Ch.Saikhanbileg’s government has created a Ministry of Health and Sports and appointed G.Shiilegdamba, the general secretary of Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MRPP), as its minister. Regardless of the minister’s political party affiliation, Mongolians expect him to set aside his personal interests and fully fulfill his duties and responsibilities so that the outcome benefits every family. If sports are to be linked to another area, health would be the most rational. That is why many other countries have the same ministry.
The ministry, which integrated health and sports for the first time in our history, is expected to define its mission and strategic objectives in accordance with the law of Mongolia on the legal status of ministries, and commence their work as soon as having their operational plans and budgets approved. Let us hope that they already have a mission and a plan to be pursued in the health area for it has a long history, but does not boast good outcomes.
This ministry would not have needed to conduct too many activities aimed at health if Mongolians had the opportunity to do sports without depending on seasonal conditions and embedded active exercise into our lifestyle. Unfortunately, there is still a long way before Mongolians adopted such behavior to the same extent as developed countries.
WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT TO STAY HEALTHY?
To start with, maintaining physical and mental health is your own responsibility. If everyone is aware of how to protect them from health risks and have an active lifestyle, it has a wide range of benefits. A survey says that 9 out of 10 deceased adults in Mongolia lost their lives to incommunicable diseases and accidents. It is like a silent plague. It can be said that the causes of the plague are excessive use of tobacco and alcohol, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise. According to a study completed by the World Health Organization, Mongolia is one of the ten countries that use the greatest amount of tobacco. It also states that one out of four Mongolians up to 20 years old regularly smokes and three out of four people have used alcohol.
Half of our population do not exercise routinely, but consume only half the amount of fruits and vegetable recommended by the World Health Organization, and excessively use salt and animal fat in their diet. As a result, 40 percent of total population with an age of 15-64 are obese while half of the younger people are not able to meet the physical requirements for army enlistment. Young people who are 25-29 years old comprise the largest percentage in the total number of people who have been in an accident. Men have been injured in an accident 2.2 times more than women did. This is how the people descending from the brave conqueror Chinggis and his men look like today.
WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING?
The government is increasing its investment into physical health and sports every year. Mongolia currently has 485 high school gymnasiums, 11 sports halls, 539 outdoor training grounds, 25 stadiums, 311 naadam grounds, 5 ski resorts and 85 fitness centers. There are a total of 1,534 trainers, 62 full-time fitness practitioners, and 728 non-full-time practitioners working in those facilities. In the last two years, Ulaanbaatar’s three districts and several aimags built new sports halls where as Khentii and Khovd aimags constructed a center for water sports. On top of that, a new sports complex was built in Buyant-Ukhaa with 160 million yuan (30 million USD), which was an aid from China.
Despite the new sports facilities, only one-third of our total population exercise regularly and 6.7 percent do sports. Sixty percent of our population live in urban settlements and 70 percent is comprised by people under 35 years old. If Mongolia’s total volume of water in swimming pools is compared to the population, the volume of pool water per person equals the volume of a matchbox. Ulaanbaatar has 90 percent of fitness centers/gyms in Mongolia and they charge a monthly fee of more than 200,000 tugrugs. Such fees cost more than half of monthly income of most people, which puts a limitation on those who want to do exercise. The availability of sports centers in Mongolia is significantly lower than that of other developing countries.
The World health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. One of the biggest health factors is insufficient exercise. Exercising reduces risks of major health problems such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
WHAT MUST BE DONE?
The government should develop a policy on physical health and sports, pass it as a law, set out clear objectives tied with timelines, measure their implementation, and ensure effective collaboration between relevant parties.
Organizations need to encourage their employees to do more exercise and exclude relevant costs from taxes. It is time to have the social insurance fund to support public health organizations that implement health objectives to promote regular exercise.
It would be a good step to accept the proposal to establish a fund to support public health. The fund would be financed by certain percentages of different taxes and fees such as import tax related to alcohol, tobacco, and medications, penalty fees for breaking laws related to public health and sports, or business permits for sports lotteries or betting games. Furthermore, it would be fair if a certain percentage of prizes and high salaries given to those who became world champions or Olympic champions to go into this fund. Some countries give money to young people who are coming to a gym to exercise rather than charge fees.
There is a big opportunity for Mongolia to develop winter sports, especially alpine skiing and ski marathon. The Sky Resorts example shows us that there is a great possibility for us to build an ice-skating resort along with hotels, restaurants, and saunas, and use it as a golf resort in the summer to attract both domestic and foreign clients. No one is stopping us to seize this opportunity in aimags located in Khangai region and develop tourism. It should be noted that people in Northeast Asia are holding their money in their hands ready to go there.
May the new ministry make substantial contributions to creating a healthy lifestyle that people want to do regular exercise and sports, and have the required conditions to do so.
2014.12.17