This week I attended a certain high profile conference and sat in on what was meant to be a panel discussion on frontier markets. The panel quickly became a battleground, with the speakers fighting for investment in their homelands.
Bangladesh gave a half-hearted and scripted sales pitch. Cambodia boasted about its transformation from war zone to business zone, while throwing jabs at Myanmar for being 15 years behind. Myanmar fought back with imagery of its stunning mountains in the north and tropical beaches in the south.
But the winner, or perhaps the loser — I couldn’t quite tell — was Mongolia.
The country was represented by a much younger panellist than some of the others, and one who had had to take over the speaking role from his manager, who was suffering a sore throat from too much Singleton whisky the night before, we were told. Some moments of fairly fruity language also added to the fun.
And the youngster’s main points? Despite being landlocked between giants Russia and China, the country of about three million people has an abundance of land and horses — on which Mongolians eat, sleep, and shoot arrows.
A bold attempt, young horseback warrior! I’m not sure I’ll be investing in your country, but I’ll be sure to invest in your next round of Singleton.