Source: Onoodor                          Date: 17 February, 2011

The Government of Mongolia has announced 2011 will be a year of employment support. The emphasis will be on providing jobs to youth and to citizens in their 40s and to former military personnel. The National Committee to Support Employment held its first meeting on February 11 to discuss financing, management and monitoring issues.

Prime Minister S.Batbold is Chairman of the committee. He told the meeting that records will be kept of jobs created through all Government projects and aid programs. All organizations and officials in the country will be judged by their success in creating jobs and implementing good management measures. He urged Ministries and related organizations to pay attention to transparency and to keep the general populace and economic entities informed of the status of employment support work, so that those who seek work and or loans would know where to go and whom to meet, and  employers  would know where to find the right people.

He noted that the Government’s efforts to create jobs have not been completely successful because of lack of correlation between various sectors and also because citizens are kept in the dark. For example, many small and medium entrepreneurs do not know how to ask for loans from the Employment Support Fund, he said, and wanted officials to correct the situation. The committee plans to create a database where all unemployed citizens in all administrative units will be listed along with their registration details in employment centers.

Minister for Finance S.Bayartsogt said setting up SMEs was not enough to generate employment; they also have to work well and to capacity. Minister for Food, Agriculture and Light Industry T.Badamjunai asked for MNT360 billion so that jobs could be assured for 25,000 to 30,000 people. The Prime Minister then said the Central Bank has recommended the issue of bonds worth MNT100 billion to help create 15,000 work places but this will need Parliamentary approval and may not be possible early. The Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are looking for other ways of financing such a program.