The office of the President of Mongolia, Public Relations & Communications Division

www.president.mn

2009-09-25

Remarks by H.E Mr. Tsakhia Elbegdorj President of Mongolia At CGI Annual Meeting 2009 New York

Excellencies,
Honorary guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like, at the outset, to express my thanks to President Clinton for his kind invitation to this important event. I wish to congratulate President Clinton for his earnest efforts to promote global dialogue for peace, development and prosperity.

Let me briefly introduce the current state of play in Mongolia’s economy: Our economy has grown steadily in the last 5 years, until we were hit by the crisis last year. Like any country Mongolia is struggling with the crisis, in a way to turn it into opportunities. Fiscal and monetary policies are being adjusted to deal with inflation, stabilize and maintain the value of our national currency Tugrog and support investment. So overall, Mongolia is dealing quite successfully with the effects of crisis, and we are expecting a recovery by early next year. The crisis has amplified the need to diversify the economy, which at the moment is an economy of mainly minerals and agricultural raw materials.

Infrastructure is definitely the backbone, skeleton of the economy. As many of you are aware, Mongolia homes world-class mineral deposits. We see the mining sector as the igniter of a real economic boom as it will have tremendous multiplier and spill-over effects. Manufacturing of value added products, expanded base for services sector – finance, banking, insurance, capital markets, information and communication technologies, biotechnology and nanotechnology are on our near-term agenda.

Mongolia’s geographic location offers us great opportunities. In an arm’s length we can reach out to the world’s largest markets in the fastest growing economy. Mongolia has a real potential to become a powerful hub connecting Asia and Europe – in both virtual and physical connectivity.

Mongolia established a National Development Fund to finance the country’s development projects, to be mobilized in addition to budget financing of infrastructure projects.

Our main infrastructure investments are made into energy, roads and transportation, construction.

PPP (Public-Private Partnership) is seen as an effective tool for public goods financing. We also see a surge in the corporate social responsibility. It’s a good start, it’s a good thing that the corporate sector is willing to most constructively participate in the build-up of our economic capacity.

Good governance is high on Mongolia’s development agenda. Good governance is a cornerstone of a just society intolerant to corruption. Corruption is the most brutal form of violation of human rights. Mongolia is determined to totally exterminate corruption in our society.

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mongolia does have the will, commitment to deal with our developmental challenges. Leadership, public support, consensus - are all critical to success. Our success depends on ourselves. Yet, there is another, and very serious factor that challenge our development efforts. No one country is immune to it, no one country can address it single-handedly, and this is our collective problem – climate change.

Local and national actions are not enough. We need to enhance regional and international cooperation as we need a global action. I hope that we all together can come up with effective and timely solutions and responses to climate change. I could see at yesterday’s deliberations and discussions that the world is united in acknowledging that the climate change is our common problem. Now we need to come together as one in our actions, concrete actions. After all, the earth is one for all of us.

Excellencies, I am delighted to be here with you at this august event. I commend the noble mission of President Clinton in the cause to promote peace and development. Let me assure you, Mr. President, you have full support of Mongolia in advancing the best aspirations of the humankind.

Thank you.