AUSTRIA TO GIVE SOFT LOAN

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Finance S.Bayartsogt and the Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary of Austria to China Mr. Martin Sajdik signed on Monday an agreement on financial cooperation to be established between the governments of Mongolia and the Republic of Austria. In frames of the agreement, Austria's government will grant soft-loan of up to EUR 40 million to Mongolia for two years. The money will go to the fields of infrastructure, local water supply, sanitation, traffic safety, railway, education, vocational training, health, social welfare and others. In the year 1991, when Mongolia officially asked Austria to include it to the list of nations who receive developmental assistance and loans, the Austrian government postponed the request because of limited capital and of impossibility of developing economic activities in Asia. At the 4th Mongolia-Austria intergovernmental meeting held last year, the government of Austria agreed to finance certain projects in Mongolia with soft loans. This is the very first contract to be created between the governments of Mongolia and Austria. B.Khuder