SOUTH KOREA GIVES SOFT-LOAN FOR PROJECT

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ An intergovernmental agreement has been established between the governments of Mongolia and the Republic of Korea on granting a soft-loan of USD 300 million from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund of Korea (EDCF). This agreement was signed on Friday by S.Bayartsogt, the Minister of Finance, and by Jong IL, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Mongolia. Founded in 1987 EDCF has been granting loans to Mongolia since 1993. Between 1993 and 2007, the fund gave loans of over USD 60 million to implement projects in communications, health, energy and transportation sectors. The government of Mongolia plans to exploit the money of USD 300 million for creating healthy living environment and for reducing air pollution. In frames of this policy, the government requested the South Korean government to realize a project on establishing the national center of diagnosis and treatment in the first turn, and then has launched related talks. The governments of the two countries will tackle the financial matter for other projects with the loans until 2015. In accordance with the bilateral agreement, the interest rate is 0.5 per cent and the payback period is 35 years. By the way, the government of South Korea has expressed its willingness to grant finance to projects on renewable energy in conjunction with realization of the policy for supporting “Green growth”. B.Khuder