She insists that poverty isn't the only result of the transition. A herder told me that he earned a lot of medals in the old days as the best herder. But that was useless to him. When his wife was pregnant he wasn't allowed to make the traditional lamb soup for her, because the animals weren't his property. But whether in the countryside or provincial centres, alternative employment is difficult to come by.
Foreign investment remains small.
Before this winter, some thought that the worst times of the transition were behind Mongolia. But critics say that the country is effectively run by a troika of the US ambassador, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Government's Health and Social Affairs Minister, S. Sonin, reportedly said that the international donors are putting too much pressure on them to spend money on infrastructure projects. He says this is the major reason why they can't allocate sufficient money to projects to help the poorest. Douglas Gardner, who heads the UNDP in Ulan Bator refutes this.