Mongolians in SMS vote for foreign investment

Mongolians have voted to back stalled foreign investment in the country's vast natural resources, authorities announced yesterday, after a controversial four-day text message referendum.
The poll saw 56.1 percent of respondents support increased overseas investment in megaprojects such as the foreign-backed Oyu Tolgoi mine that could stimulate the troubled economy, the government said.
The alternative of austerity via reduced state expenditures took 43.9 percent.
Mongolia enjoyed world-leading economic growth in recent years -- peaking at 17.5 percent in 2011 -- on the back of a minerals boom exemplified by the giant copper- and gold-laden Oyu Tolgoi mine, operated by Anglo-Australian resources giant Rio Tinto.
But that expansion has slumped to troubling levels, as rising resource nationalism and an increasingly stringent investment environment led most foreign investors to abandon the country.