Infrastructure funding gap hobbles Mongolia’s sprint to prosperity

The nation’s gold, coal and iron-ore reserves are making it the world’s fastest-growing investment destination. But a lack of infrastructure funding and planning threatens to derail the country’s rapid transformation. Lawrence White reports from Ulaan Baatar.

JOHN FINIGAN, CHIEF executive of Mongolia’s Golomt Bank, has previous experience of a country undergoing extremely rapid transformation. Resplendent in a dapper grey suit with pink tie and matching pocket handkerchief, he is the picture of a banking veteran as he leans back in a chair in his Ulaan Baatar office and recalls his tenure as chief executive of Qatar National Bank. “In 1995,” he says, “Qatar’s GDP was around $8 billion. Last year it was $128 billion.

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