MINISTER S.ERDENE MEETS ILO OFFICE DIRECTOR

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Population Development and Social Welfare S.Erdene Thursday received Mr Tim De Meyer, director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for China and Mongolia, in the State House. The Minister congratulated Mr Meyer on being appointed as the ILO Office director for Mongolian affairs, and expressed thanks to the ILO for refining upon Mongolian laws and resolutions on employment and human rights since 1990s, improving the implementation of ILO conventions and collaborating with the Mongolia’s government, employers and trade unions in developing social partnership in the country. Mr Erdene noted that the Ministry and the UN’s working group on social welfare are about to co-organize the 3rd measure for a nationwide discussion which launched in September of 2013 with an aim to enhance social welfare and employment services. In response, Mr Meyer said the ILO has been cooperating with the Mongolian Ministry since 2002 in the social welfare sphere, and the sides also have collaborated in regulating migration and introducing ILO standards in Mongolia. Saying that the main purpose of visiting Mongolia is to expand the cooperation with Mongolia, Mr Meyer invited the Minister to an opening ceremony of a project on improvement of youths’ employment and widening of social welfare to be co-realized by the Ministry of Labour and other related organizations. Then he clarified an amendment to the law on social insurance and pension. Reforms for social welfare will be done through three phases, the Minister said. In the first turn, the health insurance system will be modernized, and then a reform of allowance insurance will be started. A draft law on health insurance has been backed by the cabinet, so it will be submitted to parliament soon, he said.