Sükhbaataryn Batbold

Offshore Alert revealed the Mongolian government has charged former Prime Minister Batbold Sukhbaatar with receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from kickbacks and fraudulent and illegal transactions in deals involving the nation’s two largest mines. The case against the former prime minister, senior member of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, and the party’s likely 2021 presidential candidate, is spelled out in a November 23 filing in a New York court.  The New York case together with similar ones in Hong Kong and London seeks a freeze on assets Batbold holds until the main case, brought in Mongolia, is decided.  There plaintiffs — the agency responsible for overseeing Mongolia’s natural resources and the state-owned companies that operate the two mines – ask that agreements between the two operating companies and shell companies they say Batbold secretly owns be invalidated and Batbold and accomplices disgorge all profits made on secret deals and as well as pay damages. The total could run into the hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. His a thief of national wealth...

He was named by the party officials as one of the potential candidates for the June 2021 Presidential elections by Mongolian People's Party (https://news.mn/en/794529/) and was nominated by some local party entities. As a result he was target of smear campaign orchestrated by political opponents (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-10/mongolian-president-accused-of-smearing-political-foe-as-corrupt.

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 a Parliamentary seat for fifth time in 2020, Batbold was elected chairman of the Great Khural Subcommittee on Special Oversight.

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.

His cabinet supported the enactment of the Law on Gender Equality in 2011. The law was significant in legislating the notions of legally punishing work place harassment, introducing women's quota in political election nominations, etc.

During his term as Prime Minister, the Mongolian economy grew by 17.5 percent in 2011, one of the highest globally. The poverty rates fell by double digits and household income doubled. This achievement cannot be solely attributed to high mineral prices, as there have been even higher prices before and since his cabinet. Progressive policies that encouraged economic growth and at the same time sought to address social issues at the time of difficult transition were the main reason of such impressive results.

At the same time, Batbold's cabinet adhered to the traditional foreign policy of Mongolia to maintain and strengthen relations with its only two neighbors, Russia and China. He visited Russia in 2010 and met with then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He also visited China in 2011 and held negotiations with his counterpart China's Premier Wen Jiabao and then Vice President and current President of China Xi Jingpin (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/17/content_12726117.htm). During his time as Prime Minister trade with the two neighbors grew in unprecedented speed.

Batbold's term as Prime Minister saw a remarkable degree of high level visits and exchanges with the country's most significant foreign partners such as Japan (https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/mongolia/batbold_1203/index.html), South Korea (http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20110324000949&mod=skb), India (https://news.mn/en/18350/), Australia (https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressrel%2F577185%22), Singapore (https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Newsroom/Press-Statements-Transcripts-and-Photos/2011/02/Official-Visit-by-Prime-Minister-of-Mongolia-Sukhbaatar-Batbold-1718-February-2011) among many others.

On the 8th of April 2010, Batbold became the Chairman of the MPRP. This was confirmed with an election at the 26th MPRP Congress. During the Party Congress, Batbold was one of three proposed candidates for leadership, the others being Parliament Speaker Demberel Damdin and MP U.Enkhtuvshin. After D.Demberel 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).

In 2010, Batbold held a cabinet meeting (https://asiafoundation.org/2010/09/01/mongolia-cabinet-meets-in-gobi-desert-to-make-stand-against-global-warming/) in the Gobi desert to draw attention to climate change and the growing threat of desertification in Mongolia.

When he visited Canada in 2010 he told to Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper that 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. These efforts culminated in adoption of the revised Law of Civil Service in 2017 by the Parliament of Mongolia. The revised law introduces concepts of minimum required years of service for promotion, increased the independence and powers of Civil Service Commission of Mongolia, tightened merit based requirements for initial recruitment.

On October 29, 2009, Batbold was elected as the 26th Prime Minister of Mongolia, succeeding Sanjaa Bayar, who resigned due to health reasons. Batbold received 62 of 66 votes cast by Members of the Mongolian Parliament.

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." He proposed in his speech to the Parliament in 2009 as he was taking over as Prime Minister:

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. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 until he was nominated to become Prime Minister in 2009. 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. Batbold also substituted for then Prime Minister Bayar at a Prime Ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Mr. S.Batbold is a strong supporter of public policy based on knowledge-based research and public debate. Therefore, he is one of the founders of Mongolia Economic Forum and Mongolian Development Strategy Institute, both dedicated to encouraging deeper public policy research and more open debate. He serves as 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. The institute co-hosted such prestigious international events as Williamsburg Conference in 2007, Northeast Asia Regional Meeting of the Asia Pacific Leadership network for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament in 2017, Boao Forum for Asia Ulaanbaatar Conference in 2019, Regional Energy Workshop in 2019 among others. It board members and contributors published many books and articles on Mongolia's developmental challenges, trade and diplomacy, security, history, environment and governance.

Batbold held the Ulan Bator 75 constituency in the 2004 Mongolian Great Khural election. He then became Cabinet Minister of Trade and Industry between 2004 and 2006. 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. 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 more than 7000 export items from Mongolia. <>. 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.

Batbold entered Mongolian politics in 2000, by which time he was already an established and well-known businessman. He was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2004 and became a member of the Leadership Council of the Mongolians People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) in 2001. During his term as a Deputy Foreign Minister a decision was taken by Mongolia to contribute forces to multinational force in Iraq and Afghanistan (https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20140903_R41867_27863dd4cab95d3ac35bf0f58237d6b3f7211296.html). He was instrumental in negotiating a visa regime with the USA under which the USA citizens became exempt from Mongolian visa requirements and Mongolian citizens became eligible for 10-year multiple entry visas.

He is Vice President of the Socialist International, an international organization registered at the United Nations (whose current Secretary-General António Guterres was Vice President of the Socialist International from 1999 till 2005), that brings together parties around the world on the social democratic platform.

Batbold previously held an executive position at Mongol Impex Cooperative. In 1992, he established Altai Trading Co. Ltd. (currently Altai Holding LLC), which among others owns the Chinggis Khaan Hotel, Altai Cashmere, E-mart Mongolia hypermarket chain and the Skytel cellular operator. He headed the company until 2000 by which time it became one of the largest Mongolian private companies. After Mongolia started a transition from the one-party authoritarian rule to market economy and democracy, he was one of the first Mongolians to start a private business and grow it to a large corporation. Among all of his businesses, only Chinggus Khaan Hotel was bought from the government at the auction in 1994 as a half finished building in complete ruin, which was completed and served as a flagship hotel till 2016 when Shangri-la entered Mongolia. All other businesses were created from the scratch and introduced new standards of service and competence.

The cabinet launched of a collaboration between the Government of Mongolia and a Cambridge University consortium to introduce Cambridge International Education system into Mongolia's public schools and reform primary and secondary education in Mongolia. This was one of the most far reaching educational reform efforts since the 1990s in Mongolia.

Overall, this policy of maintaining balanced and cooperative relations with the immediate two neighbors and perceived Third neighbors (the term invented by State Secretary James Baker when he visited Mongolia in 1990 with whom Mongolia shares common democratic values) has been maintained consistently since the 1990s transition to democracy and market relations.

Batbold was born in far eastern province Dornod of Mongolia to parents who worked as medical doctors in the provincial hospital. As a child Batbold, graduated the 14th high school in Ulaanbaatar, going on to study in Russia at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, one of the most prestigious educational establishments in the former Eastern bloc, between 1980 and 1986. He was one of the first Mongolians to be given an opportunity to receive an education in the West and studied at the Middlesex University London Business School from 1989 till 1991, residing at Netherhall House. He also earned a doctoral degree at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Moscow in 2002.

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