Remarks of Ambassador Richard L. Buangan
to the American Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia
May Monthly Meeting
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Blue Sky Hotel, Ulaanbaatar
AmCham Leadership in Shaping Mongolia’s Investment Climate
(As Prepared)
Thank you for inviting me today to address you all again.  Last time I was with you was right after the U.S. Presidential election – at your Annual General Meeting – when I briefly spoke about the need for continuing our strong U.S. Embassy-AmCham partnership that effectively advocates pro-business initiatives to parliament and government.  Earlier in 2024, you invited me to speak about Mongolia’s energy transformation and how AmCham can take the lead to ensure it is private-sector driven.  Our partnership continues to be mutually beneficial.
The U.S. Embassy wants to see more American investment and trade in Mongolia, and we commend AmCham for their continued dedication to strengthening the economic and business ties between the United States and Mongolia.  Both of us also want to ensure Mongolian companies have easier access to the U.S. market. That’s why I was pleased to participate in your Washington DC Doorknock.
And I want to thank you all for your partnership and for your voice.  It has been your voice that has set you apart from other chambers and business interest groups.  You all have spoken out against travel bans, detainment, expropriation, and against a broken dispute resolution system; at the same time you all have spoken out for the rule of law, due process, and transparency and consultation when laws and regulations are passed and implemented. Your affective and assertive voice brings issues to the forefront.  Even when your messages cause great discomfort and irritation in Ulaanbaatar’s corridors of power.
Your decision to not just advocate but take the lead in vocalizing private sector positions has earned you broad respect and a seat at the table when government and parliament debated important decisions affecting Mongolia’s long-term economic and commercial health.
The Mongolian business community has never needed your intellectual leadership and moral courage more than now. That is what I wanted to focus my message on today: why AmCham needs to continue to play a leadership role in shaping the solutions to the challenges of Mongolia’s investment climate.
Mongolia faces many challenges – many of which come just by being a true democracy:  an unwieldy, highly factionalized political system struggling to reconcile multiple, conflicting demands on state resources; geopolitical tensions among Mongolia’s primary trading partners; and realignment and rebalancing of the global trading order.  This is where it has been helpful to have a private sector partner willing and able to speak truth to power.
Turning to the investment climate, I think we can agree that government and parliamentary actions have a direct impact on the private sector, for good or for bad. That is why I strongly believe Mongolia’s economic growth needs to be private-sector led.  None of these government actions can be realized without strong private-sector input. And, to get that support, there needs to be a legal, regulatory and investment framework which attracts serious, responsible domestic and foreign private sector investment.  Unfortunately, we are hearing from many of you that this framework is not attractive at the moment.  Mongolia keeps sinking in the business attractiveness rankings of countries at the critical time it needs to be rising. And when dark clouds start to form in Mongolia’s investment climate, that’s when AmCham and the U.S. Embassy need to work together to sound the alarm and offer solutions.
I wanted to take a moment to preview for you our soon-to-be published 2025 Mongolia Investment Climate Statement.
American investors have told us that from a distance Mongolia’s market is tempting.  From afar it offers opportunities in mining, agriculture, and an accessible, sophisticated, and lucrative Ulaanbaatar market for products and services. And let’s not forget tourism.  United Airlines just started operating flights here, becoming the first U.S. carrier to operate regularly scheduled, commercial flights to Mongolia. Add to that Mongolia’s geographic location makes it well positioned to serve as a passenger and cargo gateway to Central Asia.
An enticing narrative for investors.
But this story often fails to spur decisive action, once investors take a closer look.
That closer look reveals substantial and unpredictable regulatory burdens at every level, where officials across ministries and agencies seem to routinely and arbitrarily contravene existing laws.  Long delays in resolving disputes and in enforcing decisions – often hidden behind a veil of secrecy – only increase the barriers for both domestic and foreign investors.
Investors are particularly concerned about a tax process that effectively allows officials to issue excessive, confiscatory, and again arbitrary tax assessments to coerce settlements.
The perception that the government favors its own state-owned entities over private sector companies discourages existing investors from expanding, and new investors from coming.
Finally, there is the 2024 package of laws aimed at reestablishing Mongolia’s sovereign wealth funds by the state taking no less than 34 percent of strategic mining assets without compensation.
The foreign and domestic business community, most notably AmCham, has expressed concerns that the government, having opened the door for expropriation in one arena, may do so for others. The business community has conveyed these concerns to government and legislative leaders, asking for reconsideration of the expropriatory aspects of these laws.  And I might add that the U.S. Embassy too has raised these concerns at the highest levels of the Mongolian government.
We are watching very closely a solution that is working its way through parliament, which would in principle take expropriation off the table for strategic deposits. We urge the government, parliament, and the business community to reach agreement expeditiously, because failure to meet this moment could render Mongolia effectively un-investable, crippling not only private business but an ambitious government development program requiring revenue and finance from both private domestic and foreign sources.
So, what can the United States government do to help support what you and the business community are doing to bring about these changes?
President Trump and the Administration’s America First Policy offers a way forward to address these serious, perennial challenges.
Thanks to clear and unambiguous pro-business messages coming from the highest levels of this Administration there is a better sense of where Mongolia and the United States align, which could, for example, be in areas involving reform of investment policies and energy generation.
Mongolia, as I noted, needs to continue to pay attention to the regulatory and statutory framework affecting private sector activities.  The current system doesn’t do enough to reassure investors.
The Administration, at the same time, sees energy generation as a clear path to national energy independence, security, and prosperity for our partners, while offering opportunities to U.S. commercial interests.  As Treasury Secretary Bessent said during the recent World Bank and IMF meetings, “Energy abundance sparks economic abundance,” calling for “all-of-the-above approach” that includes both fossil fuels and renewables where feasible.
Mongolia, if it is to implement its megaprojects, needs base-load power, be that from fossil fuels, renewables, or nuclear energy; and homegrown supply, with U.S. support, can free Mongolia from dependency and doubt, offering prosperity to U.S. and Mongolian businesses alike.
While these ideas are no panacea for what ails Mongolia, it does offer a clarity of purpose for those seeking to understand how a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America can at the same time make a safer, stronger, and more prosperous Mongolia.
America First doesn’t mean America Only.  This relationship can and must be a relationship of mutual benefit.  And here, I would be clear-eyed about the possibilities of mutual benefit, because this is a pragmatic approach that can favor both sides.  The first step, obviously, is to secure investor confidence.  Let me repeat that:  The first step is to secure investor confidence.
AmCham’s 2025 U.S. Doorknock offered a firsthand experience for our business delegation of what’s going on in Washington.  Amid policy continuing to be fine-tuned – and more senior positions being filled, we met with decision makers and painted a realistic picture of the investment climate here in Mongolia, both its challenges and opportunities.
Thanks to the relationships formed during the Doorknock, AmCham is in a better position to explain to Mongolia-based decision makers and market movers what Washington expects of the U.S.-Mongolia commercial relationship.  The Trump Administration will vigorously protect U.S. commercial and economic interests and will ensure that our trade relationships with the world are reset through trade deals and pro-growth tariffs.  The U.S. Embassy will not hesitate to call out actions that harm the interests of the business community here in Mongolia. That means we will do more to advocate for a better investment climate through our partners like AmCham.  That makes your voice value-added.
AmCham must carry the baton for the business community—to be that stronger bridge between America and Mongolia, a role for which it is eminently suited.  AmCham, which has a seat at the table and the respect of stakeholders, is the right organization, with the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
As we start to talk about what happens next, now the real work begins. As the Mongolian government starts to possibly – perhaps – form again, this is an opportunity to channel your powerful voice.  You can take advantage of current events to again demonstrate that AmCham is an honest, authoritative advocate for the business community, not just for one industry or problem set, but everything that affects the business community and the path to private-sector led economic growth, which must always be our guiding star.  The U.S. Embassy will always stand alongside you as your partner.
Thank you.

Published Date:2025-05-30