COOPERATION IS TO WIDEN BETWEEN UB CITY AND SWITZERLAND

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city Mr E.Bat-Uul Wednesday met Mr Jean-Jacques de Dardel, the Concurrent Non-Resident Ambassador of Switzerland to Mongolia. They discussed many issues, for example a launching of the "City governance" project to be co-implemented by the UB city and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) this year, making the state services for people in ger (national dwelling) areas quicker and more adequate, urbanization of Ulaanbaatar, the ger areas re-planning, and relevant urgent problems. Mr Bat-Uul thanked the Embassy of Switzerland for contributing to a development of our capital city and said the city commenced urban development actions with a civil participation,"which means that any construction will be done according to the civil opinion". He also said the city’s administration began implementing indexes of design and safety of living environment of the ger areas people, together with the Asia Foundation, and that it has become a basic plan of urban development. Now it is vital to introduce environmentally-friendly technologies, he added asked the Swiss side for assistance. He went on that an establishment of satellite cities of Ulaanbaatar was a highlight event because inhabitants of these places decided themselves to become satellites of the UB instead of being districts, Mr Bat-Uul said and expressed a willingness to implement together with the Swiss private sector a related project, under a state-private sector partnership. In response, Mr de Dardel said he is glad to visit Mongolia again and to see how the UB city is flourishing, and underlined an importance of the civil participation in the urban development actions. He supported the Mayor’s suggestion about collaborating in introducing environmentally-friendly technologies, promoting people’s skills, developing the partnership between Swiss companies and the capital city. He also emphasized his country's readiness to cooperate with Mongolia in all spheres.