몽골 오유톨고이 광산을 둘러싼 갈등에 대한 사례 연구 (A Case Study on the Dispute over the Oyu Tolgoi mine of Mongolia)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국몽골학회
· 수록지 정보 : 몽골학 / 69호 / 149 ~ 180페이지
· 저자명 : LKHAGVADORJDOLGORMAA

초록

몽골 정부는 지난 10여년 동안 자국내 최대 외국인 직접투자기업과의 끈질긴 갈등을 마무리하고 최근 타결을 이끌어냈다. 그 상대는 몽골의 최대 규모 구리광산 오유톨고이 광산 투자자이며 세계적인 다국적기업 리오틴토사(Rio Tinto社)이다. 글로벌분업체계 참여 경험과 제도가 아직 미흡한 몽골과 같은 개발도상국이 리오틴토와 같은 다국적 기업과 거래해서 기대했던 만큼의 이익을 확보한다는 것은 쉬운 일이 아니다. 더욱이 오유톨고이 구리광산은 수십년에 걸쳐 몽골인을 먹여 살릴 보물창고 같은 존재로 온 국민의 관심 속에 있어왔다. 각자 다른 가치와 목표를 가진 당사자들이 이해관계를 조율하고 합의를 이끌어내는데 시간이 다소 걸렸고, 그 과정이 원망하지 않아서 사업실패와 성공의 선을 오락가락해왔다. 몽골정부와 투자자 측은 오랜 협상 끝에 2009년도에 오유톨고이 광산개발투자계약을 체결하였다. 사업개발 초기에 몽골정부와 투자자 측이 약속하였던 ‘핑크 빛 미래’와는 많이 다르다. 세계에서 4위권에 들어가는 대규모 구리광산 개발에 따라 몽골이 중위권 소득국가로 변모될 거라는 했던 예상은 현실로 이어지지 않앗고, 국민들의 분노는 곧 정치권 싸움, 내정불안으로 이어지기도 했다. 몽골정부와 오유톨고이 투자자 측 간 이와 같은 갈등 원인에 대해 대다수의 외부 언론은 몽골의 자원 내셔널리즘이 극대화된 것이 원인이라고 해석해왔다. 본고는 오유톨고이 사업을 두고 몽골정부와 투자자 간에 이루어졌던 갈등과정과 협의 내용 등을 검토하고, 과연 자원민족주의가 오유톨고이 사업 갈등의 원인을 제공하였는지 여부를 규명하고자 한다.

영어초록

The Mongolian government recently ended a persistent dispute with the country's largest foreign direct investment company, and recently reached a settlement. Investors of the Oyu Tolgoi mining, Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill, invested a total of $13 billion in Mongolia, and Mongolia's economy once showed a high growth rate of 17%. The Oyu Tolgoi mining has emerged as the largest industrial development project in the past 30 years, and it has significant contribution to the national economy, accounting for 1/3 of the nation's fiscal revenue as of 2021. Nevertheless, what the investors and the Mongolian government promised to the people at the beginning of the project is very different from the reality now. The expectation that Mongolia would transform into a middle-income country by the development of large-scale copper mines, which ranks fourth in the world in terms of reserves, did not come true. Due to the increase in project cost overrun, main incomes including tax income and dividend was delayed. Rather, the debt to be borne by equity investors and the burden of commissions to be paid to managers are increasing day by day. The people's disappointment in the project led to political instability in the country.
Regarding the Mongolian side's dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Oyu Tolgoi project, most of the external media have explained that the reason was the strengthening of resource nationalism. On the other hand, as the expected effects of the project promised at the beginning of the project did not appear and the schedeule of tax revenue and dividends was continuously delayed, Mongolian people raised suspicions that their politicians entered into an unfavorable investment contract to gain private interests. Meanwhile, other stakeholders in the Oyu Tolgoi business include minority shareholders, who argued that Oyu Tolgoi's management negligence eventually caused the dispute. As in many cases of resource development projects in which resource-holding countries and foreign investors cooperate, the Oyu Tolgoi project is also complicatedly intertwined with various political and economic interests.
The conflict between investors and the Mongolian government over the Oyu Tolgoi mine project is not a single issue, but a complex entanglement of issues. There were three major issues including the problem of project cost overrun, the problem of tax evasion, and other problems (management improvement, infrastructure development cooperation project, environmental cooperation), etc. Among them, the main cause of the conflict was the increased damage on the Mongolian side due to the project cost overrun, that is, the deterioration of the project profitability. As a result of the review by the independent experts investigation and the consultation of the Joint negotiation committee composed mainly of experts, the two sides ended the conflict in December 2021. The investor and management acknowledged the unreasonable project cost and decided to write off Mongolia's USD 2.3 billion-debt for its share in the Oyu Tolgoi mine project.

참고자료

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