MEETING WITH VICTORIA KWAKWA, WORLD BANK VICE PRESIDENT FOR EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga received Victoria Kwakwa, Vice President for East Asia and Pacific of the World Bank, and Andrei Mikhnev, Country Director for Mongolia, today.
According to a study jointly taken by the National Statistics Office of Mongolia and the World Bank, poverty rate in Mongolia stands at 28.4 percent, and the sides agreed that it indicates a relatively high level of poverty and represents a lack of inclusion in the economic growth.
President Battulga expressed his view saying that “Over the last few years, we have made considerable progress in terms of developing infrastructure and boosting road transport and electricity supply in not only Ulaanbaatar, but the provinces as well, and it has contributed to slowing down internal migration and expediting rural development. But the implementation of large-scale projects that will increase herding household income will reduce poverty levels more effectively,” and gave in-depth information on certain projects and programs to Ms. Kwakwa.
For her part, Vice President Kwakwa expressed the World Bank’s interest in the fact that there are completed feasibility studies for projects aiming to process and export products such as meat, leather, and wool and cashmere, which are the income sources of more than 180 thousand herding households, and that a trial export of certain products has already been launched. The Vice President then instructed Country Director Mikhnev to gain familiarity with the projects, while expressing willingness to work towards coordination of these projects with ongoing projects and discuss and support some regional projects with corresponding World Bank directors.
At the end of the meeting, the sides expressed mutual appreciation of the opportunity for holding a detailed discussion at the time when the World Bank is determining the scope of its partnership with Mongolia in 2020-2024 and negotiating the terms of bilateral strategic document and affirmed mutual commitment to implementing the above-mentioned projects that aim to reduce poverty levels and promote the development of non-mining sectors.