VICE SPEAKER RECEIVES EBRD AND UN DELEGATIONS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has granted long-term investments and financing of USD 522 million to private companies of Mongolia since Mongolia became an action country of the EBRD in 2006. It was said by Varel Freeman, the EBRD First Vice President, at a meeting on Tuesday with S.Bayartsogt, a Vice Speaker of the State Great Khural. Mentioning that the EBRD opened this year its permanent representative office in Ulaanbaatar, Mr Freeman reported 45 projects have been implemented by the bank in the fields of mining, renewable energy, agro-business, cashmere, retail trade and finance. He also said the EBRD is ready to discuss with the newly formed cabinet of Mongolia an issue of granting a soft-loan of USD 18.3 million for improving the water supply infrastructure of Dalanzadgad and Sainshand soums. Apart of Mr Freeman, the EBRD visiting group comprises Olivier Descamps, a Managing Director for TEECCA; Masaru Honma, Director for Central Asia; Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Deputy Chief Economist; Alexander Plekhanov, Senior Economist; Mahir Babayev, Senior Political Counselor; and Jeff Jeter, Senior Environmental and Sustainability Adviser. ** ** ** The same day, the Vice Speaker S.Bayartsogt received a delegation headed by Dr. Margaret Jungk, a director of the Human Rights & Business Department at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. The UN Working Group on business and human rights was established by the UN Human Rights Council on 17 June 2011, with members appointed on 30 September 2011. Working Group members formally commenced their roles on 1 November 2011. Following in the pioneering footsteps of former UN Special Representative on business and human rights (SRSG), Harvard University Professor John Ruggie, the new 'Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises' is vested with a 3-year global mandate to implement and disseminate the United Nations Guiding Principles on business and human rights, as endorsed unanimously in June 2011 by the Human Rights Council. As one of five members of the UN Working Group, Dr. Jungk devotes her time to promoting the effective and comprehensive dissemination and implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights, including by identifying and promoting good practices for the management of human rights by companies, and by advising governments on the development of domestic legislation and policies relating to business and human rights. B.Khuder