On December 4th, The Asia Foundation’s office in Mongolia released the sixth edition of the Corruption Benchmarking Survey, which covers the six months from March to September 2008. This survey provides time series data that identifies trends and patterns in citizen awareness, intolerance for corruption, and support for measures to combat corruption.

Over the six-month period, ministries and line agencies completed individual corruption assessments and action plans that were mandated by the Prime Minister’s decree earlier in the year. The Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) received an increasing number of corruption complaints, although call volume to the Corruption Reporting Hotline decreased concomitant with the end of the IAAC’s public awareness and education campaign.
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By Rebecca Darling

The below was originally published in “Asia Miner” Magazine and was written by Rebecca Darling, the Director of Natural Resources and Development programs at The Asia Foundation in Mongolia. She can be reached at rdarling@asiafound.org.

In the northwest corner of central Mongolia’s Tov province, 80% of the land in Ugumuur town has been licensed to 18 Mongolian, Russian, and Chinese miners. Activity hums dusk to dawn.

Ugumuur is a boom-town but like many towns in Mongolia, it is deeply scarred by a legacy of poor mining practices in the 1990s. Citizens have been divorced from land-use decision-making, they observe environmental damage and often imported labor crowded them out of the local mining market. These are sore points with locals, who, according to one, say that they would support mining if “we are engaged and employed, and if companies reclaim land when extraction is completed.” These concerns are voiced by communities in Khentii, Hovsgol and other provinces across Mongolia.
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Participants at a forum held last week in Seoul want you to steal their ideas. Organized by The Asia Foundation, and supported by KDI School of Public Policy and Management and the Korea Business Council for Sustainable Development, the group gathered from countries across Asia to discuss how to address local and regional environmental threats while enhancing development and economic growth.

In the keynote address that opened the day-long event, Terry Foecke, managing partner of Materials Productivity LLC and senior environmental consultant at The Asia Foundation, set the tone for the day. “A sustainable project incorporates ideas that are packaged for theft,” he said. “These are concepts that are so good and so obvious that people will want to replicate them.”
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By William S.Infante

William Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia.

In May of last year, Silvano Jino and Sarangerel Chuluunbaatar were convicted under Mongolia’s Criminal Code Article 113 for trafficking Mongolian women to Macau; they were sentenced to over 10 years in prison. This was the first trafficking in persons case that resulted in a conviction under Article 113 in nearly a decade, and it is an example of the Government’s commitment to pursue perpetrators aggressively.

Between the early 1990s and 2006, only half a dozen cases of trafficking were prosecuted and adjudicated by the Mongolian courts. Of these, only one resulted in a conviction under Article 113, which carries relatively stiff penalties. The other cases were presented under Article 124, Organized Prostitution, which carries relatively light sentences of between one and three years imprisonment.
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Doug Bereuter, President of The Asia Foundation, recently returned from Korea and Mongolia. In Mongolia, he met with President Enkhbayar, Democratic Party Leader Ts. Elbegdorj, and Civic Union/Green Party Leader Enkhbat, in addition to touring mine sites in Zamaar soum, Tov aimag. His interview with MM News Television can be viewed here. In Korea, Mr. Bereuter delivered the speech, “Challenges in U.S.-Asian Relations Awaiting a New American President” which can be read in its entirety here.

Doug Bereuter, President of The Asia Foundation, is traveling to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to meet with President Enkhbayar, Democratic Party Leader Ts. Elbegdorj, and Civic Union/Green Party Leader Enkhbat. Mr. Bereuter will also meet with the Head of the Independent Authority Against corruption and civil society organizations, in addition to touring mine sites in Zamaar soum, Tov aimag.

The summary of The Asia Foundation’s observation results relating to the recent Mongolian voting process, and to voter perceptions of the June 29th elections, was recently released. The Asia Foundation deployed 17 two-person teams to observe the parliamentary election.

Over 1,500,000 citizens were registered to vote nationwide, and voter turnout is estimated at 70%. A total of 356 candidates from 12 political parties, one coalition, and 45 independent candidates competed in 26 multi-member constituencies as prescribed by the 2005 Election Law. The number of candidates in a constituency varied from 20-30, and the number of seats in each constituency varied from two to four, depending upon the population.
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In Seoul, on Monday, July 7, The Asia Foundation organized a public forum on “Development Assistance in Areas of Conflict in Asia: Lessons from the Field”. The forum addressed providing development assistance in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and southern Philippines, and brought together international experts, Korean policy makers, as well as Korean and Asia Foundation managers of development projects to discuss the complex relationship between conflict and development and effective strategies for working in difficult environments. For more information, please contact Mr. Chun Sang Moon: csmoon@asiafound.org.

In Tuesday’s New York Times, The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia, Bill Infante, was quoted on post-election riots in a piece called “In Election Dispute, A Challenge for Mongolia’s Democracy”.

By William Foerderer Infante

William Foerderer Infante is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Mongolia. To read his recent comments on this unusual episode of violence in Mongolia on CNN.com, click here, and in the Los Angeles Times, click here. He can be reached at binfante@asiafound.org.

Just after noon on July 1st, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Sukhbaatar square in central Ulaanbatar to protest the June 29th election results, which they alleged were fraudulent. Throughout the afternoon, the demonstration grew in size to more than 8,000, and then erupted into violence around 7pm.

36 hours after the polls closed, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) led the balloting by a significant margin. Opposition parties, including the Democratic Party and the newly-formed Citizen’s Union, launched the gathering and encouraged citizens to stand up for justice and for free and fair elections. They demanded a recount in districts where malfeasance was said to have occurred. But the demonstration spiraled wildly out of control in the early evening, and was uncontained by police wearing riot gear.
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In a Letter to the Editor, The Asia Foundation’s Country representative in Mongolia, William Foerderer Infante, responds to the Michael Auslin’s June 24th op-ed “Genghis Putin” stating, “Mongolia’s national and economic security are anchored in diverse and balanced trade relations, and prior investments won’t necessarily give Russia an inside track for the future.” To read it, click here.