Mongolia, 2005

Let me begin by

congratulating the President of the fifty-ninth session

of the General Assembly, His Excellency Mr. Jean

Ping, for his tireless efforts in the lead-up to the

summit meeting and for his contribution to the

elaboration and adoption of the outcome document

(resolution 60/1). Mongolia considers the outcome

document, with all its omissions, to be another

important milestone in forging global consensus on

development, and pledges to contribute its modest

share to the successful implementation of the

commitments contained therein. In this connection, I

would also like to commend our Secretary-General,

Mr. Kofi Annan, for his leadership and vision and to

wish him well in his bold reform activities. I also

warmly congratulate Mr. Jan Eliasson on his well-

deserved election to the presidency and express our

confidence that his skill, experience and intimate

knowledge of the matters at hand will enable us to

successfully follow through on the commitments made

by our leaders last week in this Assembly.

Mongolia is poised to achieve most of its

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education,

gender, child and maternal health and combating

various diseases by 2015. Capitalizing on its 1990s

system of public health and education and a traditional

culture of gender equality, Mongolia is well on track to

achieve, by 2015, universal primary education and

literacy, eliminate gender disparity at all levels of

education, and reduce its child mortality rate by two

thirds and maternal mortality rate by three fourths.

However, the most important goal of halving poverty

by 2015 looks highly elusive, if not unachievable, at

the moment. Aware of its responsibility for its own

development, Mongolia has, by and large, managed its

public finances responsibly and maintained

macroeconomic stability. It has done its utmost to

adopt and implement sound national policies and

development strategies and to introduce good

governance and the rule of law.

Yet, like many other small, vulnerable and

commodity-dependent economies, Mongolia’s

development is severely handicapped by many factors

well beyond its control. Skyrocketing oil prices, for

instance, are taking a serious toll on economic growth,

engulfing whatever gains we made earlier on, and are

exposing already vulnerable societies to increased

hardship and uncertainty. Many frustrated oil-

importing developing countries have articulated a

number of interesting ideas during this general debate,

and we urge the international financial institutions and

the oil producers to heed our collective appeal.

Last week world leaders once again reaffirmed

their commitment to address the special needs of the

landlocked countries and their special difficulties in

integrating into multilateral trading systems. Full,

timely and effective implementation of the Almaty

Programme of Action and the Sao Paulo Consensus

adopted at the eleventh session of the United Nations

Conference on Trade and Development will provide a

significant boost to the development and poverty

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reduction efforts of the landlocked countries, including

Mongolia. Mongolia spends a significant portion of its

gross domestic product (GDP) on transit transportation

and insurance costs through its two neighbours, Russia

and China, roughly double the transportation costs of

other developing countries. Since 1998, Mongolia has

been negotiating with these two neighbours on a

framework agreement on transit transport to reduce

transit transportation costs and related cumbersome

procedures, both in crossing the land border and in

trans-shipment at ports. Six rounds of talks ended for

the most part inconclusively, but we hope that with the

renewed commitment of our leaders to the Almaty

Declaration, agreement will be within our collective

reach.

Mongolia is a small economy, highly vulnerable

to commodity market fluctuations and weather and

climatic conditions. The call made in the Summit

Outcome document (resolution 60/1) on the need to

support the efforts of commodity-dependent countries

to restructure, diversify and strengthen the

competitiveness of their commodity sectors merits a

swift response from the international community. In

this regard, I wish to draw the attention of this

Assembly to the important recommendations derived

from the Multi-Stakeholder Consultations organized by

the New Rules for the Global Finance Coalition in

preparation for the summit. Recommendations include

commodity price arrangements and stabilization tools

and the establishment of a rapid-responding,

overarching, grant-financed shocks facility for low-

income commodity-dependent countries. Immediate

establishment of such a facility would make a tangible

contribution to our efforts to reduce poverty.

Mongolia is highly susceptible to natural

disasters, which cause loss of life and extensive

damage to its economy. In addition, desertification,

deforestation and soil erosion hamper our development

efforts. We urge the international community to

redouble its efforts to address these trans-boundary

threats collectively. For our part, we will continue to

take specific measures in combating desertification, in

using land resources properly and in protecting forests

by introducing and implementing special protective

strategies.

Despite an encouraging increase in official

development assistance (ODA) in recent years, after a

decade of steady decline, the world is still well short of

achieving the long-standing target of 0.7 per cent of

GDP. We are encouraged that the war against poverty

will now be waged more aggressively with the

commitment of the world leaders to increase ODA to

developing countries by $50 billion a year by the year

2010. However, it is imperative to increase the aid

quantity to a sufficient level to make multiple

investments in the health, education and economic

infrastructure needed to break cycles of deprivation

and ensure sustained growth. Furthermore, the quality

of aid has to be improved, as per the principles of the

Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of March 2005,

with a particular emphasis on providing stable and

predictable multi-year financing, and with a focus on

development goals, mutual accountability, building

institutional capacity, untying aid, reducing transaction

costs and bureaucratic procedures and increasing the

recipient’s ownership of aid.

Mongolia fully endorses the recommendation of

the Secretary-General that, starting in 2005, developing

countries with sound, transparent and accountable

national strategies should receive a sufficient increase

in aid, of sufficient quality and timeliness to enable

them to achieve their Millennium Development Goals.

In addition, new and innovative sources of financing,

including an International Finance Facility, quick-

impact initiatives and debt-conversion for MDG

implementation projects should urgently be put in

place.

Mongolia, for one, resolves to introduce free

school lunches, starting with those for primary

schoolchildren, as a quick-impact initiative.

Despite the importance of aid for developing

countries, trade and investment play a pivotal role in

ensuring sustainable development. According to the

2005 Human Development Report, trade barriers faced

by developing countries exporting to developed

countries are three to four times higher than those

faced by developed countries when they trade with

each other. The current multilateral trade negotiations

have not produced a tangible outcome that would meet

our expectations from the Doha development agenda.

The Doha Round, to be successful, should result in

establishing fairer and more favourable terms of trade

for developing countries, especially those with special

needs, in the form of enhanced and predictable market

access and assistance in building productive and trade

capacities. Mongolia appreciates the decision of the

European Union to provide duty-free access to over

7,200 goods from small and vulnerable economies,

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including Mongolia, under the special Generalized

System of Preferences Plus scheme. Increased and

better access means that more families will be able to

leave destitution and poverty behind.

The Summit Outcome emphasized once again the

importance of a timely, effective, comprehensive and

durable solution to the debt problems of developing

countries. In assessing the eligibility of countries for

debt relief, we urge the donor community not to limit

itself to mere statistics or rigid categorizations such as

“least developed countries”. Debt relief should be

considered comprehensively, taking into account the

history and impact of the debt on the development of

the recipient country and its actual capacity to repay.

Many of these factors were taken into account when

Mongolia negotiated its debt repayment with Russia. I

would like to take this opportunity to express from this

podium the gratitude of my Government to the

Government of the Russian Federation for its display

of solidarity and political and economic pragmatism in

resolving this issue, so important for us.

We believe that education is an engine for

development, a guarantee of the respect for human

rights and a pillar of democracy. Mongolia has made

substantial efforts in the second half of the last century

to develop its education system. As a result, the adult

literacy rate has reached 97.8 per cent. Nonetheless,

taking stock of our recent past, we have drawn lessons

so as to further improve the deliverables of the

education system. Stronger emphasis is now placed on

vocational and technical training, the quality of

education, addressing functional illiteracy against the

backdrop of the rapid advance of information and

communications technology and the universal usage of

English. These policy measures are taken in

accordance with the Dakar Framework for Action and

the United Nations Literacy Decade.

Mongolia welcomes the strong focus on human

rights, rule of law and democracy in the Summit

Outcome. Democracy and rule of law are not part of a

state of affairs that can be arranged or introduced

overnight. We believe that fostering democracy and

rule of law is a continuous process, and we hope that

this long-term, sustained approach will prevail in the

activities of United Nations institutions. We support

the efforts of the United Nations to make democracy a

universal environment for global governance. We

believe that the United Nations Democracy Fund is an

important product in the overall reform process, as it

highlights the importance of democracy and the role of

the Organization. Mongolia believes that the Fund

should serve as a vital instrument to assist Member

States in the consolidation of democracy and

implementation of their commitments, including the

Ulaanbaatar Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at

the fifth International Conference of New or Restored

Democracies in 2003 and approved by the General

Assembly in its resolution 58/13.

We all agree that the United Nations must be

strengthened to meet the challenges of the new

millennium. This will be an all-encompassing task that

would involve system-wide reform of the Organization

to bring it in line with the realities of our era,

including, where necessary, changes in composition,

mandates, procedures and working methods of the

principal and subsidiary organs, the various

programmes and funds, as well as the establishment of

new or reinvigoration of existing bodies. Overall,

United Nations assistance needs to be focused, results-

oriented and tailored to the priority development needs

of the countries concerned. It has to be designed to

bring a tangible and speedy impact on the lives of

ordinary people and to help them escape the trap of

poverty and live in dignity, free from want.

Accountability, oversight, management performance

and transparency of the Secretariat must be brought to

a new level of efficiency, professionalism and ethical

conduct on a par with the best corporate governance

practices.

Mongolia supports the idea of empowering the

Secretary-General, the chief administrative officer of

the United Nations, with greater authority and

flexibility in administering the work of the

Organization in line with the Charter’s provisions. All

too often, sound management reforms proposed by the

Secretary-General have been stalled by us, the Member

States.

In conclusion, Mr. President, let me voice

Mongolia's confidence that we collectively will

succeed in reforming our world Organization, and the

renewed and reinvigorated United Nations will be

better equipped to address effectively the manifold

challenges that lie ahead.