PRESIDENT BATTULGA DELIVERS SPEECH AT OPENING OF PARLIAMENT’S SPRING SESSION
Honorable Chairman and Members of the State Great Khural,
As a country with unique trend of surging massive work of construction and development, with the beginning of spring season it is essential for top legislative body and the Government to show a positive gesture by carefully listening to the voices of people and by reflecting their views and opinions in the decision making process.
As a President, with an aim to meet and listen to our citizens, I have travelled to 17 provinces and 8 districts of the capital from January 14th to April 1st.
Total of 18,200 people have participated in the series of meetings where 2,800 (data is not included from 4 provinces) citizens have conveyed their opinions, complaints and requests of which 1,225 have been delivered personally (during the meetings). Total of 1,650 citizens have sent 1875 written petitions and complaints.
The most common requests and complaints are as follows:
- There were 689 comments and complaints on unfair distribution of wealth that caused distortions in retirement pension, welfare, unemployment and poverty issues in addition to the criticism over the offshore accounts of the politicians;
- There were 534 petitions and complaints in regard to public service issues such as the air pollution and smog, housing, land privatization, difficulties and challenges in health and education sectors, government misconduct and erroneous activities of the governmental organizations;
- There were 487 complaints and comments regarding the activities of the State Great Hural, the Government and other relevant state authorities, the wrong decision making by the government officials, complaints concerning the issue of ethics of civil servants, justice and law enforcement in addition to the comments on revising the Constitution;
- There were 254 comments on macroeconomic issues such as the reduction of the debt burden, economic expansion, efficient and capable civil service and on progressing the development.
The most frequent complaint was regarding the retirement pension and welfare issue. It is a sign of the Government’s negligence towards our senior citizens and not fulfilling our duties and responsibilities towards them. Many families continue to depend and live on the social welfare and pension funds. Today, there is a need in our society to take firm actions towards overcoming this welfare deficiency issue. People have also sent in a lot of complaints and requests to revoke the decision to increase the retirement age as it does not suit well with our country’s working conditions, average life expectancy and demographics overall.
Moreover, the public has criticized the lack of cohesiveness created due to the differing policies and planning of the consecutive Governments in reforming the retirement pension system that was bolstered by the party election promises resulting in a disabled pension system with an unhealthy development pattern.
People want fair Pension Insurance Scheme, where the insured, who was employed, created wealth and accordingly paid social insurance premium for many years, receives more pension than the one who was employed for fewer years and paid less pension insurance premium.
I will direct the Government of Mongolia to improve and develop the National Pension Insurance System so that it can ensure the protection of long-term social security of Mongolian people, and revive trust of the insured who will receive the pension in the future and improve the insufficient distribution of current social insurance fund to the pensioners.
With a view to mutually understand and implement the fundamental principles of long-term reform and improvement, there is a need to reach national consensus between the Government, political parties and social insurance stakeholders on the reform of the National Pension System.
In case of reaching the National Consensus on the reform of the National Pension System, it is advisable not to change and distort fundamental principles for a narrow political purpose, and not to conclude international treaties that would have negative impact on the reform issues.
It is also necessary to revise the salary to retirement ratio in consideration of the macroeconomic indicators, to annually determine price fluctuation of goods and services for elders, adjust the methodology for calculating the pension, and ensure its compliance accordingly.
We can conclude from the repeated recommendations from different international organizations to the Government, that it is time to refrain from practices that determine the pension based on unequal terms and on the discrimination by occupation, which are not directly related to the pension calculation parameters.
As a result of the National Pension System Reform, the Parliament and the Government need to ensure the sufficient provision of pension and to increase the minimum amount of pension distributed from Social Insurance Fund step by step to 500,000 MNT by 2020. The results of the survey conducted in April prove it too. 82.9% of the surveyors supported the idea of increasing pensions. By reforming the National Pension Insurance System, in the long-term, we can ensure the livelihood of Mongolian people, and guarantee the future well-being of wealth-makers.
Another issue raised during the meetings was the lack of schools and kindergartens for children with disabilities. The Government can solve this issue by issuing a decree to establish special classes for children with disabilities in every school and kindergartens of all aimags and soums.
I believe that the Government will pay attention to immediately solve this matter. The issue of providing employment for persons with disabilities can be solved by making amendments to the rules of enforcement to the existing laws and regulations, including the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 111 of the Labor Law and 2009 Governmesnt Resolution N.26 on requirement of business entities to pay monthly fee for every workplace not occupied by persons with disabilities. Similarly with the requirement for entities hiring foreign workforce to pay workplace fee to the Employment Promotion Fund, we need to include provisions in law which requires entities that do not employ legally required number of persons with disability to pay monthly fee for every workplace that should have been occupied by persons with disabilities. NGOs for persons with disabilities can form National Union and the accumulated fund shall be distributed to create jobs. The National Union shall have right to spend the fund under condition that at least 85% of persons with disabilities to be its members.
The main core of such problems as a pension’s insufficiency for living, an increasing poverty and a lack of job is unfair distribution of wealth. Mongolia’s GDP has exceeded USD 10 billion since 2011. Even during the last four “crisis” years, this number has not dropped below USD 11 billion. But the poverty reached 37 percent, and the number of registered poor households became 250 thousand. Although the number of livestock has increased and the state’s total income has not decreased, one third of the population lives in poverty. This means that income from resources is not accessible to all. There are no answers to questions, such as Where did money go? Was it accessible for public?
The fact that only 2 percent of savings account holders accounts for 96 percent of the total savings deposit, indicates that the overwhelming minority has accumulated the wealth. It means that there is neither presence nor influence of the middle class who carry the society, create wealth, and ensure its sustainability. However, according to the Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Constitution of Mongolia, the land and mineral resources shall belong to the people. Will the Mongolian government start its implementation or not? In case of implementing the first paragraph of Article 6 of the Constitution, increasing the elderly pensions to MNT 500 000 will not be a difficult task. The voters hope and wait for you, the 65 parliamentarians of the majority group, who were elected by the people and have absolute authority, to make significant decision on this issue. The half of your term is basically over.
Many see that law enforcement bodies, such as the Independence Authority Against Corruption is very inactive towards politicians who hide their assets in offshore accounts. The Corruption Perceptions Index of Mongolia has been dropped by 31 places over the past two years, when the IAAC Administration was replaced. No significant case has been solved. The employees, who don’t fulfill their responsibilities, must be changed or replaced. Soon I will submit my request to the Chairman of Parliament for urgent replacement of the IAAC Administration. I want to point out that you have no alternative other than to discuss and make a decision. The public is demanding you to change officials who do not fulfill their duty to fight corruption, and they are urging to provide the normal functioning of the state. I have the right to nominate, but the Parliament has the right to appoint. I would immediately dismiss the staff appointed by me if they are involved in corruption and misconduct of work. If the Parliament and the Government are able to appoint, but unable to invoke accountability, the public trust and confidence in the state governance definitely would decrease.
We have no time to just sit and watch now. Within President’s power to initiate laws, I will initiate and draft the laws on relevant issues to be discussed at Parliament. I would like to ask the esteemed members of Parliament to participate in discussions based on the principle of respecting your voters and without politicizing the issues.
We have drafted the Law on Legislation and are receiving citizens’ feedback for three resolutions and draft laws to be discussed during the spring session of the Parliament.
- A draft of Parliament resolution has been initiated to ensure the legal environment for resumption of “Child money” programme, which was launched in 2009, for each child without any discrimination. Transforming this money as a kind of welfare and discriminating the children by property and social status is contradicting with the provisions of Paragraph 2 of Article 14 of the Constitution of Mongolia and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. I would like to specifically note that this resolution drafted following the multiple petitions and requests of citizens’ to provide “Child Money” to all children. Yesterday’s decision of the Cabinet to provide “Child money” to 80 percent of all children shows that there is a possibility. The draft resolution on distribution for all children without discrimination will be submitted shortly.
- Due to the high number of proposals and criticisms addresses to the Office of the President are related to the restoration of death penalty, the law is to be drafted. During my meetings with regional and local communities, a good number of people demanded, in person or in written form, to implement the death penalty for the cases of child abuse. The report of the National Human Rights Commission provides detailed information about the child abuse. Four months ago, I submitted my proposal “to restore the death penalty for the cases of child abuse” to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs. However, there was no official response and initiative from the Ministry. Therefore, in accordance with the right to initiate a law, the President of Mongolia has initiated a law draft, and in accordance with the Law of Legislations, will collect public opinion for a month via www.president.mn, the website of Office of the President, will host a discussion in regard to this issue, and will submit the draft law to the Parliament Spring session. According to the survey 89% of people voted for restoring death penalty to child abusers.
Although the death penalty is considered as inhumane, abuse of infants who are still breastfeeding, is an unacceptable heinous act contradicting not only Mongolian culture but also ethics of the civilized human race. Article 16, paragraph 1 of the Constitution states that “… Deprivation of human life shall be strictly prohibited unless capital punishment is imposed by due judgement of the Court for the most serious crimes, pursuant to Mongolian Criminal Law” While the Constitution fully demonstrates the practice of the death penalty, it is irrational to subdue and limit this provision by the side laws and external conviction. Since you were elected by the people of Mongolia, the priority should be attached to the requests and requirements of your people. The Government has not been appointed by the European Union, therefore, the interests of Mongolians shall be the priority for the Government. It is crucial to prioritize the national feature and national interest when it comes to the decision-making. As a sovereign state, Mongolia has the right to resolve its laws and penalty policies in its sole discretion without any guidance.
3. The draft law on amendments to the Law on procurement of goods, works and services with state and local assets is being drafted and is preparing to receive opinions from citizens for the period of a month. Six articles will be added and relevant provisions will edited in this draft law. For instance, the provision on preferential rights to local producers, the provision on long-term stable support, and provision on the delegating the biddings up to MNT 1 billion to the professional associations. It is important for many small professional associations to unite and establish National Association, to coordinate the members as cluster method and to create an opportunity for sustainable supply to tenders. To tender one-year bidding is a failure to maintain the stability of the workplace. Therefore, if demand of a certain product exists each year, it shall tender the producers for 5 years and as a result we firstly, can protect the SMEs from oligarchs, secondly, can keep the numerous workplaces for a long-term. We have a good possibility to restore and continue implementation of already approved development projects. According to the survey, if you could start moving the ready projects, the 90.8 of people are ready to support. The mid-term program for new developments, approved in 2010, has not been completed and evaluated. I hope the initiator and the head of the working group, MP S.Byambatsogt, would actively work towards restoring the development programs that are incomplete. Instead of implementing the already approved programs, there is no need to waste time in creating and approving new programs. I am pleased that MP J.Bat-Erdene, who has drafted and got approved the State policy on Railway, is appointed as Minister for Road and Transport Development. People expect you to implement and realize the already approved policy.
People are concerned about the revision of Constitution and worried that amended sections to be polarized with one party’s extreme and preferred interests. I will work actively for protecting citizens’ rights and interests when the parliament will discuss the “Amendment to the Constitution of Mongolia” during this spring session. Also in order to revise and improve the Constitution to the Constitution of Sustainable Developments, I will solely work on the basis of people’s opinion. The principle of change for improvement and not change for change shall be adhered.
One of the seven changes which worsened the Constitution is the lowering the required number of parliament members’ attendance for adopting a law. As a result, responsibility of members diminished considerably, resulting in bad reputation of the legislative body. The reputation of political parties has been decreased gradually and now reached the lowest possible level. According to the surveys, accumulated rating of all political parties is barely reaching 30 percent. It is becoming a norm that Members of the Parliament are not fulfilling their promises to voters by being unethical and not attending parliament sessions. We are in need of a fair system that allows the dismissal of members who are not fulfilling their obligations as lawmakers.
It is required for the Parliament, President and Government to assess and arraign appointed authorities by the way of public hearing. There is a need to pay attention and monitor the appointed authorities and examine whether they are fulfilling their duties or working ethically; if we fail to do so, it results in irresponsible and unethical actions everywhere. The public is outraged and upset with such officials. I want to underscore that the judges who get complaints from public and cannot prove their assets would be resigned from their position as they are appointed by the President.
Civil service should be sustainable, and there is a principle of merit-based promotion system is implemented around the worldwide. But, there have been a phenomenon to fire civil servants under structural changes whenever the new Parliament or Government is formed. There were 140,000 civil servants in 2014. But, now, there are 189,000 civil servants. The optimal solution would be to make the existing public services into services that actually serve the people. Teachers and doctors are obligated to serve the public, but not necessarily to the state or civil servants. If we manage to create public services that serve the people, hospitals and schools will be able to manage their finances themselves by getting rid of many restraints to the salaries and income of teachers and doctors. With the increase of population, there will be increase in public servants. If we could do that, the amount of the state servants will not increase and could be kept at 40,000. As the middle class disappear and business opportunities shrink, many able young people want to lurk into public services by any possible ways hoping to have a stable income and a good life. One of the main reasons affecting the creating of jobs is that foreign workforce and goods are entering Mongolia following foreign loans. Therefore, the Parliament and the Government of Mongolia must not accept loans and approve contracts that have strict conditions imposing foreign workforces and goods.
It is good that the Government is working to diversify its economy heavily dependent on the mining sector and build a multi-pillar economy by implementing policies to develop agriculture, manufacturing and tourism sectors. However, to witness a rapid economic growth, we need to aim for bigger goals. Today, if we could build only 5 plants to process raw materials that we export, we expect the export income to increase from 5 billion USD to 30 billion USD. I think this goal is achievable within five years.
In the future, we shall promote economy growth prompting more opportunities rather than exploiting opportunities to promote economic growth. This is feasible with the technologies brought with the new century. We need a government that encourages policies and initiatives that aimed to foresee future prospects in order to move forward to the next phase of economic development for our people by employing advanced technologies and capitalizing human resources.
Prospect of mongolian economy depends on new opportunities to grow exponentially by planning, investing and preparing in human capital promoting new sectors such as artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, quantum computing, composite materials, health care technologies. I’d like to draw the Government’s attention on an issue concerning our future. A study suggests that clean water supply of our city Ulaanbaatar will be exhausted by 2030. Thus, the Government should take this utmost urgent matter into its consideration to implement new water reservoir project, of which its geological exploration and feasibility study had been conducted, with financing of $300 million from the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Keeping in mind the fact that water supply is one of the security assurances and our daily necessity. We need to act immediately before it gets too late.
We should not forget air pollution with warm front approaching. We will face smoke issue once again as soon as temperature drops in the fall. Tackling this pressing issue would be possible if we can extend housing program for wide range of households and create jobs for more and more Mongolians. Also, the Government can employ practices that had proven their effectiveness in many countries. Building satellite towns and creating more jobs and better living environment in rural areas to address decentralization of population, to name a few. I say once again don’t waste time and money on smokeless furnace or smokeless fuel that we have already exhausted all these years without tangible outcome. This only lacks genuine determination.
The Government must take a tough stance on corrupt practices of its officials that endure irresponsible spending of taxpayers’ money for benefit of their own or a few. Instead, it must seek cost-effective decisions for the benefit of many in addressing all range of pressing issues
People have repetitively reminded that distorted rule of law, justice, government ethics are the main factors of today’s failure. It has been already two years that many local representatives elected in more than 70 soums are unable to fulfill their duties at their Citizens’ Representative Meetings. The fact that both Mayor’s office and the Citizens’ Representatives Khural of Sukhbaatar province are unable to perform their bestowed tasks is a clear malfunction. People are losing their confidence in our government due to widespread injustice and lack of strong rule of law. People are clearly demanding you to enforce rule of law and justice. Is it just to have a government and a parliament when they are incompetent to implement their laws?
Appointments of ambassadors –except one – haven’t been settled to this date when I had asked to consult with the Government and the Parliament.
Forefront job of the Government is to create more and more jobs to stimulate income. You have possessed all rights to create jobs. Let’s instigate development projects that are compatible with our national interests and open more opportunities to promote business and jobs. Let’s employ innovations in all sectors as prerequisites. More jobs mean more income. More income means better livelihood. Better life comes with better health and education opportunities. Healthy and educated people can lead us to long term sustainable prosperity of our country. We have the country with wide opportunities if the government agencies employ the means to keep this simple order of development.
I say now is the time to act and do our jobs. Thank you for your attention.