New Mongolia Project
Rather than a formal project, the New Mongolia Project evolved organically, based on events and an amalgamation of talented individuals working in Mongolia from 1997 to 1999. If there was one formal funder, that would be the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its Partnership for Progress with the Government of Mongolia, negotiated in 1996 and publicly launched in 1997.
Mongolia was still in a crisis in the late 1990s. The country’s turbulent transition from Communism to free markets and democracy, and the social and economic crash this caused, and, later in 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis (Pomfret 2000)*, combined with political instability to generate extreme volatility.
Richard Pomfret said in 1994, “In 1991 Mongolia suffered one of the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever (Mongolia’s Economic Reforms: Background, Content and Prospects, Richard Pomfret, University of Adelaide, 1994).” From Curbing Corruption in Asia: A Comparative Study of Six Countries by Jon S. T. Quah: “The combined effect of these three shocks was devastating as ‘Mongolia suffered the most serious peacetime economic collapse any nation has faced during this century’. Indeed, Mongolia’s economic collapse ‘was possibly the greatest of all the (peaceful) formerly'” Communist countries.
“The years 1998 and 1999 have been volatile ones for Mongolia, with revolving door governments, the assassination of a minister, emerging corruption, a banking scandal, in-fighting within the ruling Democratic Coalition, frequent paralysis within the Parliament, and disputes over the Constitution. Economically, the period was unstable and rife with controversies.” Mongolia in 1998 and 1999: Past, Present, and Future at the New Millennium by Sheldon R. Severinghaus, Asian Survey, Vol. 40, No. 1, A Survey of Asia in 1999 (Jan. – Feb., 2000). pp. 130-139 (Publisher: University of California).
Mongolia at the Market: Dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the School of Economic Studies: "During the last 16 years the financial and monetary system of our country saw the worst crisis in 1991-1994, there was a recovery in 1995-1997 and another crisis in 1997-1999. However, it has entered a stable stage since 2000."
