sparsely populated
steppe and
semi-desert.
Mongolia
spreads across 1.5 million
sq km of the Central Asian
plateau, but its
population is far smaller
than the Mongol population
of China.
Sunni
Muslim Kazakhs in the west
are the only significant
national and religious
minority, comprising some
5% of the population.
Migration to Kazakhstan in
the 1990s reduced their
numbers.
AT A
GLANCE
Politics:
The Mongolian
People's
Revolutionary
Party, which ruled
in Soviet times,
replaced a
coalition in 2006
Economy:
Chinese demand for
minerals fuels a
mining boom, but
many Mongolians
live in poverty
International:
Mongolia has
strong ties with
Russia and China
and cultivates
relations with the
US and Japan;
Mongolian troops
back the US
military in Iraq
A third of
the population lives in
the capital, while around
forty percent of the
country's workforce herds
livestock in Mongolia's
extensive pasturelands.
However, the centuries-old
nomadic lifestyle is
coming under pressure from
climate change and
urbanisation.
The country
has some of Asia's richest
deposits of minerals,
although these remain
largely unexploited.
Mongolia
has an extreme climate,
with a temperature range
to suit. Droughts and
unusually cold and snowy
winters have decimated
livestock, destroying the
livelihoods of thousands
of families.
Mongolia
has expanded political and
financial ties with the
US, Japan and the European
Union, but its main
trading partners are
neighbouring Russia and
China. The latter is the
biggest market for
Mongolian exports; Beijing
is also keen to exploit
Mongolia's mineral and
energy resources.
Despite
generous funding by the
International Monetary
Fund and donor countries,
economic progress has been
slow and growth has been
hampered by corruption.
The legacy
of Genghis Khan, the
warrior who united warring
tribes and established the
Mongol empire in the 13th
century, has been invoked
in an attempt to foster
national pride.
Tsakhiagiin
Elbegdorj won the
presidency with a narrow
election win over
incumbent Nambaryn
Enkhbayar in May 2009 and
took office in June.
Mr
Elbegdorj was
elected on a
pledge to fight
graft and poverty.
Standing
for the opposition
Democratic Party, Mr
Elbegdorj won just over
51% of the vote, to 47%
for Mr Enkhbayar, whose
ruling Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party (MPRP)
said it accepted the
result as fair.
The
peaceful outcome came
after fears of a repeat of
the violence which
followed opposition claims
of fraud after the
Democratic Party's defeat
in the 2008 parliamentary
elections.
Mr
Elbegdorj campaigned on
promises to fight
corruption and to spread
the profits of Mongolia's
mineral wealth more
widely.
To achieve
the second aim, he planned
to tighten rules for
contracts under which
foreign mining firms
operate.
His message
proved popular in the big
cities, especially the
capital Ulan Bator, and
was helped by widespread
poverty.
However, he
faced a parliament which
continued to be dominated
by a solid MPRP majority,
but the MPRP prime
minister, Sanjagiin Bayar,
promised to ensure that
his government would work
well with the president.
Although
the prime minister and
parliament exercise real
political power, the
president heads the armed
forces and has the power
of veto in parliament.
Frequent changes of
government have enhanced
the role of the
presidency.
Born in
1963, Tsakhiagiin
Elbegdorj was one of the
leaders of the peaceful
revolution that ended the
Communist dictatorship in
1990.
Since then,
he has served as prime
minister twice, briefly in
1998, and in 2006-8.
A law
passed in 2005 paved the
way for the transformation
of Mongolia's state-run
radio and TV into a
public-service
broadcaster. Its networks
compete with private TV
and radio and satellite
and cable services. In
all, there are more than
300 print and broadcasting
outlets.
In general
the media are free and
sometimes outspoken in
their criticism of the
authorities. Media
watchdog Reporters Without
Borders noted in 2007 that
journalists risked
imprisonment for
defamation and violating
"state secrets".
Many of
Mongolia's livestock
herders rely on the
national public radio
station for information,
although access to
satellite TV is on the
rise.
There are
many newspapers, but
despite a high level of
literacy, circulations and
editions are often small.
State-owned papers have
been privatised; some
titles are published by
political parties.
The BBC
World Service is available
on FM in Ulan Bator.
Country profile:
Mongolia
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