Mongolia’s Vision 2050

Mongolia is one of the first countries to adopt the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) with its Sustainable Development Vision (SDV) 2030, a policy document with a clear set of targets aligned with the SDGs main pillars on social, economic, and environmental priorities as a result of meaningful support and successful cooperation with United Nations.

Mongolia carried further this vision in a new long-term national development policy document, Vision 2050, adopted in 2020. It aims at transforming the country into a leading regional power by 2050 by fighting poverty, creating a greener economy, improving the education system and gender equality for enhanced job access, redefining Mongolian social strategy in a more citizen-centred way and also aims to offset the negative trends caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Vision 2050 was approved by the Mongolian Parliament on May 13, 2020.

The 2050 Vision aims to harness Mongolia’s human capital by building on the momentum accrued through system-wide reform and move closer towards a system that ensures education quality and relevance at all levels with shared responsibility, sustainable governance and management. Mongolian policymakers realised that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vulnerability of the middle class, which is the driving force of society, is creating inequality and undermining the core values of democracy.

Therefore, the Government has considered that there is a necessity to develop a long-term development policy document that summarizes the past 30 years and envisions the next 30 years. Mongolia’s long-term development policy has 9 fundamental goals and 50 objectives, and will be carried out in three periods: 2020-2030, 2031-2040, and 2041-2050.

The major goals of Vision 2050 are: To educate the entire population with “the mother tongue, the history and the heritage” based on solid facts and thoroughly studied through modern scientific methodology, and develop shared values that will be the pillar to build a nation-state with a deep sense of national similarities/differences and resilience; Build smart and sustainable governance ensuring human development, mature civil service with optimal administrative and organizational structure, fully functional and people-centred state e-services, enhance cooperation between state, private sector and civil society in all areas, ensure full respect for human rights, fair justice and corruption-free country; Promote an environmentally friendly green development, maintain balance of ecosystem, ensure environmental sustainability, create conditions for present and future generations to reap its benefits, and improve the quality of human life; Ensure human and societal security through strengthening national defence capacity, protecting human rights and freedoms, preserving social order and safety of the living environment of citizens, and reducing disaster risks; Pursue a competitive and relatively well-balanced regional and local development, aligned into the regional economic integration, through respect formational culture, sustainable settlements, preserved nature and eco-balance to be inherited by future generations, and the coherent green production with combined economic diversification and specialization; and develop a comfortable, environmentally friendly, people-centred and smart city.

In its new Vision 2050, the Government of Mongolia aims to promote living standards in rural areas to reduce migration pressure to cities by ensuring that economic and social opportunities exist for those residing in rural areas. Rural development plans are being prepared in coordination with national development strategies, based on the comparative advantage of each province, to generate economic growth and employment opportunities.

The population of Mongolia will reach 4 million by 2030, 4.6 million by 2040, and 5.4 million by 2050. By then, the country will also transition from a consumer country into a manufacturing, exporter country. It is planned to boost GDP per capita to USD 12 thousand by 2030, and over USD 38 thousand by 2050 as per Vision 2050.

Photo Credit : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Mongol_Parlament_(The_Mongolian_Parliament)_-_panoramio.jpg