Recently by Simon Black: How Bankrupt Governments Will Confiscate Your Gold
Chinggis Khan has been gone for centuries, but his spirit undoubtedly lives on in Mongolia. Empire-building is in the cultural DNA here.
Mongolians know that they’re sitting on trillions of dollars worth of valuable resources, and that the economy is undergoing a rapid transformation. You can see it in their eyes… the energy, the buzz.
Bear in mind that Mongolia is an incredibly young country. The average age is mid-20s, and it’s common to see younger people in positions of significant influence. I dined with a director of the local stock exchange yesterday and doubt he was even 35. Same with the bank executives that I met.
This relative youth infuses the local economy with tremendous drive, energy, and creativity. These people don’t want to sit back and watch the economic boom happen; they want to be at the forefront of their country’s emergence into the developed world. And they know the time is now.
One of the most striking things about Mongolians is that they know they can’t do it alone. They want foreign capital… and expertise.
I’ve traveled to more frontier markets than I can remember, and most of the time when a local sees a foreigner, he thinks, “how can I rip this guy off?” In Mongolia, he thinks, “how can I partner with this guy to build an empire…?”
It’s an amazing difference that’s echoed throughout the society.
Right when you arrive, you’ll get the instant impression that this country welcomes foreign people and their capital. Nobody’s going to tear through your underwear looking for dirty bombs or subject you to an intrusive line of immigration questioning.
US citizens, in fact, are entitled to visa-free travel to Mongolia; there’s not even a ‘visa on arrival’ money grab at the airport– you just show up and present your passport as you would in Paris.
