Having just waved past another year of economic transition and reforms, CEO CLUB wishes to provide a realistic outlook on the current economic circumstances and hereby issues a public appeal addressed to the political leaders and economical policy makers as well as the private sector representatives who all pay close attention to the future development of Mongolia.

In 2013, Mongolia experienced grave macro economical damages created by the continuity of uncertainty and ambiguity in the domestic and foreign investment environment, which had been caused by the rushed and restrictive legal and economic decisions made previously. During last year we faced a number of unfavorable challenges with key indicators of the business environment fast deteriorating. We saw 48 percent decrease in foreign direct investment, with mining output plummeting 20 percent, uncertain delays in Oyu Tolgoi negotiations, 25 percent jump in the USD exchange rates, and last but not least the negative outlook in the credit ratings of Mongolia. In addition to this, the Mongolian government’s tendency to encroach the private sector growth persisted further and it was a noticeable from the decline in the private sector profit margins and also the tax revenues.

All of these circumstances led to the establishment and rigorous activities of the "National Council for Private Sector Support" NGO to defend the sustainable growth of the private sector by uniting the Mongolian private sector members and supporters. With the presence of this nation-wide council, business entities were able to voice their recommendations for the draft Investment Law and endorse the recommencing of the major mining projects in due course.

In parallel to this, we strived to generate positive perception of the wealth creating citizens and the private sector as a whole, through a number of initiatives including our first ever united appeal and recommendations made to the current Government and the leading political parties to adopt strategic and sustainable policies to continually support the wealth creators through actions and not just through papers.

Not only did we proactively support the President’s "Smart Government" initiative with series of consultations, we also continued our dialogue with the government to make the public and private sector partnership part of their priorities.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Business Council of Mongolia, MONEF, Mongolia National Mining Association, Mongolian Silk Road Foundation and other private sector representatives for their cooperation on all aforementioned initiatives.

In 2013, CEO Club had the privilege to meet the most honorable guests from the international politics and businesses, including William Hague, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the United Kingdom, Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economical Forum, Lord Mayor Roger Gifford, Lord Mayor of London, Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Head of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and Axel Van Trotsenburg, Vice-President of the East Asia and Pacific Regions, World Bank during their visit in our country. These high profile meetings demonstrated that major international investors and decision-makers are indeed paying close attention to the development of Mongolian private sector.

As a final note to all, we make a sincere appeal to all members of the private sector, who are the driving force of the Mongolian social and economical development, constituting more than 80 percent of the state budget and tax revenue, to come together for the interest of the national development and to dedicate your

 

leadership, time, knowledge and resources to a collaborative planning of the national development strategy that is all grounded in economic foresight, scientific research, international best practices.

CEO CLUB OF MONGOLIA