The UB Post-Leading English News

The law was approved on November 18 by the Parliament by majority vote of 78,8 percent or 52 to 14 after series of political negotiations between two major political forces ruling the government.

Signifying importance of the law, Speaker of Parliament D.Demberel thanked all parties involved in the discussion and said that “Parliament approved very important law. This is not about simply distributing money to citizens. This has created legal environment that decided to have citizens receive a share from revenues gained from mineral wealth.”

The law combined major concepts of the two political parties: Motherland’s Bounty and Share of Treasure. Revenues generated from the strategically important mineral deposits are expected to reach citizens in a number of different forms: cash, health and social insurance, university scholarship and long-term mortgage loan.

Democratic Party thanked the law initiators that “it made legally possible that every citizen of Mongolia, for the first time in its history, became equally eligible to own share on the mineral wealth”.

“This Fund is the greatest investment being done into Mongolian people. Starting from today every Mongolian has become share owner of strategic deposits. It has became possible to own shares in form of residential and tuition payments, withdrawals of health and social insurance,” said MP Ch.Khurelbaatar, head of the working group of the law.

The law mandates that only two thirds of the parliament can make changes to the law, which should mean any changes may need 66 percent of vote by Parliament members. So, it makes it impossible to make frequent changes to the law because of political interest.” said Dale Choi, an analyst of Frontier Securities.

First beneficiaries of the law would be elder citizens, each may receive Tg500,000 cash next year (approximately US$350).