TODAYonline | World | Mongolia is not yet the next Qatar: "Kuwait 1950. Abu Dhabi 1970. Qatar 1995. Mongolia 2012?
Mongolia, endowed with vast resources and growing at 17 per cent, has a gold-rush atmosphere.
The miners, bankers and lawyers who have descended on its capital, Ulan Bator, like to believe it is the next El Dorado. Those who wish the country well hope it can be more than that: A well-run democracy in which opportunity is equitably spread.
Mr John Finigan, who runs Mongolia's Golomt Bank, thinks of Qatar, which had a US$8 billion (S$10.3 billion) economy in 1995. Today, it has a gross domestic product of US$174 billion and the world's second-highest per capita income of US$98,000.
Why, he asks, shouldn't Mongolia do the same? Its top 10 mines alone contain minerals worth US$2.75 trillion, which would make every Mongolian - all 2.7 million of them - a millionaire.
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