The Gobi Initiative Phase II Update
Mercy Corps International and PACT

SO1: PRIVATE SECTOR-LED ECONOMIC GROWTH
posted by Skip Waskin on Monday, March 27, 2005, 2:39AM

Capacity of Local Business Advisors Increased. Business plans have been finalized with all 170 herder clients. As a clear indication of the value of the project objective of enhanced local (provincial) capacity to provide business development/advisory services, all of the plans of MNT 3.0 million (approximately $1,600) or less were fully managed and approved by Aimag (province)-level staff.

Clients Apply for MNT 44.5 M in Loans. Sales during the month totaled MNT 30.1 million ($25,300) which included some of the stored products from 2005. A total of 16 herder groups/cooperatives applied for commercial loans totaling MNT 44.5 million ($37,400) to finance their business plans.

Dairy Workshops Held. In collaboration with the USDA-funded RASP Program, three workshops were conducted on dairy cattle nutrition and breeding management, advanced “aaruul” (curd) production, and, for milk market food safety testers, the latest practices for testing milk and dairy products.

Financial Recordkeeping Improved. In an effort to improve business financial recordkeeping and accountability, the project has developed a new business and financial records book. The design and content of the book were done in cooperation with both clients and local CPAs. The next step in the process will be to train at least one member of each cooperative on how to complete the book, maintain an accurate balance sheet, and prepare Government tax reports.

The Gobi Initiative Phase II Update
Mercy Corps International and PACT

SO1: PRIVATE SECTOR-LED ECONOMIC GROWTH
posted by Skip Waskin on Wednesday, March 1, 2005, 8:10PM

Planning Meeting Held: Gobi Initiative (GI) and The Rural Agribusiness Support Program (RASP, which is funded with sales proceeds from the USDA wheat program here) held a joint annual planning meeting on January 16-20. A total of 60 staff from the aimag and UB programs participated. The planning meeting provided an opportunity to review Year Two and the lessons learned, and to plan the program activities for Year Three. The meeting was an important team building and information sharing exercise for the staff.

Gobi Clients Project 2006 Sales Will be Over $1.2M: Business Plan Development for the 170 herder clients that will work with the program in 2006 continued for the month, with the majority being approved. The 170 herder clients are projecting CY2006 sales of MNT 1,465,977,410 ($1,221,647). The herders have developed business plans in the following areas:

Type of Business / # of Groups
Vegetable/crop production: 44
Dairy production: 35
Veterinary services: 25
Other - gas station/baked goods/shoe maker etc: 16
Meat production: 17
Felt products: 21
Tourism: 9
Animal breeding: 3
TOTAL: 170

Gobi Clients to Borrow up to $350,000 in 2006: Of the 170 herder clients, 151 will require commercial loans to implement their businesses. A total of MNT 420,245,500 ($350,200) in external financing is required to implement the business activities contained in the plans. Requested loan sizes range from a maximum of MNT 20 million for a cooperative that plans to expand its activities in the meat sector, to a minimum of MNT 500,000 for two cooperatives undertaking vegetable/fodder production. The average loan request is MNT 2.7 million.

New Template for Veterinary Business Plans Used: This month, 24 veterinary businesses were assisted with business plan development. A new business plan template, specific for veterinary service provision (drug inventory management, service fee creation) has been utilized. Most business plans are still in the process of revision, with anticipated completion and financial assistance by late February/early March in time for heavy spring veterinary service provision.

Additional Veterinary Staff Member Hired: A new program officer for veterinary and livestock businesses, Dr. N. Oyunbileg, was hired in the month. She will be primarily responsible for veterinary support and livestock business assistance. Her presence will help expand the program’s technical capacity to continue to support and work in the veterinary sector, which is a vital component of the Mongolian livestock industry.

RBN TV Programming Expands: Pact has negotiated the expansion of RBN's TV programs which will now also be broadcast on TV-9, an independent TV channel. Further discussions to agree on a schedule for RBN TV programs to be broadcast on MNTV will be held in February, after the new MNTV director is approved by the board of directors.

The Gobi Initiative Phase II Update
Mercy Corps International and PACT

SO1: PRIVATE SECTOR-LED ECONOMIC GROWTH
posted by Skip Waskin on Thursday, January 26, 2005, 4:17AM

Gobi clients generate over $1M in revenues. It has been another productive year for herders and business clients assisted by the Gobi Initiative. By the end of December, some 162 herder groups and cooperatives had successfully implemented their business plans with technical assistance and training provided by the project and the Mercy Corps loan guarantee fund. Total sales worth US$ 1,012,000 have been generated by these herder businesses.

Dairy production training held. In collaboration with the Mongolian/Japanese supported FAO Special Program for Food Security Project "Increasing Dairy Production and Supply in Mongolia", training on improving the quality of dairy production and milk processing was organized for 16 aimag-based local consultants that provide technical assistance to GI herder clients. The training was held in Ulaanbaatar on December 16-17, and provided technical and practical instruction on using modern equipment recently installed in the FAO supported Dairy Training Center.

Gobi clients receive nearly half million dollars in loans. A total of 200 GI clients, of which 178 are herders, received a loan under the project and used the funds to carry out their business plans in 2005. The total value of these loans exceeded US $474,000. These loans were partially guaranteed by Mercy Corps. An internal assessment of the loan guarantee program was conducted in December. The report and findings will be published in January 2006.

GI to support development of 250 business plans in 2006. GI staff worked hard this month on helping clients to develop their 2006 business plans. GI plans to assist over 170 herder clients and approximately 80 non-herder businesses in 2006. GI aimag-based program officers provided the initial technical assistance to the herder clients as they developed their business plans with UB-based program officers reviewing completed plans.

Training videos released. Rural Business News (RBN) finished the production of two training videos that will be used by the GI Aimag offices for training of GI clients: one business planning video and one video on how to cultivate and harvest vegetables in the Gobi region.