Accountable Political Parties: Passage to Development

Mongolia's political parties participated in a conference bearing the slogan Let us determine our obstacles and look for solutions together", which was organized by the Mongolian People's Party (MPP). Here is the speech I gave at the conference attended by representatives from NGOs and political parties with and without seats in Parliament:

Mongolia today faces many obstacles. The gist of the problem lies in whether we see these obstacles as too difficult to go around, or a challenge that tests our capabilities.

First of all, we need to accurately determine what obstacles are faced and seek solutions after finding their root cause. There is no need to point out that some of these obstacles are difficulties faced by all of mankind. As the Russians say, there is no need to break a door when it is not locked.

The biggest challenges found in Mongolia's society today are poverty, unemployment, and the backwardness of public health. Having failed to ensure equal and fair distribution, wealth belongs to only a small number of individuals. The government, which is supposed to provide regulations in the market, has become a player in the market. There are too many state-owned companies that operate without proper oversight. Furthermore, when the government sets prices, it prevents fair competition in the private sector, restricting companies from expanding and creating jobs.

THE UNEMPLOYED HAVE NO INCOME

One third of Mongolia's population drinks water that is not properly sanitized, while half of the population uses outdoor toilets. It is the underlying cause of the deterioration of public health. You can look out the window and see how disastrous the level of air quality now becomes in winter. There are 40,000 empty apartments in Ulaanbaatar, while 160,000 families live in ger districts. It shows how disrupted the supply and demand is.

Our most significant economic challenge is being absolutely dependent on a single industry mining. The pace of our economic growth depends entirely on the price of commodities such as coal, copper, gold, and iron ore. Although there are talks about developing other industries, including agriculture and tourism, the results of the work that has been done have not delivered any significant benefits to the economy. We are yet to develop competitiveness in industries other than mining.

Politically, our main challenge is stability. Political power and authority in Mongolia are held by factions inside one political party...