Vision 2050 is a long-term policy plan that focuses on a country’s growth by setting up milestones and windows of time to devote resources for specific projects. Multiple countries have a Vision 2050 policy, including Papua New Guinea, Lithuania, and India. Specifically, the policy generally involves making more eco-friendly use of resources, creating more ideal uses of social services, and reducing poverty significantly.

Mongolia’s Vision 2050 was first introduced as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. During 2020, Mongolia experienced an economic reduction of 10%, strikingly fast, unlike previous years. The lockdown on homes also revealed the vulnerability of citizens to poverty, with food insecurity, easy job loss, and a decrease in agricultural products. The policy has three phases: phase one from 2021 to 2030, phase two from 2031 to 2040, and finally from 2041 to 2050.

Mongolia’s Poverty Goals for 2050

Mongolia’s Vision 2050 has many objectives for different parts of the culture and government. For poverty specifically, Mongolia plans to reduce national poverty to 15% by 2030 and 5% by 2050. The first phase, 2021-2030, involves bolstering an economic environment that supports entrepreneurship, expanding the job market by moving many financially unstable citizens to the middle class, and providing at least 75% of herders and farmers with decent equipment and technology to support a stable business flow. On top of this, Mongolia plans to resolve any overdue external debt the government owes while maintaining a stable economy.

By resolving external debt, foreign trade and investment are stronger and less risky, which in turn helps create a steady stream of employment for citizens. If the country improves job opportunities, many Mongolian citizens could transition from poverty into the middle class. One of Mongolia’s Vision 2050 goals is to make the middle class a predominant economic group to encourage job creation and innovation.

The second and third phases, 2031-2050, will foster a competitive nature in business to keep cash flows going smoothly and to prompt innovation among citizens to improve the culture and economy. Alongside these goals is to improve credit ratings and increase national savings. In the last phase, 2041-2050, Mongolia hopes to make the middle class a predominant economic group. With many citizens transitioning to the middle class with a lucrative job environment and encouraging entrepreneurship, inflation should drastically decrease, while employment skyrockets. One of the most ambitious goals in this final stage of Mongolia’s Vision 2050 is to create at least one city completely free of poverty.

Strides in Progress

One of the fastest results that Mongolia’s Vision 2050 accomplished was improved air quality in 2020. This problem partly predated the implementation of Vision 2050, where in 2019, Mongolia’s Voluntary National Review raised the question of growing air pollution, and started taking steps to reduce it. However, thanks to the urgency and efforts of Mongolia’s Vision 2050, in 2020, Mongolia cut air pollution down by 40%.

Halfway through phase one, Mongolia’s Vision 2050 has already yielded some promising results for the rest of the policy plan. The creation of the E-Mongolia app is an e-government service that has been designed for public use. Essentially, the app allows citizens to look up vehicles and property for purchase in a given area. The app also allows citizens to look at personal medical records, prescriptions, and accurate data on floods. The app has made strides in making data, accessibility, and communication easier for citizens and political officials in Mongolia. In other words, the app has improved the quality of life through access and clarification while making political dealings faster and easier.

Value chains for livestock have also improved drastically from 2020 to 2025. Animal husbandry has experienced increases in quality, which has driven down price volatility in Mongolia, specifically for products like cashmere, meat and dairy. The economic potential for livestock bolstering is promising, with many more Mongolian politicians showing an interest in the sector in recent years, and continuing to pour resources and effort into the chain to create a stable pillar of economic income.

The Future

Mongolia’s Vision 2050 continues to work towards the ambitious goals of reducing national poverty to 5% and creating a poverty-free city by 2050. With the swift result of decreased air pollution, the growing focus on the farming economy, and the ease and quality of life improvement brought about by the E-Mongolia app, future success looks tangible and bright for Mongolia.

– Russell Bivins

Russell is based in Phoenix, AZ, USA and focuses on Good News for The Borgen Project.

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