The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help upgrade Mongolia's customs system to improve efficiency, transparency, and sustainability in customs services and administration through a five million U.S. dollars equivalent project loan, an ADB report said on Monday.

The loan will upgrade the customs system to an internet-based technology and integrate it into a national system for e- government, said the report.

It will also finance the improvement of the facilities at selected major customs houses and border posts.

The report said the project is a response to the recent accession of Mongolia to the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures and the forthcoming enactment of a new Customs Law in Mongolia. It will also support the Government's recent initiative toward e- government and its effort to gear up the fight against corruption.

Mongolia is a link for transit trade between China and Russia. Foreign trade plays an important part in Mongolia's economy, with turnover reaching 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2005.

The current customs system is operated manually and intensive labor. Human intervention in this process causes delays in customs clearance and is vulnerable to corrupt practices. It leads to lack of transparency and to unpredictability.

Source: Xinhua