The Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Science, and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor jointly organized a high-level meeting about reducing poverty on Wednesday. The meeting was held in the Government House.

Participants noted that the state’s welfare policy should support employment programs but not cash allowances. Employment improves a citizen’s standard of living and reduces poverty, they said.

According to the National Statistics Committee, 39.2 percent of Mongolia’s population was poor in 2010.

The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor also noted that even citizens who work are not immune to poverty. This means that even employed citizens may need state assistance. That is why some MPs say more attention needs to be paid to the working poor in the draft welfare law now under discussion in Parliament.

MP D.Dondog said some elderly citizens are unable to get their motherland allowance in local settlements. Also some poor families were unable to get gers from the Welfare Fund, which grants ger to poor families. He noted that managing officials in soums have not granted state loans to some poor citizens because they have no collateral.

MP P.Altangerel said countryside residents are impoverished. According to the National Statistics Committee, 47.8 percent of countryside residents were poor in 2010, while 32.8 percent of Ulaanbaatar residents were poor. He added that the salaries of agriculture workers are small, which is one reason countryside citizens are poor.