Mongolia (country)

F

Commerce and Trade

In 1992, 74 per cent of Mongolia’s trade was with the countries that made up the former USSR and other former Soviet-bloc countries. Since then, Mongolia has made efforts to expand trade with other countries. Principal exports in the mid-1990s were fuels, minerals, metals, cattle, meat products, wool, cashmere, and consumer items. Imports consisted mainly of machinery and transport equipment, consumer goods, food products, fuel, minerals, and metals, and industrial consumer goods. In 2003 Mongolia imported US$801 million worth of goods and exported goods worth US$616 million.

G

Transport

The Republic of Mongolia is served by around 2,000 km (1,242 mi) of the Trans-Mongolian Railway, which connects Ulaanbaatar with Russia and China. There are 49,250 km (30,603 mi) of roads, but only about 4 per cent of these are paved; truck services operate throughout the country. Mongolia has around 28,000 cars and an equal number of trucks and buses (42 people per vehicle), but these figures may be unreliable. Steamer services operate on the Selenga River and a tug and barge service on Lake Hövsgöl. An air service connects Ulaanbaatar with Moscow; domestic services are provided by Mongolian Civil Air Transport.

H

Communications

In 1997 Mongolia was served by about 360,000 radio receivers and 155,000 television sets. There were approximately 89,000 telephones in use in 1995. The country has about 56 national newspapers. Ünen, a daily newspaper published in Ulaanbaatar, is the most widely read, with a daily circulation of about 170,000.

V

Government

Under Mongolia’s 1960 constitution, the supreme organ of state power was the People’s Great Hural (Khural), a 430-member assembly that usually met twice a year. The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary (Communist) Party (MPRP) was the sole legal party until 1990, when the constitution was amended to allow opposition parties, institute a presidential system of government, and add a 53-member standing legislature, the Small Hural. In January 1992, a new constitution was adopted.

A

Executive and Legislature

By the constitution, the legislative power of the republic resides in the 76-member Great Hural; the delegates of the Great Hural are chosen for four-year terms in free elections. The president is head of state, and is also elected to a four-year term. In May 1996 leading parliamentary parties drew up a pact allowing for 24 out of the 76 seats in the Great Hural to be filled by proportional representation. Following the MPRP’s withdrawal from the pact, the majority-vote system was maintained in 76 single-seat constituencies.