NALAS will implement a project in Mongolia “model city for urban sustainability and livability” supported by the European Commission

NALAS will play a key role in the implementation of a project in Darkhan City (Mongolia), selected by the European Commission DG-INTPA for the 2021 call “Local Authorities: Partnerships for sustainable cities”. The project is foreseen for 36 months for a total budget of €3,000,000.

Darkhan is “the City of Youth and Friendship” which was established by volunteers from different places of Mongolia in 1961. In 2012, the government identified Darkhan to become a national model city for urban sustainability and livability, with a vision of becoming a “smart and green city” by 2028.

A large industrial complex, built in the late 1960s with Soviet and eastern European aid, makes Darkhan the second largest industrial centre in Mongolia. The Government of Mongolia is working to decentralize and mitigate migration to its capital Ulaanbaatar where almost 50% of the population lives and develop Darkhan-Uul province as a second-tier city in order to ensure the regional development of Mongolia. Currently, the population is at 107,000 and has grown by 12,400 over the past decade with estimates to reach 130,000 by 2035.

The results expected to be achieved with this project entitled “FRIENDSHIP-Strengthening EU-Mongolia Friendship through Equitable, Resilient and Innovative Growth in Darkhan City” are:

• Improved institutional, financial and administrative capacities of Darkhan city/province through better governance and technical exchanges
• Better engagement, coordination and cooperation between city officials and marginalised citizens help resolve and implement infrastructure services in an equitable manner
• Increase in the number of entrepreneurships, employment opportunities and digital transition
• Improved inclusive public policies, engagement, better governance, green and smart pilots, with improvement of the quality, delivery and equitable access to basic services and infrastructure.

(Picture from mongolia-guide.com)