Speaker meets EBRD president

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Speaker of parliament Z.Enkhbold Monday received a visiting delegation led by Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The Speaker congratulated Mr Chakrabarti on being selected the EBRD president. He said Mongolia's economy has some temporary difficulties such as a decrease in foreign investments but "this does not mean that we are not able to form our budget." He said that he cannot agree with some view about a crisis in the Mongolian economy, "because some 35 thousand new jobs have been created at least". He went on that an upcoming irregular session of parliament will adopt a new law on foreign investment in the first turn. By the new law, the domestic and foreign investors will be protected equally and will enjoy equal rights, he underlined. "Fluctuations of currency rates, a decline in foreign investments and a budgetary difficulty are the main reasons of the temporary economic problem difficulty, the regarding the budget issues will be solved by clarifications," the Speaker said. In turn, Mr Chakrabarti said that the EBRD has been making investments in Mongolian private sector, agriculture, wool, cashmere productions and the small- and middle-sized productions, and asked the Speaker about the Oyu tolgoi investment and projectl. The EBRD has given Mongolia long-year direct investments and credit financing of one billion 150 million USD since Mongolia became the EBRD country of operations in 2006. In addition, 61 projects have been given financing from the EBRD in the mining procurement, renewable energy, agribusiness, cashmere, retail sales and financial sectors.