Ulaanbaatar
Minister of Culture Emphasizes Increased Budget for COP17
Politics
Ulaanbaatar,
September 24, 2025 /MONTSAME/. The Standing Committee on
Budget of the State Great Khural (Parliament) discussed the "2026 Budget Draft
for the Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth Sectors."
The Chairman
of the Standing Budget Committee, Gankhuyag Khassuuri, introduced that the Parliament
has amended the relevant law and now adopts the next year’s budget after five
stages of discussion, noting the public discussion on the budget draft. During
the budget discussion, Minister of Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth, Undram
Chinbat, explained how the sector’s 2026 budget draft was developed along with the
Ministry’s policies and principles. Undram Chinbat emphasized the policy of
cultural soft power, partnership, innovation, and economic integration, noting
the Ministry’s efforts to foster Mongolian pride and support youth leadership
and entrepreneurship. Moreover, Undram Chinbat stated that cultural heritage
management, physical education, sports, national, classical, and contemporary
art forms will be developed through modernization, technology, and innovation,
and opportunities to compete at an international level will be supported.
Minister
Undram delivered a detailed presentation on the ongoing strategically
prioritized work, aimed at increasing the economic and creative capacities of the
creative production and tourism industries and improving the sector’s human resource
development and competitiveness. According to the Minister, there are 6,994
employees and civil servants in 485 organizations across the sector, and MNT 225.6
billion has been budgeted for the 2026 salary budget. It is estimated that MNT 331.2
billion will be allocated to current expenses and MNT 169.4 billion to
investments. Specifically, 35 cultural projects worth MNT 122.0 billion, 24 sports
projects worth MNT 42.7 billion, and three tourism projects amounting to MNT 4.6
billion were included.
Additionally, the need for sanitation facilities in addition to renovation work was mentioned due to the age of the sector’s buildings and facilities across the country. The amendment to the current budget submitted to Parliament increased the costs of COP17 and the “Blue Pearl” event, and due to the decrease in staffing, expenditures such as the salary fund, retirement benefits, government subsidies for the tourism sector, youth sector budget, and policy measure costs were reduced. Following the presentation, participants engaged in discussion, sharing positions and addressing urgent issues within the sector, including budget allocations for various measures.
