Mongolia is a developing and landlocked country between the Russia to the North, and the People’s Republic of China to the South. In 1992, Mongolia became a democracy with a third neighbor policy. At this point Mongolia’s journey began to the transition to a market economy from a centrally planned economic system. Sustainable development became an important consideration and is currently guided by “Vision 2050”, the Mongolian long-term development policy.
Mongolian economy is largely based on agriculture and mining. The livestock sector numbers over 70 million animals while mining is home to some of the world’s largest developed and undeveloped mining projects for copper, gold, coal, and rare earth which are subject to the challenges of social license, climate change and the global need of critical minerals.
Balancing economic interests and sustainability is difficult. The importance of ensuring the balance is underscored by the fact that Mongolia is one of the countries experiencing the rise in temperatures from climate change. The country is a signatory of the Paris agreement aimed at reducing GHG emissions by 22.7% in 2030.
In this session, Mr.Surakhbayar Galsan, Mongolian Sustainable Development Expert with an extensive experience in Mongolian multi-sector policy development and investment attraction, will speak about Mongolia’s aspiration to keep building the sustainable development through policy, funding, and institutional challenges along with creating more development opportunities.
About the speaker
Surakhbayar Galsan, L.L.M., is the Managing Director of the Mongolian boutique management consulting firm “BlackRock Partners” LLC, Member of the Board of the “Mining Law Study Foundation” NGO, Chairman of the Board of the “R&D centre for Climate Change and Sustainable Development” NGO, Coordinator of the “Natural Resources & Environmental Law Initiative in Asia” programme at the School of Law of the National University of Mongolia (NUM), and Lecturer on “Environment and Mineral Laws” at the “German-Mongolian Institute for Resource and Technology of Mongolia”. He has served as an advisor to the Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry of Mongolia and was a Member of the Board of the Mongolian National Mining Association NGO.
He is passionate about facilitating sustainable development, green investment, climate resilience and social safeguard initiatives and the integration thereof into legislation, policies, plans and programs that benefit current and future generations in Mongolia. He has contributed to drafting numerous of legislation documents including the Minerals Law (versions 2006, 2013 and 2021), the Mining law (2017), the Law on Mineral Sector’s Transparency (2021), and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment (2022).
His work experience involves multi-million dollars domestic and foreign invested projects in various sectors in addition to international development programmes funded by the governments of Canada, Australia, WB, EBRD, ADB, GCF, UN-CTCN, UNDP, GIZ, EU, USAID, and WV.
Surakhbayar Galsan earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Law, National University of Mongolia and a Master of Laws degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, USA. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Law, NUM.
