Transport & Logistics
From The Report: Mongolia 2012
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As a landlocked and historically underdeveloped country, Mongolia’s transport challenges are steep. Airports are dilapidated, roads are cracking, and railways need updating. The government is planning major investments on all fronts, including upgrading roads to serve the huge freight trucks that travel to and from mining sites, rehabilitating Ulaanbaatar’s urban network. Some $5bn will be spent on expansions to the railway system, connecting mining sites to the export destinations of China and Russia. Meanwhile, the aviation sector is set for a boom, particularly in charter flights, as mining employees will need transport in and out of remote locations.
This chapter features an interview with Kh. Battulga, former Minister of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Linking up: Infrastructure is set for an overhaul to tackle historic challenges
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As a large, landlocked country bordering only two others – Russia and China – Mongolia depends on its land and air transport systems to get goods and services to market. Economic development has also meant the country is undergoing rapid urbanisation, placing increasing pressure on its urban transport infrastructure, while boosting a need for better internal links. Indeed, the key new driver of the economy, mining, depends greatly on an adequate transport structure to get bulk cargoes…

Analysis

Prepare for take-off: Aviation is set for rapid growth in both public and private sectors
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Given Mongolia’s large territory and the natural barriers that cross it, along with a low density of road and railway, air transport has provided a vital link within the country ever since civil aviation began in 1946. Yet Mongolia’s thinly spread population and its relative isolation from the rest of the world have meant air transport has remained relatively undeveloped. Of the country’s 46 airports in 2010, only 14 had paved runways, only one of which – Chinggis Khaan International…

Interview

OBG talks to Kh. Battulga, Former Minister of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development
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Interview:Kh. Battulga What major infrastructural projects are currently taking place in the country? BATTULGA: After the 2008 parliamentary elections the mining sector experienced considerable growth and increased stability and efficiency, and by 2010 coking coal exports reached 15m tonnes. Contracts for key projects such as Oyu Tolgoi were signed and operations began with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto. These developments show that Mongolia is an open country that embraces participation from…

Analysis

On track: Railway network expansions are planned to improve trade links
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For many years Mongolia was largely inaccessible by rail, but in 1947 work began on the Trans-Mongolia line, a southern spur of the famous Trans-Siberian railway, connecting Europe with the Pacific. By 1955, the line had been completed, running 2215 km from the Russian to the Chinese border, via the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Add to this two earlier lines, one from Choibalsan to Borzya in Russia (built in 1939) and one from the Nalaikh coal mines to Ulaanbaatar (built in 1938), plus spurs from the…