ABSTRACT
Natsagyn Bagabandi is a Moscow-trained food technologist and long-standing member of the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which was the sole ruling party until the 1990s. Born on 22 April 1950, in Zavkhan province, Natsagyn Bagabandi was educated in the Soviet Union, studying at the Food Technological Institute in Moscow. The new government brought in a radical programme of privatization and free-market reforms, with the aim of moving Mongolia rapidly from a centralized to a market economy, but leading initially to sharp increases in the cost of living and in unemployment. Nambariyn Enkhbayar became prime minister after his Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won a sweeping victory in the 2000 legislative elections, returning to power after its first four years in opposition. He was born on 1 June 1958 in Ulan Bator, the capital of what was then the Mongolian Peoples Republic.
