I had to read the Economist article twice: "With just under three million people, Mongolia has a chance of becoming a Qatar or a Brunei: a country that has only a small population but almost all of it, in global terms, loaded." Pretty incredible for a country with a $6 billion economy.
Thinking back to my trip there five summers ago, I can barely envision this. Ulaanbaatar was a wide, open, empty capital, filled with restaurants never fully stocked with all the ingredients in their menu, and buildings reminiscent of post-war socialist architecture. Nothing of the sort of city described in the Economist: "a veritable Bangkok of the steppes -- at least if your comparators are Kabul and Mogadishu... A glitzy mall on the corner of the main Sukhbaatar Square houses the sort of establishments you come across in the better class of airport: chic boutiques, pricey restaurants, expensive watch shops and, of course, an outlet of Louis Vuitton, which sells posh luggage."
I'm in awe. When I was there, it was a culture looking backward. It was a people devoted to Genghis Khan, statues of whom lined Ulaanbaatar (not to mention the nation's most popular vodka). When I met with the head of a microfinance institution headquartered in Ulaanbaatar, this CEO spoke of the challenges of microfinance in a primarily nomadic culture, many of whom are herders, like their forefathers before them.
Now, with an expected growth rate of 22.9% in 2013 (and an average of 14% a year between 2012 and 2016), all eyes are towards its future. As the Economist writes: "Put together Mongolian supply and Chinese demand, and Mongolia will be rich beyond the wildest dreams of a population many of whom, a generation ago, saw themselves as nomadic herders."
This is the Mongolia I remember, out in the Gobi Desert, in the summer of 2007:
Amazing thinking of Louis Vuitton within any sort of vicinity to that.
Thinking back to my trip there five summers ago, I can barely envision this. Ulaanbaatar was a wide, open, empty capital, filled with restaurants never fully stocked with all the ingredients in their menu, and buildings reminiscent of post-war socialist architecture. Nothing of the sort of city described in the Economist: "a veritable Bangkok of the steppes -- at least if your comparators are Kabul and Mogadishu... A glitzy mall on the corner of the main Sukhbaatar Square houses the sort of establishments you come across in the better class of airport: chic boutiques, pricey restaurants, expensive watch shops and, of course, an outlet of Louis Vuitton, which sells posh luggage."
I'm in awe. When I was there, it was a culture looking backward. It was a people devoted to Genghis Khan, statues of whom lined Ulaanbaatar (not to mention the nation's most popular vodka). When I met with the head of a microfinance institution headquartered in Ulaanbaatar, this CEO spoke of the challenges of microfinance in a primarily nomadic culture, many of whom are herders, like their forefathers before them.
Now, with an expected growth rate of 22.9% in 2013 (and an average of 14% a year between 2012 and 2016), all eyes are towards its future. As the Economist writes: "Put together Mongolian supply and Chinese demand, and Mongolia will be rich beyond the wildest dreams of a population many of whom, a generation ago, saw themselves as nomadic herders."
This is the Mongolia I remember, out in the Gobi Desert, in the summer of 2007:
Amazing thinking of Louis Vuitton within any sort of vicinity to that.
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