Posted on 4/6/2009

As a result of FY08 budget cuts, USAID Mongolia in March 2009 saw four long running and very successful activities come to their planned end.  This included the Gobi Initiative, Growing Entrepreneurs Rapidly (GER), Judicial Reform and the Mongolian Election and Parliamentary Support Projects.  Fortunately, Gobi and GER type activities will be continued with the same geographic focus under the umbrella of the USDA’s ongoing Rural Agribusiness Support Project (RASP) and its new Mongolian Agribusiness Service Projects (MASP).  Both projects are being funded by local currency generated by the import and monetization of wheat provided by the USDA’s FY08 Food for Progress (FfP) Program in Mongolia.

Now and for the foreseeable future, USAID will continue to focus on economic growth and, to a lesser extent, good governance.  The focus on economic growth will be through USAID’s Economic Policy Reform and Competitiveness (EPRC) project.  EPRC will continue to support economic and trade policy reform, financial sector reform, energy sector reform, and consensus-building and national dialogue.  This includes a new effort to help Mongolia develop a national consensus on how best to sustainably profit from the country’s minerals resources.   USAID work in democracy and governance will continue to focus on anti-corruption, but if additional resources become available in the near or mid term a new activity to improve the ability of the judiciary to adjudicate commercial and anti-corruption cases will be considered.   

USAID Mongolia welcomes a new employee, Mr. Tuguldur Baavai, to its ranks.  Mr. Baavai fills the FSN Development Assistance Specialist (economist) position vacated by Ms. Oyuna Tseveen in January 2009.  Lastly, the USAID Mongolia Representative, Barry Primm, will be departing Ulaanbaatar early May for his next posting as one of USAID Pakistan’s Deputy Directors.