Page 12 - bneIntelliNews Small Stans & Mongolia Outlook 2025

expansion of the country’s transportation sector.”
On the downside, the report warned that weaker Chinese growth could negatively impact demand for Turkmen gas, with gas exports to China massively important to the Central Asian country’s economy.
The Asian Development Bank said in December it expected GDP growth rates in Turkmenistan of 6.5% and 6.0% in 2024 and 2025 respectively. Inflation in both years would amount to 5%, it also anticipated.
One of the few significant exports of Turkmenistan apart from gas is tomatoes. The close of 2024 brought news of extreme difficulties faced by greenhouse growers of tomatoes in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan caused by market oversupplies triggered by a fall-off in consumer purchasing power in main market Russia.
4.0 Mongolia
4.1 Politics, major themes – Mongolia
As observed by Maximilian Hess lately, Mongolia’s geography lends itself to cliches – the proverbial rock and a hard place fits aptly, with Russia to the north and China to its south.
“Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it the tight grip Moscow once held over the country, Mongolia has, however, flourished,” wrote the political risk and foreign policy analyst. “This unique success story is built on the back of Mongolians’ commitment to developing democratic institutions and the country’s openness to foreign investment.
But Mongolia’s position is at risk, from without and within.”
Russia’s ambitions to reassert dominance, a spat looming with China over the youthful heir to the Bogd Khan, one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most significant lamas, and the relationship going forward with Western investors (even more important in supporting Mongolia’s development than Western politicians) are key matters on the horizon.
One point of anxiety is an amended Minerals Law supposed to support a new sovereign wealth fund, aimed at diversifying Mongolia’s economy. Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai stated that the fund should be supported by a rebalancing of the wealth of mining firms in the country and the new legislation authorises the government to seize up to 50% of their shares in mining projects without compensation.
12 Small Stans & Mongolia 2023 www.intellinews.com