The Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy approved
on December 28 the terms of Mongolia borrowing USD12 million from the International
Development Association (IDA) for the program “Development Policy Financing-2”.
However, the members instructed the Government to spend less on trainings and
seminars.

Mongolia has already been granted from the World Bank USD60
million, from the Asian Development Bank USD60 million and from the Japanese
Government USD50 million to meet its budget deficit, as part of the Stand By
program, following an agreement with the International Monetary Fund in March,
2009. USD40 million from the World Bank and a similar amount from the Asian
Development Bank, together with USD30 million from the Japanese Government  was spent in 2009. The remaining USD60 million
will be available if Mongolia satisfies conditions.

The World Bank has allocated USD30 million every year for
the three years from 2009 to 2011, while its Special Fund for Anti Economic
Crisis has allocated an additional USD26 million to support policy reforms in
2009 and 2010. USD10 million has been allocated to the Development Policy
Financing and USD12 million to the Project on Multi Spheres Technical Aid. So the
second stage of the program Development Policy Financing has increased from
USD20 million to USD30 million.

During the discussion in the Standing Committee, Z.Enkhbold opposed
spending USD30 million of the loan amount on training and seminars, saying “poverty
is not reduced by hand-out of manuals”. Instead, he wanted the money to be
allocated to other areas. Minister of Finance S.Bayartsogt said the IDA will
have to be informed of any change in the ways in which the money will be spent.

Enkhbold also criticized the way the Government has spent
money on human resource development. Many employees have left their Government
jobs after attending the training. Enkhbold said the Ministry of Social Welfare
and Labor and the Mongol Bank should try to recruit skilled workers so that so
much does not have to be spent on training them. He also wanted the Government
to provide figures for all such human resources development expenditure in the
last two decades as part of domestic- and foreign-funded projects, but Minister
Bayartsogt said such extensive data collection would take time and he would submit
the report only in the next session of Parliament.