Mongolia

Full name: Mongolia

Population: 2.7 million (UN, 2010)

Capital: Ulan Bator

Area: 1.56 million sq km (603,909 sq miles)

Major language: Mongolian

Major religion: Buddhism

Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 73 years (women) (UN)

Monetary unit: 1 Togrog (tugrik) = 100 mongos

Main exports: Copper concentrate, dehaired cashmere, textiles, hides

GNI per capita: US $1,850 (World Bank, 2010)

Internet domain: .mn

International dialling code: +976

In 1990 Mongolia abandoned its 70-year-old Soviet-style one-party state and embraced political and economic reforms.

Democracy and privatisation were enshrined in a new constitution, but the collapse of the economy after the withdrawal of Soviet support triggered widespread poverty and unemployment.

However, Mongolia sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth, and foreign investment in a number of gigantic mining properties is expected to transform its tiny economy in coming years. Analysts say it could become one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Once the heartland of an empire stretching to Europe under Genghis Khan, Mongolia is a landlocked country dominated by sparsely populated steppe and semi-desert.

Mongolia spreads across 1.5 million sq km of the Central Asian plateau, but its population is far smaller than the Mongol population of China.

Sunni Muslim Kazakhs in the west are the only significant national and religious minority, comprising some 5% of the population. Migration to Kazakhstan in the 1990s reduced their numbers.

A third of the population lives in the capital, while around forty percent of the country's workforce herds livestock in Mongolia's extensive pasturelands. However, the centuries-old nomadic lifestyle is coming under pressure from climate change and urbanisation.

Mongolia has an extreme climate, with a temperature range to suit. Droughts and unusually cold and snowy winters have decimated livestock, destroying the livelihoods of thousands of families.

Mongolia has expanded political and financial ties with the US, Japan and the European Union, but its main trading partners are neighbouring Russia and China. The latter is the biggest market for Mongolian exports; Beijing is also keen to exploit Mongolia's mineral and energy resources.

Despite generous funding by the International Monetary Fund and donor countries, economic progress has been slow and growth has been hampered by corruption.

The legacy of Genghis Khan, the warrior who united warring tribes and established the Mongol empire in the 13th century, has been invoked in an attempt to foster national pride.

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