Mongolia Elects New Cabinet to Face Economic Challenges

Mongolia's parliament began voting in a new cross-party cabinet Tuesday, its official website said, as the sprawling, resource-rich nation struggles with stalling economic growth.

The "super coalition" of 19 ministers is made up of four different political parties, representing the vast majority of the 76-member Great Hural or parliament. 

It will face huge challenges transforming Mongolia's economy, which has been badly hit by a collapse in foreign investment and in commodity prices.

The landlocked country enjoyed world-beating growth in recent years -- peaking at 17.5 percent in 2011 -- on the back of a boom in resources exports, mainly of coal, copper and iron ore.

But a new foreign investment law put off investors and economic expansion slowed to 5.3 percent in the first half of this year, while the country faces rising inflation and a falling currency.

Mongolia last week announced that it has relaunched an international tender to develop Tavan Tolgoi, the country's largest coal deposit, after the previous tender collapsed in 2011.

The new cabinet will also have to try to solve a dispute with mining giant Rio Tinto which has delayed the $5 billion expansion of the huge Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

"A super-coalition offers the potential of some government stability, at least until shortly before the next election in summer of 2016," said Julian Dierkes, a Mongolia expert at the University of British Columbia.

"By removing the potential of blame for big decisions from individual MPs and parties, it might also enable some more decisive action on issues," he told Agence France Presse, adding the country faces "myriad other social and economic development challenges".

Potential cabinet members were last week nominated by the new prime minister Chimed Saikhanbileg, who was elected to his position last month.

His Democratic Party (DP) has 10 nominated positions in the new cabinet, while the former opposition Mongolian People's Party (MPP) has six, including the deputy prime minister.

The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party has three nominations and the Mongolia National Democratic Party one.

Among those voted in by lawmakers Tuesday were former finance minister Sangajav Bayartsogt, who was confirmed as cabinet secretary with 75 percent of the vote, the website said.

Female MPP member Dulamsuren Oyunkhorol was voted in as minister of the environment, green development and tourism, and former presidential adviser Lundeg Purevsuren was elected foreign minister.

Both candidates achieved more than 90 percent of the vote, the website said.

The Great Hural voted last month to dismiss the previous prime minister Norov Altankhuyag, after he was accused of cronyism and failing to address growing economic problems.

The DP and MPP have previously formed coalitions, the most recent of which was credited with laying the foundations of Mongolia's mining boom, but broke up before the 2012 elections.

Mongolia, for decades a tightly-controlled Soviet satellite, shook off communism nearly a quarter of a century ago.