President N. Enkhbayar Goes Live on UBS TV

It's always important that the head of State shows himself (or herself!) on TV from time to time to talk business. Not only is this a fine way to explain policies and the how and the why of certain decisions, it also makes people feel more involved with their nation's politics. So, it was good to be able to read a transcript of the latest TV interview with President N. Enkhbayar.

The President had a few things to say about the charges of corruption. In my mind he didn't convince but it's never easy to defend yourself against unsubstantiated charges. One thing the President could do is to actively and openly fight corruption, open a complaints' office, have a special branch of the police investigate charges of corruption, etc. I don't see such initiatives develop, which is one reason why so many people believe every politician and civil servant is in it for the money.

The most important aspect of this interview was in my mind what the President had to say about education and the future of industry. To quote the President from the transcript:

Lets develop our national economy and do the last line of production here in Mongolia.

What does this mean? Knowledge is based on our human intelligence, that's why we need engineers. From all the students in Mongolia, only 8-9% are studying to be engineers or take a degree to become a technician. At this time we need to pay more attention to train students for these kinds of important majors. In Mongolia it is very useful and important to be an engineer or technician, but people are more interested in politics and everyone is trying to be a politician. We cannot develop society if people are only studying policy, and not getting training in other areas. This is not a "healthy minded" society.

I haven't been able to see this interview so I don't know how clear these points came out. But I think the President is on the right track here. Mongolia's economic future does not solely lie with mining its enormous mineral resources. For a sustainable economic future Mongolia needs to diversify into other fields of industry as well. Production of semi-finished products and, maybe one day, end products adds value to the raw materials; value that generates more income for the nation and the companies.

Services are another field where Mongolia could shine. Already India is outsourcing services to China that were before outsourced to India from Europe and the US. Is Mongolia to benefit from that trend too? When will we see the first international phone-based help desks and software development services pop up in UB?

It's funny to see so many people studying subjects that don't involve manual labor, but the people who are getting rich in Mongolia are the people who work with their hands: tradesmen, herdsmen and businessmen (and women!) with a good idea and the will to work hard and long.

For a country like Mongolia it's important to have more graduates in applied sciences and in subjects that directly lead to the production of goods or the increase of knowledge: engineers, technicians, teachers, etc; functions that don't require individuals to hire these people but that can be employed by companies that invest money in Mongolia and produce.