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24 Feb 2010 : Column 137WH—continued
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Selby (Mr. Grogan). Given the many activities that he undertakes in the House, I find it difficult to believe that in a few months' time he will no longer be a Member. I hope that the House manages to find a suitable replacement for him as chairman of the all-party group on Mongolia, even if it is a pale imitation. All-party country groups do an invaluable job not only for Parliament but for British interests. They maintain long-standing relationships, which Ministers, who change with monotonous regularity and ludicrous frequency, sometimes find more difficult to achieve.
I congratulate my hon. Friend on his birthday. He said that Mongolians celebrated their new year last year. They celebrate it every year; I think that he meant last week. I too wish them a happy new year.
As my hon. Friend said, Mongolia has a proud and long history. The Mongol state was created by Genghis Khan in 1206. My hon. Friend alluded to the country's legal systems and the rights of the individual, which may seem to have been lost during the years of Soviet domination. However, they are now flourishing in a way that has not been possible for many years. The Mongolian People's Republic, founded in 1924, gave way to the democratic revolution in 1990. That may have had many strengths, but we all recognise the dramatic improvements that have come about in the short time since 1990.
We should remember that Mongolia is not a wealthy country. It is the 19th largest country in terms of its geography, but the most sparsely populated. As a result it faces particular difficulties. My hon. Friend referred to the problems that Mongolia has had over the past two years-the drought and then the zud, which is the Mongol name for the very harsh winter that the country has suffered this year. I was in Moscow last week, and it felt cold enough at minus 10° C. The temperature in 90 per cent. of Mongolia is between minus 35° C and minus 40° C. That is very rough. As we heard, more than 1 million animals have died, which represents about 2 per cent. of the country's livestock, 73 people have been transferred to hospital for frostbite and a couple of people have died. Such events are not new to Mongolia; they occur regularly, as do the problems in relation to drought. When we talk about the effects of climate change, we tend to focus on the bits of the world that we know best, but we also need to consider areas such as Mongolia. People tend to think that the warming of the world will be a good thing, but there is a real danger that Mongolia will suffer from further levels of drought, and that the intensity of the winters will get worse rather than better. Yet again, we have another reason why we need to tackle the important world issue of climate change.
The one issue that my hon. Friend did not refer to was the festival of Naadam, which runs from 11 to 13 July. It is a big, important festival that is specifically Mongolian. In this House, we rarely sit down and write the rules of football, but I gather that at last year's discussions the Mongolians decided to change some of the categories and awards that are given for success in the three main parts of Naadam, which are archery, wrestling and horse racing-long-distance horse racing and not our polite version of going around a track once.
My hon. Friend also referred to the BBC and the reforms that have been introduced in Mongolia in relation to broadcasting. He is absolutely right; there are now some 300 different outlets, including broadcasting and newspapers. That is a very important part of ensuring that the 3 million people who live in Mongolia have not just the structures of democracy but the freedom of expression and association that go with them. Anything that we can do to help in that process, we stand ready to provide.
My hon. Friend also referred to the issue of the death penalty. I wholeheartedly congratulate the President on bringing forward his announcement on 14 January of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty and of its abolition from 2011. Such an announcement must have been of particular delight to him because he first brought forward a resolution on the matter-unsuccessfully-in 1991. To be able now to abolish the death penalty in Mongolia is a very dramatic personal achievement. He has invested a great deal of his political life into ensuring that all Mongolians can enjoy the same human rights as those elsewhere in the world, and it is a significant achievement. Those who have already been sentenced have had the death penalty commuted to 30 years' imprisonment.
In 1993, we were the first country to open up diplomatic relations with Mongolia and we are very proud of that. We have a strong relationship with the country, thanks to our commercial links. Changes in the investment law will mean that not only will Rio Tinto be able to open the mine at Oyu Tolgoi for copper and gold, which could be worth something in the region of $300 billion, but there will be significant extra possibilities for a whole range of other British companies that would like to invest in Mongolia. There are many other countries in the world that would benefit from a similar change in the law. If Mexico, for example, went down the same
route as Mongolia and changed its investment laws, it might be possible to extract some of the oil that is presently available in the Gulf, for the benefit of Mexicans.
We have had a large number of high-level visits recently. The Minister for Minerals and Energy visited in December and saw the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), who would normally be here to lead this debate, but is abroad. He also met Ministers in the Departments for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, of Energy and Climate Change, and for Business, Innovation and Skills to discuss climate change and business developments. Last February, the Minister for Education, Culture and Science also visited the UK and, as I understand it, had particularly interesting discussions with colleagues in Cambridge. In January, the Duke of York had a bilateral meeting with the President of Mongolia at Davos where he was awarded an honour for his continued service to Mongolia. I am absolutely certain that if Mongolia was to give out any more awards, the next one would go to my hon. Friend the Member for Selby.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this debate today. We are conscious that we need to do more to reinforce our relationship with Mongolia. I am delighted with the recent formation of the UK-Mongolia chamber of commerce, of which my hon. Friend is vice-chair or vice-president. We look forward to working closely with it to ensure that the reciprocal interests between Mongolia and the United Kingdom are upheld, and I look forward to attending the presentation of the honour from Mongolia to my hon. Friend.
4.56 pm
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