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Alisher Ali Djumanov, CEO of Eurasia Capital Read more

From its Central Asian origins, Eurasia Capital is reaching out across the former Soviet Union and beyond with the launch of an office in Beijing and a beefed-up presence in Moscow, as it aims to become the first pan-regional investment bank. It is also exploring new frontiers closer to home, with an office in Turkmenistan planned.

Eurasia Capital's chief executive, Alisher Ali Djumanov, points to the mounting evidence of Chinese companies' interest in resource-rich Central Asia. One of the region's largest infrastructure projects is the multi-billion-dollar Central Asia-China gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Xinjiang then on to central China.

Majors including PetroChina, Sinooil and CNPC are already active in the region, and Zijin Mining is on its way. Helping Kazakhstan through the economic crisis, and at the same time cementing relations with its neighbour in the energy sector, China also signed a $10bn "loan-for-energy" agreement in April. Read more

Mongolia is seeking $25 billion of overseas investments in mining in the next five years to develop some of the world’s largest untapped gold and copper resources.
“We want to embark on one large-scale mining project every year, and an investment of $5 billion is required” annually, Prime Minister Sanjaa Bayar said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We want countries like Japan to take part because they have technologies to develop gold and copper mines without damaging the natural environment.”
Companies have struggled to start projects in Mongolia. Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. has tried for more than five years for approval to develop a copper and gold mine. The company faces further delays after Mongolia’s parliament authorized the cabinet yesterday to negotiate a deal, disappointing investors expecting outright approval. Khan Resources Inc. and Centerra Gold Inc., both based in Canada, have had licenses suspended. Read more

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Mobius’s Templeton Asset Management Ltd., which oversees about $20 billion of emerging- market assets, said it’s studying the possibility of investing in Mongolia-listed stocks.

Templeton has bought shares of companies with interests in Mongolia, such as Chinese gold and coal miners, Mobius said, declining to be more specific. The San Mateo, California-based company isn’t set up in Mongolia and needs custodians in the country to hold its securities, he added. “We continue to see countries such as China form alliances to secure the long-term provisions of commodities,” Mobius said in an e-mailed reply to queries today. “While in the short-term, the country will be impacted by the recent correction in commodity prices, a long-term uptrend in commodity prices will benefit Mongolia.” Mongolia, which possesses what Rio Tinto Group called “the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold resource,” is luring investors who are betting that China’s hunger for resources will help the nation sustain growth amid a global financial turmoil. Read more

The commodity-rich country should have Asia’s fastest growing economy, but major mines discovered a decade ago still have no investment agreements in place. The sheer size of the potential windfall has impeded progress, amid laborious revisions to the mining law. Now the government has pledged to step in and negotiate the big projects, but investors are not holding their breath.

Chris Wright reports. Here, on September 10, Khan Bank chief executive J. Peter Morrow announced that his bank was growing so aggressively and successfully that it needed international funding to keep up. And if that seemed a contrarian sentiment at the time – this was the week that Lehman Brothers’ share price began its final plunge towards bankruptcy – then Morrow certainly wasn’t alone. The following day ING, the sole lead on the global medium-termnote (MTN) programme for Khan Bank, formally opened its first office in Ulaanbaatar. Read more