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ALL companies working in the country, whether investment in them has
come from Mongolian or foreign sources, can now join a group to provide
better advocacy for business issues. The newly set up Business Council
of Mongolia (BCM) will focus on dealing with issues such as taxation,
regulations, investment climate, employment and the environment.

ALL companies working in the country, whether investment in them has come from Mongolian or foreign sources, can now join a group to provide better advocacy for business issues. The newly set up Business Council of Mongolia (BCM) will focus on dealing with issues such as taxation, regulations, investment climate, employment and the environment. BCM came into being last month when the North America Mongolia Business Council (NAMBC), the oldest and largest international business organization linking Mongolia and the West, decided to set up a separate but allied NGO. Membership in NAMBC, formed in 1990, has been, and still remains, limited to Canadian, US and Mongolian companies, but BCM, as an independent and self-governing entity, will be open to all doing business in the country.

Explaining why the spin-off was necessary, Ed Story, NAMBC Chair, has said, “The rapid changes in Mongolia’s economy require a first-response capability to lobby specific business, legal and regulatory issues on the ground. We decided the best way to do this was to have an independent group based in Ulaanbaatar.

The BCM office will be led by a locally-based executive director and managed by its members inside Mongolia. NAMBC will continue to be headquartered in the Washington, DC area, while maintaining its Ulaanbaatar office opened in 2004.

NAMBC will focus on advocacy of American and Canadian business interests in Mongolia, improving relations among the three countries, liaising with the three governments on policy issues affecting investment and trade, and cooperating with Mongolian businesspeople living in North America. It will also continue to organize the annual investors’ conference in Ulaanbaatar, but the responsibility for running its monthly meetings will now be taken over by BCM.

J.Peter Morrow, NAMBC Vice Chair now to serve also as BCM Chairman, feels the new arrangement “allows members the best of both worlds”.

 

Written by Tirthankar Mukherjee    

The UB Post