QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW

- What is your occupation?

Head of project department

- Which industry do you work in?

Our company supply goods in to 3 sectors which are health care, analytical and
clinical laboratory and educational.

- How often do you do business with European company

I would say, quite well. Because our company is working with several European
companies exclusively such as Draeger Medical systems from Germany, Bruker
Optical systems Germany, Agilent Technologies etc. We earned lots of experience
through working with those world recognized companies.

- What impact did Covid-19 have to your business?

As I said earlier, we mainly work in 3 sectors. Among them the business in education
field was really down during this covid situation. However in Medical and Analytic
and clinical laboratory sector were so busy and there were lots of project to
implement in short period of time.

- What are the biggest challenges in doing business with European companies?
I would say there are 3 main challenges which are (1) transportation, (2) time
difference, (3) language barrier.
 In Mongolia, transportation sector is developing so fast and getting better year
by year. However, we usually choose air transportation from Europe due to time
limit and it increases our cost of product. We really want to transport goods
more cheaper way like LTL, train, or truck. Unfortunately it takes so long about
30-45days from the date of shipment. Also, the most of the medical and lab
products require special condition in transportation.
 Since there are 5-7 hours of time zone differences between European and
Mongolian local time, sometimes it can cause delay in communication,
furthermore urgent enquiries may be neglected and can be complicated to catch
up immediately.
 Some points could be misunderstood especially in contract or any other inquiries
during the conversation due to the language barrier/miscommunication or
culture differences.

- What can be improved to tackle these challenges?

To improve transportation issue, the manufacturers can take measures like arranging
and offering cheaper logistic routes but not limited to longer time. Regarding time
difference, it seems like it would have been better if each parties respond swiftly to
each other.

- What makes Mongolia unique from other countries?

- Mongolian market is considered small yet effective if the target is defined right.
Therefore, we have full of possibilities if we have the right plan and research even
though the scale might look small compared to other countries.
- What makes Mongolia challenging to do business with/in?
In our view, the consumer buying power is relatively lower due to the averagely low
income. This might cause one’s business challenging if they do not define their target
accurately. In addition, the import process sometimes can be slow due to the
government agencies’ bureaucracy and tax issues.
- Which business opportunities in Mongolia do you see for the (near) future?
In our view there could be business opportunities to provide solution in the
improving healthcare system such as developing tech solutions/apps/platforms
helping and simplifying the health service for those who are in need, since there are
too much burden and expenses for the customers nowadays.