The first Provincial Competitiveness Forum was held for a group of 60 representatives from Mongolia’s 21 provinces on October 8-9, 2014 at Terelj’s UB-2 Hotel. The event included governors, chairpersons of citizen representatives’ khurals, and heads of chambers of commerce and industry.
The forum, organized by the Economic Policy and Competitiveness Research Center (EPCRC) and supported by the Konrad Adeneuer Foundation, was intended to discuss results of the 2012 and 2013 editions of a Provincial Competitiveness Report published by the EPCRC, and to discuss options for improving provincial competitiveness in Mongolia.
The EPCRC’s Chairman, Mr.Tsagaan.P opened the event, delivering a speech highlighting the importance of the report, and encouraging open and frank discussion amongst representatives on ways to address current regional competitiveness issues.The keynote speaker was prominent German economist Professor Hans-Rimbert Hemmerm, who shared his own experiences of the decision-making process during decentralization, and how to better promote regional development.
Other presentations included a macro-economic outlook and trends for 2015 from EPCRC Director, Lakshmi.B, an update on the legal status of towns and villages presented by Living Environment and Green Development Policy Advisor to the President of Mongolia, Erkhembayar.L, and a discussion on how to best interpret formal statistical methods by representatives from the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The setting provided the unique opportunity for inter-regional discussion between local authorities on how to work together in assessing regional development policy and cooperation, strategy and planning. The forum concluded with a number of recommendations on how best to proceed with this issue.