NATIONAL COMMITTEE ESTABLISHED TO PLAN URBANIZATION

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A Cabinet meeting last Saturday established a national committee responsible for policy development on matters regarding decentralization and small and medium town support, and forming of new settlement areas. Urbanization in Mongolia has developed sharply since the second half of the last century and the percentage of people in urban areas from the total population has been increasing. According to the census conducted in 2010, two of every three citizens in Mongolia live in urban areas. Around 44.0% of the total population of Mongolia lived in urban areas in 1969. However, this number increased to 67.9% in 2010. This increase of population of the urban areas of Mongolia within the last decade is approximate to the population increase in 30 years before this decade, says a survey. Migration in Mongolia, like in most countries of the world, is a survival strategy. Migration is not a new strategy in Mongolia – it now takes a new form to face new challenges, and is led by individuals' and families' choices, not by the state's plans. In recent years, Mongolia has experienced as continued rural to urban migration flows, particular to Ulaanbaatar, in search of better life. The newly-founded committee is to be responsible for plan development for restrain migration to big cities, in particular to Ulaanbaatar and decentralization of large urban areas by supporting medium and small sized towns and urban places, as over the last decade, Mongolians have rapidly begun to concentrate here in its capital, as well as other cities.