Opening Remarks by Ms. Nashida Sattar

Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Mongolia

30 October 2020

Bayankhoshuu Business Incubator

Good morning, Aspiring youth delegates, trainers, volunteers, policy makers of Ulaanbaatar City, and Ms. Bayarchimeg, newly appointed Deputy Governor of Ulaanbaatar City. Congratulations on your appointment!

It is such a joy to be in a room with the youth, full of energy, aspiration, and wisdom such as yourselves in any country and I am grateful for this opportunity to speak to you today.

Young people aged 15-34 make up over 30% of Mongolia’s population highlighting the breadth of your potential contribution for Mongolia’s future development trajectory. Covid19 pandemic poses a threat to slow down progress on SDGs but also roll back the achievements.

Yes, Mongolia’s future development is rightfully in your hands today, be it sustainable development, prosperity, green economy, innovation, human rights, and gender equality. As the United Nations Secretary General has stated “all our hopes for a better world rest on young people.”

Today, we are here to empower you with the tools and resources necessary to place you in the driving seat to build forward Mongolia better, while ensuring we leave no one behind as we create  a more sustainable future.

The United Nations Development Programme in Mongolia and the Ulaanbaatar City Governor’s Office have been collaborating since 2017 to localize, implement and accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals.

One of the great joint initiatives born from this cooperation is Activated2030 #Hub, a youth empowerment project aimed to promote enterprising capabilities including turning ideas into actions, maintaining positive attitude, developing soft skills and contributing to the SDGs through innovative youth activities and trainings.

Our joint efforts are focused on strengthening the Innovation Hub Centres and we have successfully organized similar events at Bayankhoshuu and Selbe Centres. We are thankful to the Songinokhairkhan district sub-center allowing us to organize this wonderful event that includes training component and a job fair with you all. We hope this would give you an opportunity to enhance your knowledge and skills in enterprising, employment opportunities, career advancement and turning your business ideas into reality.

The Sustainable Development Goals is highly ambitious set of global goals that we in the United Nations system along with the Government of Mongolia are striving to implement by 2030. As I have reiterated before, these goals would not be attainable without YOUR active participation, ideas, contributions, and most importantly, YOUR unwavering commitment.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the organizers of today’s event for creating this rare opportunity to empower and activate Mongolia’s youth. I also would like to thank our co-organizers and partners including Ulaanbaatar City Governor’s Office; Department of Family, Youth and Child; Science, Innovation and Industrial Development Agency of the Ulaanbaatar City, Songinokhairkhan District Governor’s Office, and representatives from the private sector and youth civil society organizations.

Your commitment through this partnership platform for creating brighter future for Mongolia’s youth is truly commendable and on behalf of UNDP Mongolia, I would like to express my gratitude.

UNDP Mongolia remains committed to supporting you all to accelerate SDGs implementation through our various projects.

Thank you all and I wish you a successful event.