Natural resources extractive industries are critical to supporting the world's growing population and sustaining its economic growth.
However, history has shown that an abundance of natural resources does not guarantee a development windfall for the residents of resource-rich states. While a select few emerging economies have successfully used natural resource extraction to attract foreign direct investment, alleviate poverty, and develop robust local economies, most have not. Throughout the developing world, natural resource extraction has brought corruption and impaired the competitiveness of non-extractive sectors of the economy.
In this study tour, we will study the economies of two countries:
Mongolia and China. The challenges facing the two countries are two sides of the same coin. China is a developing economy that needs to secure substantial resources to sustain its economic growth. Not only does it need to establish trading relationships abroad, it must also develop innovative solutions to meet strong internal domestic demand to sustain continued economic progress. Mongolia is an emerging economy with some of the world's largest untapped reserves. It has shown great potential for sustainably harnessing its resources but has many challenges ahead. Each country faces unique challenges, which demand innovative (and inter-related) solutions.
