U.Bolortuya, 11th grade student of laboratory 1st school, Gobi-altai province

I am pleased to have successfully participated in the “If I Were the Minister of Finance” essay contest organized as part of the “BUDGET YOUR FUTURE” campaign.

This school year, I have set a goal to take part in many challenging competitions. When I first saw the announcement of the essay contest on ‘Posted by Unread’ especially the essay topic the slight fear that captured my mind was I couldn’t make it. The reason is, I did know the terms Minister of Finance and the state budget, but I did not know the exact meaning. In other words, I recognize the Minister of Finance when I see him, but I did not know the work and responsibilities of the Minister of Finance.  So, I decided to conduct research on the topic and wrote my essay little by little, from the day competition was announced. Initially, I had no knowledge of the budget, over the course of my little research I got to know that behind the one concept, “state budget”, there were many unfamiliar concepts such as state budget revenue, expenditure, balance, deficit, and surplus. And these beads of the learning process have continued to expand to my parents' salary, my grandparents' pension, my child allowance, my school, and even my dormitory lead me to write an essay “If I Were the Minister of Finance”. 

During my essay writing, the most useful resource was the CITIZEN BUDGET website. If it weren't for the website and the CITIZEN BUDGET 2021 compilation, I would have spent a lot of time unraveling the knot between the many things that float, such as taxes, the state budget, roads and bridges, and the social insurance fund. If it weren't for the website and the Citizen budget 2021 booklet, I would have spent a lot of time unraveling the knot between the many things such as taxes, the state budget, roads and bridges, and the social insurance fund. In particular, the Citizen budget 2021 booklet was easy to understand and had a lot of pictures and illustrations, which gave me the advantage of getting all information that I needed in a few minutes and without getting bored. I thought that high school social studies teachers should assign homework to find information about the budget from that booklet or otherwise use it in their lessons could be an effective way to spread the knowledge about the budget and the value of the book.

Most parents are less concerned about climate change and global warming than they are about their family's income and expenses. Similarly, when parents talk to their children about their future careers and studies, they do not talk about social issues or the development that can be done in the country because they think that we are small. But it seems to create a generation that talks a lot about personal issues and dreams, not for country issues, and dreams. The essay contest asked me the question, 'What would you do if you were the Minister of Finance? Bolortuya?' gave me an opportunity to think outside the box and listen to my thoughts on country issues and development. After a long time without being asked what I wanted to say or talk about, by participating in this contest I had the wonderful feeling of expressing my opinion to someone and, most importantly, of being heard by others.

When I finished writing my essay, I realized that the state budget is not just tax money and state money it is the PLAN FOR THE COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT.

Strengthening Fiscal and Financial Stability Project, Room 205 United Nations Street 8/2 4th khoroo Chingeltei district Ulaanbaatar-15160 Mongolia
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