Government approves new roads plan

The Government approved a new roads plan at yesterday’s meeting of the Cabinet. Under the plan, more than 6,000 km of roads would be improved or built new. A priority would be roads that connect Ulaanbaatar to the centers of aimags and to border towns. The project is to be financed by the government, subsidies from international organizations, and loans. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed this year, with final completion set for 2016. One potential problem, however, is the lack of qualified workers. A survey finds that Mongolia has only about 500 qualified road engineers and about 5,000 skilled workers for road construction projects.