Even though I don't know a word of Mongolian, I can sum it up in a couple of sentences just by watching the slides and using some prior knowledge of the situation ;) So, to whom it may be of interest, here it goes... Russia has the biggest coal reserves in the world while China has the biggest coal consumption in the world and India's consumption is on the rise as well. Mongolia could easily become a railroad-based "Panama canal" of central Asia for transport of Russian coal to these big growing Asian markets. Russia already has an extensive railroad network, second only to the US, and Mongolia's railroad was built as an extension of the Russian one during the Soviet era. The problem is that Russia and China use different track gauge (width), which makes it necessary to switch trains, which is a big bottleneck and limiting factor for transport by rail. Mongolia is planning to make new investments in its railroad network and the solution to this longstanding bottleneck issue could be an investment in dual gauge tracks, which would accommodate both Russian and Chinese, and thus unlock Mongolia's potential as the transport hub, or "Panama canal", of central Asia...
