Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished guests, and speakers.

First of all, Happy Mongolian New Year-The Year of the Dragon and I wish you Strong health, Success and Prosperity!

Secondly, A Happy International Women’s Day to all the women, who have gathered here this evening.

As you all know, Mongolia is becoming very popular now and is an eye-catching country. It has been this way since the first and biggest  “Chingess khaan” empire, which was the greatest Empire the world had ever known.   Today, I do not want to repeat those politician’s and business people’s words about Mongolia’s richness in mineral resources, the highest economic growth in the world of 17% that we made last year, or the 20th year celebration of true democracy we made, in comparison with our powerful neighbour countries – Russia and China.  I usually speak on those matters because of my work, with a career of 26 years devoted to the Central Bank of Mongolia and the people of my country.

But, today, I will talk on a completely different subject, about the woman’s role in Mongolian economic development, and especially on the women’s initiative in Europe.

The Association for the Development of Mongolian Women in Europe was established in early November 2011 and is made up of 9 enthusiastic and forward thinking ladies who are the Members of the Board. To my surprise, word has travelled quickly and we have heard in the last few months from many people who wish to be members of the Association.

I am very proud of Mongolian women and Mongolian history. We remember that Mrs. Sühbaataryn Yanjmaa was Head of State of Mongolia in the 1950s. I could name many more strong powerful Mongolian women and many of them are with us today.  I am inspired by these women’s initiative to devote their lives to Mongolia.

I would like to present “the Outstanding Woman Awards and Distinguished Contributor” Awards to two women  – Mrs. Marta Bira and Mrs. Azjargal Ulzii – on behalf of Mrs. Ouyankhorol, Member of the Parliament and All party Parliamentarian British Group in Mongolia, President of the Social Democracy-Mongolian Women’s Association.

I am honoured to present these awards. Let us applaud these women and wish them all the best and more success in their leadership, in their social work and their deeds.

Our members and women who are interested in our activities all come from different professional backgrounds, and they are already working or running their businesses in the UK in areas such as banking, law, media, public relations, as linguistic professionals, in creative design, music and art, beauty therapy and many more.

The Association has been formed with the aim of empowering Mongolian women at all levels of governmental, economic and social life; to promote the interests of Mongolian women and help them to succeed in business and in life. Also we aim to facilitate Mongolian women’s networking in Europe and to enhance recognition of Mongolian women’s success to European, British and Mongolian societies.

Our friends and families, volunteers, generous donors and supporters make these aims a reality and recognise the importance of the unity of Mongolian Women in Europe and across the world.

Since November 2011 we have been involved in a number of events that have been organised by The Mongolian Cultural Centre in London, The Mongolian British Chamber of Commerce and Social Democracy Mongolian Youth Union, to show our work and aims to the Mongolian people and our British and European allies. Using this opportunity, I would like to thank these organisations very much for their great support. This Association is not a gender related organisation. Its door is open to anyone who is willing to support Mongolian Women’s development and to share valuable skills and advice.

Today’s seminar is our first ever organised by the Association and I hope it will become an annual event.

When the Board Members were thinking about a project to run which would be beneficial to our fellow Mongolians back in our home country, we all agreed that vaccination of young girls aged between 10–14 years against cervical cancer is an essential matter in Mongolia. As a result we have contacted the Ministry of Health of Mongolia to get more detailed information.

The Population of Mongolia is approximately 2,7 million. Young people aged 10 -24 years of age account for more than half of the population. This shows that Mongolia is a young people’s country. Nearly one million people live in the capital city Ulaanbaatar and the rest live in the countryside and small towns.

The Mongolian fertility rate is approximately 2.6, compared to the other countries population growth and decline. This rate is belongs to the “stable population” category. The Fertility rate is, basically, the number of children that the average woman will have in her lifetime. If the average woman has exactly two children in her lifetime, this is just enough to replace herself and one man, and thus maintain the population (this source is from Pregnant Pause Organisation).

However among the female population, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer and it has become a major health concern in Mongolia.

Based on the above percentages we need to do something to protect the Mongolian population and we ought to protect the future Mongolian mothers. Mrs Tsolmon, Deputy Minister of Health of Mongolia has initiated a programme to vaccinate girls who are eligible in two provinces and two districts of the capital city, which would only cover approximately 10 per cent of the total eligible girls.

In order to cover the remaining 90 percent of the eligible girls we urge you to donate and support our and her work.

Our researches have found that “GlaxoSmithKline” and “Merck’s Gardasil” are the vaccine providers to the UK. Cervarix vaccination started in the UK in September 2008 for 12 – 13 year old girls. In the U.K doses of the vaccines are listed at £80.50 for Cervarix and £88.50 for Gardasil, respectively. However, the UK government switched to using Merck’s Gardasil because it is more effective than Cervarix.

So, our aim is to gather as much support from our friends and allies as possible to do our research and make the project work.  Furthermore we do not want to stop here, as we want to run a sister project to educate Mongolian girls and women to watch out for any early symptoms and seek medical help sooner than later.

I would like to give special thanks to Mr. Robin Marsh, Secretary General at the Universal Peace Federation, for providing to us this nice hall to organise our seminar, and to our distinguished guest speakers Elisabeth Crowther-Hunt, LVO, Chief Executive of Westminster Business Council and Madi Sharma, Member of the European Economic Social Committee, for their speeches.

Please allow me to open today’s seminar and I hope you will enjoy the rest of the evening.

Thank you very much for your attention and I am most grateful for your kind support in attending today’s event.

Enkhjargal Danzanbaljir

President and Co-Founder of ADMWE

 

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