PM requests JBIC to continue cooperation

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On the sidelines of the working visit to Japan, the Prime Minister Ch.Saikhanbileg received the senior managing director and COO of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Mr Koichi Yajima on February 9. Mr Saikhanbileg said a significant contribution of the Japanese aids and support to deepening of the democracy and reconstruction in Mongolia and establishing the basis of the modern development is highly valued by the Government and the people of Mongolia. The economic relations and cooperation of the two countries have been running in a form of one-sided flow of aid and credits, so Mongolia is interested in increasing the trade and investment volumes and in forming mutually beneficial cooperation, said the PM. In this, a role of the two countries' private sectors and of the JBIC are of high importance, he stressed. He noted that he intends to ink the "Mongolia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement", concluding its negotiations that have run for three years, and expressed an interest to realize the Medium-Term Program for Mongolia-Japan strategic partnership, in particular, to intensify the cooperation in construction of railroads and power stations, erecting iron and steel smelting plants, building highways and subways. “It is considered of great value that Sumitomo Corporation of Japan is a part of the consortium selected as the strategic investor of Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit. Mongolia will pursue a direction to use Japan’s eco-friendly high tech approaches in the mining activities and to cooperate with and get support from Japan in production of value-added products,” he said. In response, Mr Yajima thanked the PM for intending to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement, noting that Mongolia and the JBIC started cooperating since June of 2013 by signing an agreement on establishing an export credit mechanism. In frames of the agreement, the Bank will promote the Mongolian importers purchasing Japan’s products and fund certain projects in Mongolia’s infrastructure, mining and industry. First allocation of the credit will be equal to eight billion JPY, he said and asked for a collaboration in mobilizing the objectives. If this experimental project is fruitful, the Bank will promote other programs, he added. The Premier Saikhanbileg said he supports the private sector which is going to utilize the capital of the first export credit, and requested the Bank to study possibilities of opening a new credit line for granting USD 300 million credit as the continuation of the project.