Ulaanbaatar, April 17, 2025 /MONTSAME/ Under the auspices of the Chairman of the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve, the Launching Ceremony of the “Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code” Program took place on April 16, 2025, at the State Palace of Mongolia. 

Opening the Ceremony, Speaker of the Parliament Amarbayasgalan noted that the international community is intensifying efforts to create a legal environment aimed at ensuring gender equality and that terms related to women-owned enterprises and women's small businesses are emerging in business practice and the legal environment. The Speaker remarked, “Mongolia adopted the Law on Ensuring Gender Equality in 2011 and has been paying attention to ensuring gender equality in every sector. A study conducted by the Institute of Market Training and Research of the University of Finance and Economics shows that the main challenges for women entrepreneurs include lack of collateral, weak financial education, limited business networks and markets, gender stereotypes, and lack of a favorable legal environment.” Speaker Amarbayasgalan expressed hope that the projects and programs, including “Women in Business” and “Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code,” being implemented by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will contribute to overcoming these difficulties.

President of the Bank of Mongolia Lkhagvasuren Byadran noted that as of last year, MNT 3.3 billion of loans were granted to female borrowers, which is 42.1 percent of total loans granted to small and medium-sized enterprises. Each borrower received, on average, MNT 66.4 million of loans at a weighted average interest rate of 17.1 percent. It means the loan size was 2 times lower and the interest rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than that of male borrowers. Therefore, there is a need to coordinate policies to increase women’s financial access at the national level.

The Bank of Mongolia and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Joining the “Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code” Program in September last year. By joining this program, Mongolia is considered the first country in the region to introduce this initiative.

“The Bank of Mongolia will act as the national coordinator of the program. We are working on formulating a roadmap and plans to coordinate the program with other policies and strategies. Moreover, we are collecting and analyzing data on women entrepreneurs and focusing on increasing financial access for women entrepreneurs.

Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Commission T. Jambaajamts noted that supporting women's entrepreneurship and improving financial access is not only a matter of reducing social inequality, but also an important strategic step towards economic growth and sustainable development. Providing equal opportunities for women to access financial services will enable them to develop their own businesses, create jobs, and spend their income on the education and health of their families and children, which is a vital factor in strengthening economic stability. In the future, he emphasized that the consistent implementation of policies and actions to increase financial access and support gender equality in Mongolia leads to not only the financial sector's growth but also the national development and progress of the entire country.

Member of Parliament A. Ariunzaya concurred with the position, saying that women's entrepreneurship not only supports themselves and their families financially, but also has a positive impact on the lives of employees working in the enterprise, their families, the social environment, and the country's economy. However, the current condition does not allow women to expand their businesses due to the lack of collateral, as in most cases, the property is registered in the husband's name, lack of communication with others who are in the same business. These difficulties should be eliminated through policies, and as many women as possible should start their own businesses.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s last year's report, one in 10 women worldwide started new businesses, which is twice as high as 20 years ago. In Mongolia, about 60 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises’ owners are women, and 87 percent of them are micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees. This indicates that women’s business participation is widespread, but that they still lack financing and market support to expand their activities, underscored the participants of the event.

O. Otgonjargal, the Founder of Sanjain Khishig LLC, shared her story of how she built his own business. Otgonjargal started her business 8 years ago. At that time, she borrowed MNT 5 million as a starting capital from a friend and then expanded her business by taking a bank loan. When Mrs. Otgonjargal approached a bank for the first time to get a loan with a bunch of documents, she was told that the documents were insufficient. Since then, she has taken out loans more than 20 times, and the last one was disbursed within five days. According to Mrs. Otgonjargal, the optimal and practical support for women entrepreneurs would be loans of various types, depending on the sector they are engaged in, long-term and low-interest.

The “Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code” Program is a multifaceted initiative to increase the economic opportunities and access to credit for women entrepreneurs. Currently, the Program is being implemented in more than 30 countries around the world, and Mongolia is one of the first countries in the Central Asian region to join the Program.