SPEAKER DISCUSSES PRICE SOAR WITH TRADE UNIONS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The Parliament Speaker D.Demberel received on Monday a delegation led by S.Ganbaatar, the president of the Mongolian Trade Unions (MTU). Mr. Ganbaatar said the price boost of fuels and the U.S dollar's rate are causing a big pressure on the people's livelihood, and that the MTU is lawfully running a 16-day protest action, "and we have sent several times demand letters to the government". “As we suppose, by receiving us the Speaker accepts the people's demand to deal with the situation, and we except from parliament a positive solution,” the MTU president said. In response, the Speaker supported the MTU's action of protest and admitted that the price soar is really making the people's life complicated. "This price soar is not grounded, so the cabinet must carefully consider it. Parliament, the government, the Trade Union and companies must discuss ways of stopping the price boost. The MTU should discuss it together with the cabinet at a trilateral agreement level,” he said. Parliament gave a directive to solve the problem at a governmental level, he added. The Speaker went on that that parliament will consider the fiscal policy and currencies rates at a level of the policy that fits the market relations. A directive was sent to the Bank of Mongolia, and its reply was that it took first-step measure to keep the rate of Togrog (MNT), he said. A working group has been set up at the Standing committee on economics responsible for reporting on how the currency rates are kept, he added. “Two factions have sorted out the matter, but it is imperative not to treat it from the political point of view,” he said. B.Khuder