Press Release

Development Bank of Mongolia to integrate sustainable financing into its operations

07 May 2021

Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia needs a significant amount of financial resources to meet its nationalized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the financing gap has further widened due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the systemic changes needed to address this gap, integrating sustainable financing principles to the Development Bank of Mongolia (DBM) operation is a vital component as the bank is an instrumental force for driving the country’s development.

Caption: Ulaanbaatar

Photo: © UNDP Mongolia

Today, capacity building workshop was organised on the integration of sustainable financing principles into the DBM operations within the UN Joint Programme (JP), implemented with the Ministry of Finance under the sponsorship of the UN Joint SDG Fund.

The JP provided technical assistance to DBM to develop recommendations and action plan on the integration of sustainable financing principles into their operations. The draft lending policy and guidelines, risk assessment tools and templates have also been developed with the DBM cooperation, which will serve as the basis for introducing sustainability principles into their operations.

DBM has an important and unique role due to its size and importance in the Mongolian financial landscape. Therefore, DBM has the responsibility and the opportunity to create a positive impact with sustainable finance while reducing negative impacts by applying sustainability criteria in its lending activities. Enhancing DBM’s sustainability performance will further broaden the investor universe, increase access to liquidity and positively impact DBM’s reputation.

Ms. Munkhsukh N., CEO of DBM, expressed her commitment and support in developing DBM as a sustainable bank and continue cooperation in sustainable financing.

‘The integration of sustainable financing principles into the DBM operations has a significant role in shifting the weight of the overall financing landscape towards sustainability. Therefore, it will play a critical role in the implementation of the integrated national financing strategy for sustainable development over the coming years and facilitating Mongolia’s achievement of the SDGs’ said UNDP Resident Representative Elaine Conkievich in her opening remarks.

The consultants’ report will be published in June 2021 for public dissemination.