Welcome to Mike's website. Stick around a bit and browse. I post many of my articles and you can see some of my published books.
By Michael Kohn (AFP) ULAN BATOR — Inside a small office in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator, Banzaragchaa Altan-Od fields calls from ship captains and ports around the globe — an unusual job for someone in a landlocked nation. The Mongolian Maritime Administration, based in a city located about 1,400 kilo ... Continue Reading
Click on this link to hear my BBC Outlook report on the Mongol Derby. It plays on BBC media player. If you don’t want to hear the entire program, just click ahead to 18 minutes 50 seconds. Here is the URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004kls7 number of view: 135 Continue Reading
South China Morning Post OCTOBER 8, 2009 On the gritty outskirts of Ulan Bator, where heavy trucks lumber along pot-holed roads and packs of mangy dogs patrol garbage-strewn alleys, a shiny new billboard is attracting curious onlookers. The sign describes an ambitious plan to modernize the neighborhood, the 11th ward o ... Continue Reading
Wall Street Journal By Michael Kohn Sept 24, 2009 The global financial crisis hit hard in Mongolia, forcing everyone from goat herders to mineral prospectors to tighten their belts. But the crisis did at least accomplish something pleasantly unexpected: It forced lawmakers to abandon repressive taxation to attract inve ... Continue Reading
By Michael Kohn ULAN BATOR, Sept 18, 2009 (AFP) – Mongolia hopes to sign a long-awaited deal with mining giants Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe by month’s end to launch the vast Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, the country’s resources minister said Friday. Dashdorj Zorigt, the Asian country’s mini ... Continue Reading
AFP Sept 14, 2009 ULAN BATOR (AFP) — More than two dozen horsemen raced across the finish line in Mongolia this month after a test of endurance that would have impressed even legendary conqueror Genghis Khan. The international group of riders pounded 860 kilometres (530 miles) across the Asian country’s vast gr ... Continue Reading
ULAN BATOR, Sept 9, 2009 (AFP) – Resource-rich Mongolia, looking to give its struggling economy a major boost, is now more than ever open for business. Investors from across Asia gathered in Ulan Bator on Tuesday for a one-day conference to discuss key opportunities in the landlocked state — and the words o ... Continue Reading
By Michael Kohn OYU TOLGOI, Mongolia, Sept 3, 2008 (AFP) – At a remote outpost in the Gobi Desert, hundreds of kilometres from any paved road, Keith Marshall is poring over satellite images, geological surveys and sheets of statistics, literally mapping out Mongolia’s economic future. Working out of a wind- ... Continue Reading
Aug 2, 2009 AFP By Michael Kohn ULAN BATOR — Digging for buried treasure in the Gobi Desert sounds like the opening scene of an Indiana Jones film. For Austrian-born Michael Eisenriegler, it was a real-life adventure. The 40-year-old amateur archaeologist was in the Gobi over the weekend, helping to unearth Buddhist ... Continue Reading
AFP July 27, 2009 By Michael Kohn ULAN BATOR — Expanding deserts “suffocate livelihoods and a way of life,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said on Monday in Mongolia, on a visit to highlight the risks posed by desertification to one third of the world’s population. “You are part of the one t ... Continue Reading
