Resource-rich Mongolia has turned to Queensland for a lesson from the coalface in how the revenues and taxes of a mining boom should be managed.
Griffith University welcomed delegates from Mongolia’s Ministry of Finance to its South Bank campus for a one-week course on finance management in the resources sector in December.
“As a resource-rich country, Australia has extensive expertise and knowledge of natural resource taxation, governance and domestic revenues management required to sustainably manage extractive industries, and Griffith University has a number of leading experts on the topic,” project convenor Dr Tapan Sarker said.
The project, organised by Griffith’s Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise (APCSE) and Griffith International, saw a high-level delegation of Mongolia’s Ministry of Finance participate in a specially-designed course on mining taxation and sovereign wealth fund management.
Mining is a major contributor to Mongolian GDP and in 2010 accounted for 81% of the country’s exports, necessitating the need for sound financial and taxation policies to be employed.
“We are very excited that this group of high-level financial representatives from Mongolia recognised the unique knowledge that Griffith has in this area,” Dr Sarker said.
“It was also a great opportunity for the Griffith Business School to work with the World Bank and influence future policy development in a resource-rich developing country such as Mongolia in a sustainable, responsible way.”
The course, supported by the World Bank, focused on building knowledge and capacity to develop taxation policy, financial reporting and cost calculation for the resources industry.
It included lectures on capacity building and taxation surrounding natural resources, as well as site visits to the Queensland State Treasury and to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
With one of the country’s leading MBA programs and the additional drawcard of a curriculum focused on responsibility and sustainability, Griffith is uniquely positioned to teach sustainable management to a global audience.
This was the second delegation APCSE received this year, following a 13-member delegation from Africa who participated in a specially-tailored African Leadership in Sustainable Development and Enterprise program.