Koch’s Insights Featured in Channel News Asia Story on Mongolia’s Plan to Move its Capital City

November 21, 2025

Channel News Asia

Natalie Koch

Geography & the Environment Department

Central Asia & the Caucasus Initiative

Middle Eastern Studies Program

Central Asia

Sustainability

Channel News Asia

Natalie Koch

Mongolia’s leaders have a $30 billion plan to move the nation’s capital from increasingly congested Ulaanbaatar to Kharkhorum, a place of historic and cultural significance for the Mongolian people.

“What makes it so appealing is that you have this image of a blank slate and that is such an attractive, simplistic idea,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

Moving a capital has been tried by other Asian countries with mixed success, including Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Indonesia is currently partway through shifting its government functions to Nusantara from Jakarta.

With Ulaanbaatar suffering from congestion, traffic and pollution, Mongolia hopes to build a new hub centered on sustainability – a city that is walkable, green and smart. But behind the slogans, the story is more complex.

Adds Koch, “Buildings on a blank slate, it's a lovely image, but it doesn't solve any of those bigger structural issues in a state.”

Read more on Channel New Asia, “ IN FOCUS: The dreams and perils of moving capitals in a changing Asia.”