MP E.Bat-Uul: State Ownership Over Strategic Deposits Means These Deposits Are Politicians’ Properties
Economic Standing Committee of the parliament discussed yesterday the draft law on modifications to the Minerals Law of Mongolia, initiated by E.Bat-Uul, M.Zorigt and R.Erdeneburen and which is called as Short distance and pre-election political show by MPRP.
Since it is the only Standing Committee in which DP members are majority, it supported the draft law of its members. They included 3 clauses in the draft law that said, an investment agreement must be concluded on the basis of production sharing contract in case of jointly using the strategic minerals deposits with foreign and domestic investors; a guarantee on environment-friendly technology should be taken and a special license should be withdrawn in case of corruption committed by the investor. Members concerned about whether a concept on ownership of the state over 51 percent and foreign investor over less than 49 percent of the strategic deposit gets lost because of production sharing contract.
However, E.Bat-Uul reminded it would of great significance for Mongolia in any case, recalling international examples and saying, : “It is proper not to mix strategic deposit issues with political ones. Otherwise, state ownership means that the deposit becomes the property of politicians.” Also he mentioned Erdenet enterprise several times as an example. He reminded of instability related to political actions such as making Erdenet the property of those in power and running elections for several times in order to change the director. In turn, he has been suspected by MP D.Arvin and then started a tense argument.
As D.Arvin brought up the issue of S.Zorig’s murder case, E.Bat-Uul began to complain and get angry, “Why you always blame me for S.Zorig’s death? I’ll sue you to the court. And you have to confirm that I murdered him or not.” T.Ochirkhuu informed that the task group in charge of formulating the draft law had studied the production-sharing contract and alternatives of golden and advantage shares when working on a draft law for 2-3 months. However, he highlighted that the best version was 51:49. Ivanhoe Mines once offered to compose a production sharing contract. D.Arvin asked the initiators to draw back the draft law for the sake of the nation, but the Standing Committee supported its discussion.
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