The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a USD21-million loan to support Mongolia’s roll-out of its COVID-19 vaccine delivery plan. The project is under the AIIB’s COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF) and will provide the Government of Mongolia with immediate financing support to purchase safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19, contributing to the containment of the pandemic in the country and supporting its economic and social recovery.

Due to the severe and widespread economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mongolian economy contracted by 5.3 percent in 2020, a drop of 10.5 percentage points compared to 2019, its worst contraction since the early 1990s. At the start of 2020 after the COVID-19 broke out, Mongolia responded quickly to manage the spread of the disease. However, community transmission emerged in November 2020, straining the health system’s capacity. Vulnerable groups, especially women, who comprise 82 percent of frontline healthcare workers in Mongolia, have a higher risk of exposure and have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic. Under the project plan, high-risk groups including women will be prioritized to access to eligible COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, healthcare and nonhealthcare employees will also benefit from the training programs provided under the project.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted chronic underinvestment in health infrastructure and the importance of continued investment in and modernization of health systems to better respond to global pandemics. The challenges of vaccine delivery can only be addressed by swift and accelerated collective actions to increase vaccine availability and speed up vaccine roll out, particularly in developing states.

Cofinanced with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Support for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery in Mongolia Project will procure vaccines through the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX). The project will contribute to the government’s efforts to immunize priority populations as defined under Mongolia’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan. By supporting the government in direct procurement of APVAX-eligible vaccines from manufacturers as well as with international logistics to Mongolia, the project will contribute to achieving the goal of Mongolia’s national plan to vaccinate 60 percent of the population.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in public health systems across the world and hastened AIIB’s engagement in the health sector due to the need to develop sustainable and resilient health infrastructure, which constitutes the backbone of global health security. By cofinancing with ADB, we embrace international collaboration to deploy solutions for global challenges,” said AIIB Director General of Social Infrastructure Department, Kim Hun, “This project aligns with AIIB’s commitment to supporting its members' response to the COVID-19 crisis. By facilitating vaccine roll out projects, we are strengthening AIIB’s capacity to deliver high-quality social infrastructure projects as part of our mission to finance Infrastructure for Tomorrow.”

Prior to 2020, AIIB approved a loan of USD100 million to Mongolia to support its COVID-19 Rapid Response Program, which aims to mitigate the adverse health, social and economic impacts caused by the pandemic and to alleviate poverty. To date, the total financing approved under AIIB’s CRF for Mongolia has reached USD121 million.

Additional information about this project can be found on AIIB’s website. Perspectives on how to improve multilateral cooperation on access to vaccines are also available on the AIIB Blog.

About AIIB

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank whose mission is financing the Infrastructure for Tomorrow—infrastructure with sustainability at its core. We began operations in Beijing in January 2016 and have since grown to 103 approved members worldwide. We are capitalized at USD100 billion and Triple-A-rated by the major international credit rating agencies. Working with partners, AIIB meets clients’ needs by unlocking new capital and investing in infrastructure that is green, technology-enabled and promotes regional connectivity.