Mongolia considering visa on arrival for Indian businessmen

( From left) Honorary Consul of Mongolia, Tamil Nadu C. N .Gangadaran, Mongolia Ambassador to India Voroshilov Enkhbold, SICCI vice president Jawahar Vadivelu and secretary S. Raghavan at a meeting in Chennai on Thursday. Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

The Mongolian government is considering issuing visa on arrival for Indian businessmen, said its Ambassador to India, Voroshilov Enkhbold, here on Thursday.

Addressing members of the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) in a bid to promote trade between India and Mongolia, he invited Indian businessmen to invest in priority sectors such as mining, healthcare, ICT, tourism, entertainment, agriculture, oil and infrastructure that had not been tapped fully.

“Mongolian government encourages investment in priority sectors and grants tax incentives to foreign direct investment. Indian businessmen investing in infrastructure will get income tax exemption for the first 10 years and 50 per cent tax relief for subsequent five years. Foreign businesses exporting more than 50 per cent of production are entitled to corporate IT exemption for the first three years and 50 per cent tax relief in the subsequent three years,” he said.

Mr. Enkhbold said that he would be interacting with the Civil Aviation Ministry for early implementation of direct connectivity between the two countries that was signed some 10 years ago.

According to him, Mongolia exported mining products, textile and leather items and imported consumer goods, petroleum products and machinery equipment.

“Mining is booming as we have huge resources of coal, iron ore, gold and other items.”

To mark the completion of 55-years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Mongolian Parliament Speaker will visit India during December 2010, he said.

Jawahar Vadivelu, vice-president, SICCI, said that bilateral trade between India and Mongolia in 2009 was $12.7 million, of which $11.7 million formed Indian exports to Mongolia. SICCI would be leading a 40-member delegation to Mongolia during June 2011 to promote two-way trade.

“As Mongolia is landlocked between China and Russia, goods have to be shipped through ports in China or Russia. The bilateral trade has not developed to the desired extent due to freight rates and delayed delivery schedule and this has to be addressed,” said an SICCI official.