Zamyn-Uud in Mongolia may be 780 km from the capital Ulaanbaatar but it is only 8 km from the town of Erlian in China. A Free Economic Zone (FEZ) of 900 hectares is planned with development in three major sectors: industrial, commercial and tourism. Factories to assemble audio and video equipment, home appliances and electronic goods are envisaged for the industrial section, along with warehouses, banking, packaging and exhibition centres in the commercial section. Under tourism and services it is hoped that hotels, restaurants, golf course, racetrack and casino will be built.

The Russia-Mongolia-China international rail network passes through Zamyn-Uud, as does the Asian highway, and the town is connected to modern communications systems. Around 70% of Mongolia’s foreign trade goes through the town and just across the border in Erlian business is booming. Zamyn-Uud wants to tap some of that wealth by providing gambling facilities, much as the casinos in Macau and on the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Myanmar borders do.

At the beginning of 2004 the Mongolian Government announced a tender to seek a strategic investor to “implement the establishment, development and management of the "Zamyn-Uud" Free Economic Zone in whole under a Management Agreement.” A winner was found, West Paradise Co Ltd, a consortium from the British Virgin Islands. Despite tax breaks and other concessions offered, the deal fell through. It has now been reported that a US company may be interested in developing a casino complex.

It’s not unheard of for remote desert outposts to become future entertainment hubs, and the nearby population of Chinese in Erlian would doubtless be happy to gamble away their free time in Zamyn-Uud. One intrepid cyclist en route from Russia to China described as a ‘shock’ the amount of goods on sale in Chinese Erlian compared to Mongolian Zamyn-Uud. “The transition from Mongolia to China was amazing, suddenly there were wide smooth tarmac roads, rows of shops, markets filled with fruit and vegetables…”

The US real estate company Winwheel Bullion LLC and the Mongolian Government are apparently interested in redressing the balance, and see a casino resort as the way in which to do it. An agreement between the two sides is expected to be signed today in Washington. (E-04.27.06)

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