ISO: MNG *************************************************************************** The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Secretariat. *************************************************************************** AS WRITTEN SPEECH BY E.GOMBOJAV, MINISTER FOR POPULATION POLICY LABOUR AND THE HEAD OF THE MONGOLIAN GOVERNMENT DELEGATION TO THE IV WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN. Beijing, September 6, 1995 Esteemed Madam Chairperson of the conference, Dear guests and delegations, Permit me to congratulate you sincerely, Madam CHEN Muhua for your election to the high post of the Chairperson of this Conference. Also would like to thank the Government of the People's Republic of China for its excellent preparations facilitating the success of this Conference. Esteemed Madam Chairperson, Mongolia has opted the path for democracy and market economy since the beginning of the 1990's and it is guaranteed by the new Constitution adopted in 1992. Along with this, the multi-party system and the principles for free elections have become the norms of the life of Mongolia, facilitating the consolidation of the legal foundations for the upholding the human rights and freedom. At present Mongolia is engaged in the implementation of a series of structural reforms in order to ensure the steady transition to a market economy . A legal system to regulate the economic affairs has also been created. There does exist a multi-faceted property ownership. We have introduced the liberalization of prices and the floating exchange rate and as a result the national currency 'tugrik' has become stabilized and has become internally convertible. All these have facilitated some positive tendency of economic stabilization in the country, from the year of 1994. We appreciate greatly the assistance of the foreign countries and international community which have come forward to support Mongolia to overcome the existing difficulties in its process of democratization and reforms. The targets of our state economic regulation policy are to ensure the revival of the national production and the stabilization of macro- economy, to upgrade the living standards of our population and to alleviate poverty and to reduce the level of unemployment. Government of Mongolia pursues a 'human' oriented development strategy, considering human development as a major guideline of its socio-economic policy. In the process of the implementation of the Nairobi Strategy for the year of 2000 at national level, Mongolia has achieved some results and obtained some experiences. In our country, women enjoy equal rights without any discrimination in political, economic, social and cultural spheres as well as in their family affairs and these rights have been legally guaranteed by our Constitution and other relevant legislation. Government of Mongolia has been implementing a concrete policy towards women at different stages of its development. Today we are proud to see our women enjoy equal rights with regard to education, protection of their health, freedom of choice of their profession, equal payment and the equal involvement in political life of the country. Today the women of Mongolia comprises 50,3 per cent of the entire population and 52.2 per cent of them have achieved higher and vocational education. 48 per cent of national labour force are women contributing to the development of their motherland. 95 per cent of Mongolian women are literate and eight of every ten women in Mongolia has obtained at least the primary education. At present, the infant mortality rate has been decreased by two thirds against the situation existed ten years ago. Also progress has been witnessed to ensure the reproductive rights of the women and their health protection. National social security net has been created in order to provide social environment for the working women such as the establishment of kindergartens, nurseries and special allowances for the pregnant women and for taking care of the child, while keeping their job places, to involve the women in social and health insurance under especial conditions and to provide some assistance in the form of allowances to those families with many children etc. State also takes care and provide social protection to the old aged and the disabled women. In Mongolia where the pasture lands for the raising of live-stock are predominant, especial care has been provided to the rural women with regard to their health, social and cultural services. Mongolia strongly support the implementation of programmes in relation to the improvement of the situation of rural women and desires to bring amble contributions to this end. It is a matter of satisfaction to note here that the UN Resolution on the Rural Women, which Mongolia sponsored, has been reflected in the action programme to be adopted at this Conference. During the last few years, concrete steps have been taken to create and consolidate a national system for the advancement of women. The number of women NGO's has been increased and they play an important role in the protection of the rights of women. In line with these positive progress towards the improvement of the situation of the women in our country, we also face some decline in the levels once we have reached, as an outcome of the economic crisis and social negative trends experienced during this transitional period. Women have become the target of poverty and unemployment, especially those with many children and those women heading the families. This actually demonstrates the need for the state to take special care. Therefore, the Government hag created special centres for the women enabling them to increase their income, considering it as an additional resource for the steady poverty alleviation and reflected it as one of the major strategies in the "Poverty Alleviation Programme of Mongolia" and since then it is being under implementation. Another issue of concern is the declining number of women at decision making level. -While pursuing a policy to increase the number of women at decision making level, Government of Mongolia supports the goal to advance in the Action Programme adopted at the Asia, Pacific Regional Conference. Government of Mongolia will pay an special attention to improve and expand the health and social services for women and to reflect the issues in the Government policy for development. Specially, the comparatively high maternal mortality rate should be reduced by 50 per cent and the infant mortality rate by one third by the year of 2000, against the rate of 1990. It is the goal of the Government of Mongolia to bring out structural changes in the education system and to sustain the level of education of girls and women and to facilitate the continuous learning through formal and non-formal education. Esteemed Madam Chairperson, Our country attached a great importance to the present Conference. We have set up a National Committee and have conducted a "ten month tour to protect the interests of women" at national level. Within the framework of this tour, number of activities involving the formulation of the state policy on women, implementation of the programmes and projects on the increasing of the women's income and poverty alleviation have been conducted. The Government of Mongolia support the strategic objectives and guidance for Governments on the advancement of women proposed at the Platform for Action to be adopted at this Conference. Government of Mongolia is fully confident that the implementation of the above Actions by Governments and International Communities will be an important factor in reaching realistic results relating to the Critical Areas of Concern facing the countries and the international community today such as the advancement of women, alleviation of poverty, elimination of disparity in education and health services and the increase of the women participation in decision making etc. Our country will convene the National Assembly on "Women and Development" at the beginning of the 1996, during which the national strategy to implement the Platform of Action adopted at this Conference will be formulated and also concrete measures will be taken to implement the goals of the Platform of Action. Thank you for your kind attention.