Standing committee on foreign policy meets

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its meeting on Tuesday, the parliamentary Standing committee on discussed an additional draft agreement to be established between the government of Mongolia and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for a project on constructing international airport in Ulaanbaatar. A majority of the committee backed this agreement. In 2008, Mongolia took a loan of JPY 28.8 billion (about USD 245 million at currency rate of that time) from Japan to build this international airport. For the time being, its construction is being financed by the loan. A contract was established between the sides in April of 2013 to resolve the additional financing. It means that the contract is established with a financing that exceeded the predicted budget because of a delay in the construction and price soar of construction materials. Thus the additional agreement will reflect USD 300 million. A total cost of the airport is USD 560 million. The airport is supposed to be put into use in 2017 within the estimated budget. As of present, 27 of the construction has been completed. The loan from Japan will be paid off in 40 years with the interest of four percent.