Sükhbaataryn Batbold

Sükhbaataryn Batbold
Сүхбаатарын Батболд
24th Prime Minister of Mongolia
In office
29 October 2009 – 10 August 2012
President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
Deputy Norovyn Altankhuyag
Preceded by Sanjaagiin Bayar
Succeeded by Norovyn Altankhuyag
Chairman of the Mongolian People’s Party
In office
8 April 2009 – 25 July 2012
Preceded by Sanjaagiin Bayar
Succeeded by Ölziisaikhany Enkhtüvshin
Personal details
Born (1963-06-24) 24 June 1963
Choibalsan, Mongolian People's Republic [1]
Political party Mongolian People's Party
Alma mater Moscow State Institute of International Relations
London Business School
Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
Website Official website

Sükhbaataryn Batbold (Mongolian: Сүхбаатарын Батболд, born June 24, 1963) is a Mongolian politician who was Prime Minister of Mongolia from 2009 to 2012, as well as Chairman of the Mongolian People's Party.[2] He was previously Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of his predecessor, Sanjaagiin Bayar.

Personal life and education

As a child Batbold attended the 14th high school in Ulaanbaatar, going on to study in Russia at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations between 1980 and 1986. He also studied at the London Business School in 1991 and earned a doctoral degree at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Moscow in 2002.[3]

Batbold previously held an executive position at Mongol Impex Cooperative. In 1992 he established Altai Trading Co. Ltd., which among others owns the Chinggis Khaan Hotel, E-mart Mongolia hypermarket chain and the Skytel cellular operator.[4] He headed the company until 2000 by which time it became one of the largest Mongolian private companies. Notably, Altai held the licenses for the Boroo gold deposit in 1996 and he himself was shareholder in Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit.[5] He is one of the richest Mongolian politicians due to his ownership of Altai, which in turn owns a wide range of different companies.[6]

Political career

Batbold entered Mongolian politics in 2000, by which time he was already an established and well-known businessman. He became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2004 and became a member of the Leadership Council of the Mongolians People’s Revolutionary Party in 2001. [3][7] During this time he negotiated a visa regime with the USA when the USA citizens became exempt from Mongolian visa requirements and Mongolian citizens became eligible for 10-year multiple entry visas. He was also a member of the working group that negotiated a multi-billion debt settlement with Russia that steamed from historical trade and investment relations with the former Soviet Union.

Batbold held the Ulan Bator 75 constituency in the 2004 Mongolian Great Khural election. [7] He then became Cabinet Minister of Trade and Industry between 2004 and 2006.[3]. As Minister of Trade and Industry, he contributed actively to the implementation of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the United States, establishing an ongoing dialogue to help remove barriers to trade between the United States and Mongolia.[8] Also during his term as Minister of Trade and Industry Mongolia was awarded GSP plus system of trade preferences by the European Union which allowed for preferential access for the than 7000 export items from Mongolia. <http://unctad.org/en/Docs/itcdtsbmisc25rev3_en.pdf>. As cabinet minister, he also proposed for the first time in Mongolia the special tax and regulatory treatment for small and medium businesses by proposing a special legislation to the Parliament.

In the 2008 Great Khural election, Batbold won a seat for the MPRP in the Ulan Bator 23 constituency in the same location of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar as during previous elections. [7] He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 until he was nominated to become Prime Minister in 2009.[3] During his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he hosted United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Ulan Bator to discuss the topic of climate change in Mongolia.[9] Batbold also substituted for then Prime Minister Bayar at a Prime Ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.[10]

Prime Minister and Chairman of Mongolian People's Party

On October 29th 2009, Batbold was elected as the 24th Prime Minister of Mongolia, succeeding Sanjaa Bayar, who resigned due to poor health. Batbold received 62 of 66 votes cast by Members of the Mongolian Parliament.[11]

On the 8th of April 2010, Batbold became the Chairman of the MPRP. This was confirmed with an election at the 26th MPRP Congress, where it was also decided that the MPRP would revert to its original name, the Mongolian People's Party.[7] The name change was proposed by him and the Secretary-General of the party Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and signified full transition to the socialist democratic values by the Mongolian People's Party. Before 1990, successive leaders of MPRP ruled Mongolia under one-party totalitarian regime and this is the only party among the former communist camp that managed to stay competitive in the new democratic system by transiting to socialist democratic values along the line of German Social Democrats and British Labor. <http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticlePageID=1630> During the Party Congress, Batbold was one of three proposed candidates for leadership, the others being Speaker Demberel Damdin and MP Enkhtuvshin. After Damdin withdrew his name from the list of candidates, voting continued until 4:30am, ending with Batbold winning a majority of 85% (675 votes from 788 voters).[12]

As Prime Minister, Batbold oversaw a number of notable developments, including; the enactment of the Law on Gender Equality in 2011[13], the reformation and modernisation of the Mongolian Stock Exchange[14] and the launch of a collaboration between the Government of Mongolia and a Cambridge University consortium to support reforms in primary and secondary education in Mongolia.[15] During his term, the Mongolian economy grew by 17.5 percent in 2011, one of the highest among the frontier economies globally. <http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/EAP/Mongolia/MQU_April_2013_en.pdf> The poverty rates fell by double digits and household income doubled.<https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/mongolia/annual-household-income-per-capita>

In 2010, Batbold held a cabinet meeting in the Gobi desert to draw attention to climate change and the growing threat of desertification in Mongolia.[16]

During his negotiations with Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper in 2010, Batbold stated Canada can serve as a role model for Mongolia because of similarities in resource endowments, sparse population, big territory and most importantly in democratic values and development models. This visit sparked exchanges between the two countries in different areas, including efforts to reform the public service along the Canadian example. <https://openparliament.ca/committees/foreign-affairs/40-3/34/dashdorj-zorigt-1/only/> Batbold also sought to initiate a transition to "European standards" which he defined as "not only commodities’ and physical’ standards, but also new standards related to laws and regulations, technologies and mindsets, as well as to culture and lifestyle." <http://embassyofmongolia.co.uk/?p=216&lang=mn>

Ideologically, Batbold is a Third way politician along the lines of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder who views were very market based on economics and centrist on social issues, which put them to the right from traditional social democratic views.

Continued Political Involvement

Since the end of his term as Prime Minister in 2012, Batbold has remained a Member of Parliament. He is a member of Mongolia's delegation for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly.[17] Batbold serves as a Vice-President of Socialist International[18] and is Chairman of the Mongolia Development Strategy Institute, think-tank which hosts international events and undertakes research on public policy issues with significant impact on Mongolia's development trajectory.[19]

In November 2014, Batbold was elected to membership in the MPP Chamber of Advisers and in December 2015 he once again joined the MPP Leadership Council. After winning the Sukhbaatar District 61 constituency for the MPP in the 2016 Great Khural election and becoming MP for fourth time, Batbold was elected chairman of the Great Khural Subcommittee on Special Control.[7]


Notes

  1. ↑ "Batbold, Sükhbaataryn", in Historical Dictionary of Mongolia, Alan J. K. Sanders, ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2010) p93
  2. ↑ AFP: Mongolia approves new PM Batbold. AFP via Google.com (2009-10-29). Retrieved on 2012-06-29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 The Minister for External Relations, S.Batbold's Resume | Mongolia Business and Mongolian Daily Business News. Business-mongolia.com. Retrieved on 2012-06-29.
  4. ↑ Namjilsangarav, Ganbat. "The Associated Press: Mongolia ruling party nominates new prime minister". Google News. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  5. ↑ "History". centerragold.com. Centerra Gold Inc. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  6. ↑ Namjilsangarav, Ganbat (29 October 2009). "Mongolian parliament confirms tycoon as new PM". sandiegouniontribune.com. The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Saunders, Alan JK (2017). Historical Dictionary of Mongolia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 104. ISBN 978-0810861916.
  8. ↑ "United States-Mongolia Transparency Agreement to Enter into Force". ustr.gov. Office of the United States Trade Representative. 19 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "ACTIVITIES OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MONGOLIA, 26–28 JULY". United Nations. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  10. ↑ "Chinese vice premier meets Mongolian FM". China Daily. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  11. ↑ PM S. Batbold elected as the Leader of Mongolian People's Party | Mongolia Business and Mongolian Daily Business News. Business-mongolia.com (2010-11-06). Retrieved on 2018-03-12.
  12. ↑ PM S. Batbold elected as the Leader of Mongolian People's Party | Mongolia Business and Mongolian Daily Business News. Business-mongolia.com (2010-11-06). Retrieved on 2018-03-12.
  13. ↑ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (2011). Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011: Mongolia (PDF) (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "LSE seals deal to develop Mongolian Stock Exchange". business-mongolia.com. Business-mongolia.com. 8 April 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "Raising Standards in Primary and Secondary Education" (PDF). cambridgeenglish.org. Cambridge English. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "Mongolian Cabinet holds meeting in Gobi desert to draw attention to climate change". foxnews.com. FOX News Network. 29 August 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  17. ↑ OSCE PA (3 February 2017). Member Directory (Report). p. 3. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Presidium of the Socialist International". socialistinternational.org. Socialist International. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  19. ↑ Cho, Jamie (21 June 2017). "Northeast Asia Regional Meeting 2017". a-pln.org. APLN. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Sanjaagiin Bayar		 General Secretary of the Mongolian People's Party
2009–2012		 Succeeded by
Ölziisaikhany Enkhtüvshin
Political offices
Preceded by
Sanjaagiin Bayar		 Prime Minister of Mongolia
2009–2012		 Succeeded by
Norovyn Altankhuyag
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