Standards are the basis for creating a comfortable, healthy and safe environment, planning and organization of a city. Establishing standards can positively affect the daily life of citizens and the environment and create advantages for society and the economy. The Law on Legal Status of Ulaanbaatar has been successfully amended after 27 years, forming conditions for the city to have a standard. In this regard, a total of 22 sections and 97 standards are planned to be approved, and 38 standards of the first 9 sections have been approved and took effect on October 1, 2022.
A discussion on city standards was held on November 11 to introduce these standards and determine the extent of long-term cooperation between relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations.
D. Sumiyabazar: New direction of the city’s development will start from here
Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia S.Amarsaikhan, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar D.Sumiyabazar, Head of the Policy Research and Analysis Center of Ulaanbaatar R.Dagva and representatives of corresponding organizations and private sectors participated in the discussion.
During the discussion, Mayor D.Sumiyabazar said, “Approving and implementing unified standards is a big step toward developing the capital city and making it citizen-friendly. This is a new beginning for Ulaanbaatar. It is very important that the government, institutions and citizens come together and show their initiative and leadership in the process of implementing, tracking and monitoring policy documents to create a friendly environment for everyone and equal access to services.”
“These standards, approved by the city council, are being followed in the current and future works. For instance, 65 buses that meet the standards of the public transport industry have been put into service. In other words, these requirements will be followed in the renovation of the public transport fleet.”
A working group responsible for developing city standards was established in December 2021 with 216 employees, officials, researchers and professional consultants from 70 organizations. They studied 1,558 documents and materials to develop the new standards. In order to develop the standards, academicians, professional organizations, the government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and citizens’ proposals were reflected, the working group says.
Comprehensive, easy and accessible
Head of the Policy Research and Analysis Center of Ulaanbaatar R.Dagva introduced the nine sections and 38 standards that were approved by the Ulaanbaatar City Council.
In the first section of the city standards, general requirements and standards are reflected for areas including social infrastructure, urban planning, urban development, the outdoor environment of commercial and service areas, public property, passenger transport services, lighting and decoration, waste management, comprehensive streets and green structures.
“Additionally, all requirements related to products and services can be comprehensively received and reviewed in one place, explained with pictures, making them easy to understand, transparent and free. It has a unified registration system, which is easy to search, read, study, review and monitor implementation. It is unique in that it is planned to form a system and has a checklist to assess whether each standard has met the requirements,” the official noted.
Everyone’s participation is important
By adopting the city standards, citizens’ participation in city development will increase and everyone will be able to monitor standard requirements. In the medium term, city culture is expected to foster and violations of laws and standards will reduce. It is expected that accidents and illnesses caused by adverse environmental conditions will decrease and access to social services will improve in the long term.
CAPITAL CITY TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY
