REACH PROJECT CREATES 611 JOBS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ More than 600 jobs have been created by Reach, a joint project by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Development Solutions NGO, which wrapped up on April 12. Specifically, the Reach project created 611 jobs in duration of its effective period of two years. In addition, more than 7600 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the country were involved in the training and 747 SMEs were helped to qualify for loans worth MNT68 billion. At the project closing ceremony on April 12, representatives from the USAID, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, the Bank of Mongolia, Credit Guarantee Fund of Mongolia, international development organizations, commercial banks and SMEs introduced their review on the project’s achievement and outcome to the socio-economy. “We are very grateful to valuable contributions of the USAID for improving access to credits for SMEs through the project in the past two years. The project assisted hundreds of SMEs to find appropriate financial products for their specific needs and helped them qualify for loans. Moreover, commercial banks started paying more attention on facilitating requirements and conditions for SMEs to get loans,” said E.Bat-Orshikh, executive director of ‘Development Solutions’ NGO. The project implementors highlighted that the most effective way to reduce unemployment is to promote SMEs and the project implementation gave a positive impact on making loan and loan collateral systems more accessible to SMEs. M.Unurzul