Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ With financing of the European Union, “Industry of the Future” blended training center and “Textile - Knitwear Finishing Incubator Center” opened yesterday, on June 3. The centers are established within “Support to Employment Creation in Mongolia (SECiM 2) Project” jointly running by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry of Mongolia (MOFALI).

With the aims of empowering human resources of light industry sector, introducing international practices and increasing value of agricultural products, the training centers are relying on Armono, Research, Testing, Production and Business Corporation of Light Industry and Research and Development Institute of Light Industry.

At the opening ceremony of the centers, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ch.Ulaan emphasized the significance of  state policy and training of skilled personnel for development of agriculture and light industry, which are pillar sectors of economy of Mongolia, and raise value of labor of herders and manufacturers.

Minister Ch.Ulaan continued, “Even though the food, agriculture and light industry sector, which makes up 55 percent of total employees of Mongolia and covers over 70 percent of the territory, especially leather and cashmere sector have abundant potential, we have been unable to fully use it. Raising value of hard labor of herders is one of the pressing issues of the sector. Mongolia puts 20 million livestock into economic circulation a year. It means 20 million pieces of skin and leather, 20 thousand tons of wool and around 10 thousand tons of cashmere come from it and we have the potential for processing these precious raw materials, producing final products and supplying to the market. Therefore, establishing Scientific Research and Training Center of Light Industry at the ministry has significant importance to train its personnel and increase manufacturing of science and innovation-based products.”

Ambassador of the European Union to Mongolia Traian Laurentiu said that in March 2018, together with UNIDO we launched the EU funded SECiM Project. It has achieved substantial results such as transferring international technology and knowledge complementing national expertise, improving quality of raw materials and products. I would like to emphasize the opening of the Industry of Future blended training center as one of the examples of institutionalizing e-learning programs, which have been developed and introduced by UNIDO for building capacity of the sector. Just last week, we signed with the Minister of Finance, the Financing Agreement for the Direct Budget Support Programme. The EU granted Mongolia over 50 million euros to support the employment. 43 million euros will be direct transfer to state budget and 7.8 million euros will be for a technical assistance project. The Secim 2 UNIDO and FAO projects will continue its good lessons learnt in this four year. Technical Assistance project to be delivered together by the United Nations agencies. The objective of this technical assistance is to continue our support to the Mongolian SMEs and businesses in creating more sustainable jobs by focusing on youth employment and TVET capacity building for youth.