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Tag Archives: natural resources
Why are Foreign Mining Companies Retreating from China?
In the 1990s, China opened up the country’s vast mineral resources to international investment. Over the past decade, it has reformulated its mining legislation to attract foreign companies into the Chinese mining sector with the hope of speeding up its modernization. Between 2001 and 2004 the number of foreign mining projects quickly increased from 150 to 279. But by 2010, this number had declined to 92. International firms continue to feel stymied by an inconsistent and convoluted mining policy and their inability to create relationships of trust with local mining stakeholders. Continue reading
Mongolia: Gauging Inner Asian Tensions over Railways
Broad gauge or standard gauge railway? This domestic Mongolian debate reflects Inner Asian ambivalence toward economic opportunities through engagement with China, as well as broader geopolitical and economic competition between Russia and China. After he was fired from the post of Director of the Mongolian Railway on January 10, former Prime Minister M. Enkhsaikhan criticized the government’s plan to extend the domestic broad (Russian) gauge railroad network. Instead, he argued for a 267 km standard (Chinese) gauge railroad from Tavan Tolgoi, a coal mining deposit, to Gashuun Sukhait, a Sino-Mongolian border post. With this argument Mr. Enkhsaikhan triggered another round of the debate over narrow vs. broad gauge. Continue reading
Posted in Mongolia
Tagged development, economic development, infrastructure, natural resources, railways, transport
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China’s Liberalizing Impact on Global Commodity Markets
Memo #195 – China played a key part in the recent collapse of the iron ore pricing regime. This was an unintended consequence of a mix of bold negotiating tactics and competing domestic interests, which made it difficult to implement a consistent international procurement policy. Chinese actions destabilized global market institutions and paradoxically caused their liberalization. Continue reading
Posted in Canada, China
Tagged commodity markets, natural resources, negotiaton, political science, state investments, trade
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Community Natural Resource Management in India: Does it Reduce Poverty?
Memo #156 – A series of new programs in India for community natural resource management (CNRM) is decentralizing control over local resources of water, forests, and inland fishing from government departments to end-users such as farmers, forest dwellers, and fishers.
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Posted in India
Tagged community natural resource management, development, Millenial Development Goals, natural resources
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Why No Anti-Mining Party in Mongolia? Why No Pro-Mining Movement?
Memo #106 – Next week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to address the Mongolian parliament. Her visit will come during a tumultuous period as Mongolian politicians prepare for parliamentary elections in summer 2012. Recently, 20 MPs petitioned the government to revisit the 2009 Investment Agreement signed with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto for the giant Oyu Tolgoi (OT) gold and copper project. The petition sent shares and Mongolia’s credibility as a natural resource investment destination momentarily tumbling. No enduring anti-mining coalition is behind this petition, nor has a pro-mining, single-issue party emerged. Continue reading
Posted in Mongolia
Tagged development, mining, natural resources, political parties, sociology
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Is Northern British Columbia De-Globalizing?
Memo #91 – Using the most common measure of economic openness – the ratio between exports and GDP – British Columbia’s (BC) economy has become less open in the past decade. In 2000, the provincial export to GDP ratio was over 25 per cent; by 2009 it had fallen to under 20 per cent. Is the province actually ‘de-globalizing? Continue reading
China’s Next Revolution: Fracking in the East
Memo #76 – Will Sichuan’s landscape one day resemble northeastern British Columbia’s Horn River Basin, one of North America’s most promising shale gas plays? The least contentious answer is ‘it won’t anytime soon,’ but there are many who would like to think so, especially in China. With the socialist revolution under their belt, Beijing is taking on another one – the shale gas revolution of North America. What the shale gas revolution lacks in cadres, it makes up in energy; coincidentally, the type most favoured by Beijing – the potential energy stored in hydrocarbon molecules of methane gas. Continue reading
Posted in Canada, China
Tagged crude oil, mining, natural gas, natural resources, shale gas, trade
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Chinese State Investments in Canada: How to Reduce Uncertainty on Both Sides of the Pacific
Memo #30 – Canadians know that Chinese investment is coming. Since the summer of 2009, five Chinese state investments in the energy and mining sectors have totaled more than $10 billion (CDN). Continue reading
Posted in Canada, China
Tagged Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, Business, Chinese investment, Generally Accepted Principles and Practices, International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, natural resources, potash, trade
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When Cambodia’s Oil Begins to Flow: the Politics of Becoming a Petro-State
Memo #29 – Within two or three years Cambodia will likely export petroleum resources from offshore fields containing up to two billion barrels of oil and significant quantities of natural gas. This long anticipated event has stimulated discussion as to whether petroleum extraction will benefit the country. Concerned about the implications of oil for the evolution of the Cambodian polity, aid donors and NGOs have encouraged the ruling elite to learn from the mistakes of other resource-rich developing states afflicted by the so-called “resource curse”. Continue reading
Posted in Cambodia, Southeast Asia
Tagged Chevron, natural gas, natural resources, petroleum, political science, resource curse
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Canadian Mining and Human Rights in Asia: Building an Advantage or Dismantling Competitiveness?
Memo #16 – On September 20, 2010, Canada’s House of Commons will give third reading to the Private Members Bill, C-300. If passed, it will have significant implications for the Canadian extractive industry’s nearly $9 billion worth of mining assets throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It is expected to draw fierce opposition from the Conservative side of the House. Although the proposed law has sparked a much-needed debate on mining and human rights, it is deeply flawed. Continue reading
Posted in Canada
Tagged Bill C-300, corruption, human rights, John McKay, law, mining, natural resources, political science, trade
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