The Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy yesterday discussed the ways in which a Chinese loan of USD500 million, to be received under an agreement between the Ministry of Finance of Mongolia and the Export and Import Bank of China, is to be used. The present proposal is to spend USD200 million of the money on agriculture and the remaining USD300 million on health, education and infrastructure. In infrastructure, USD255 million is planned to be used to build bridges over railroads at some places in Ulaanbaatar.

Noting that the National Security Ideology stresses the need to ensure that loans from any country should not make Mongolia dependent on it, S.Oyun asked what percentage of the country’s total foreign debt would now be held by China. Former Premier S.Bayar had asked China for USD300 million at the start of the economic crisis, but there was no progress on his request. The present loan is for an even larger amount. Total foreign debt now stands at 20% of the GDP of Mongolia.