Firstly, the new rules are not what affected the northern border. All was fine, and remains fine at the Western Border. It was interesting that we only started to experience problems at the Northern Border after Dan of the Adventurists arrived at the border... The Mongolian charity we work with have been resolving the problems and a full report will be made in due course.
Secondly, the new rules that are coming in regarding the import of vehicles are a great improvement and we have been pushing for them, not least with our most recent meetings with the Mongolian Ministry of Finance and the Mongolian Ambassador in London. We warmly welcome them, and it illustrates what we have been saying for the past year to many teams - it simply isn't sustainable for 300 scrap cars to be dumped in a country like Mongolia. Unfortunately, the Adventurists, as ever, have over simplified the situation - but I guess they are keen to get those £650 cheques rolling in! We are waiting to clarify the exact requirements with the Ministry of Finance once the new laws are finalised.
When the Adventurists say "we've been working with the Mongolian Government for many years", they are unfortunately lying. Will and I have been working with the Mongolian Government for many years. Tom cut and run in August 2005 leaving me to work on the mess from that rally until December 2005. Will continued (he was living in Mongolia) right through to the following summer. I made all of the arrangements for the 2006 import (Tom only joined me briefly to help). I developed the concept of the vehicle passport and conducted the many meetings with customs and the MoF. I was also the one who introduced the Vehicle Passport for teams on the rally (it was written on a laptop sat in the French Bistro with a Mongolian Lawyer translating...!).
Anyway, Tom only properly got involved in the import process in 2007 following our withdrawal from helping with the rally in November 2006 when Tom took the Rally (and the remaining funds destined for the charities) and placed them into a profit making company in November 2006. This company still pretends to be a Social Enterprise (it isn't- it is privately owned, it just happens to raise money for charities - plus membership of the Social Enterprise Coalition is open to anyone - which is why companies like Lloyds TSB Bank are members...). Anyway, I digress into territory that is still the subject of the legal dispute over the missing charity funds...
Back to import. Will and I continued to import a small number of vehicles in 2007 using the same procedure and our key contact Enkhbataar and the CDPF (who like us, refused to work with the Adventurists). See:
http://www.drivetomongolia.org/The Adventurists even approached Enkhbataar in the autumn 2007 (with some considerable pressure) to arrange the import for them - but he quite rightly refused.
We arranged a formal agreement in November 2007 with the Ministry of Finance. The Adventurists did not have an import agreement until only recently.
Anyway, the vehicle rules on the Mongolia Charity Rally 2009 will be a little tighter than this year, which we have been pushing for. I doubt anyone will be disappointed other than the handful this year who thought ancient Micras and Bedford Rascals were great vehicles. The rules will largely cover the top 2/3 of the vehicles that went this year. Decent vehicles will not be turned away.
Anyway, we're very close to opening entries, (I expect that is part of the reason the Adventurists were so keen to get their cash rolling in
). Anyway, fear not, there will be plenty of spaces for teams to take part in the Mongolia Charity Rally 2009 and witout paying the ridiculous fee the Adventurists charge of £650 (none of which goes to charity).
There will be a small increase in the entry fee for the Mongolia Charity Rally 2009 as we want to offer a little more than this year and also have more money to spend on our charity project in Mongolia. This has been kept secret at the moment, but the spare money from the entry fees this year has already been directly saving children's lives in Mongolia. We're waiting for the video footage to put on the site, but this will be worth the wait.
Finally, check out what the Adventurists offer:
http://mongolrally.theadventurists.com/index.php?page=entryfeeexplained09and you'll see the only thing we won't be matching or beating (such as the launch Naadam) is the 'party' in Prague they organise. However, if anyone wants to pay an extra £400+ on their entry fee we're quite happy to arrange something for you in Prague...
Stephen
