Mongolia gets more foreign investment last year

Mongolia attracted more than 300 million U.S. dollars in foreign investment in 2006, nearly a seven-fold increase over 10 years ago, local media reported on Wednesday.

"Mongolia's total foreign investment now has reached 1.6 billion dollars, which equals to the amount of the aid from foreign donors," Mongolian Prime Minister Miegombo Enkhbold was quoted as telling a recent parliament session.

Enkhbold said the level of foreign investment in the country stood at only 40 million dollars a year during 1995-1996, but it topped 300 million dollars last year.

Mongolia receives most of the foreign investment from China, Canada, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and Britain. Enkhbold said 43.8 percent of the investment was concentrated in geology and mining, 5.6 percent was distributed to light industry and 5.5 percent to banking and finance.

"The government is trying to attract foreign investors to Mongolia's infrastructure sector, especially in electric power, construction, IT, agriculture, light industry and mining," said the prime minister.

Source: Xinhua