Publication: Ulaanbaatar Financial Self-Assessment
Loading...
Published
2014-04-09
ISSN
Date
2014-09-10
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The note is part of a broader technical assistance program designed to assist the City of Ulaanbaatar (UB) to improve its financial management system, assess the quality of municipal services provision, and mobilize resources from the capital markets to fund urban infrastructure. The note reviews factors that may support or constrain the rating, ultimately impacting the UB's creditworthiness. This assessment comprises of a comprehensive review of the city's economic fundamentals, institutional framework, fiscal performance, debt profile, and governance system. A key component of a credit rating comprises a review of the institutional framework that governs the city's financial system. This includes evaluating the legal framework, regulations, and procedures. The review also elucidates the jurisdictional parameters across levels of governments regarding debt raising and financing, and evaluates the overall quality of decision-making. As in a formal rating, the assessment also examines the operating environment, which is underlined by the sub-sovereign credit rating, and the support range, or the sovereign guarantee available to UB, if any. The exercise aims to reveal capacity gaps and potential areas for strengthening, as well as proposing concrete steps to improve the city's creditworthiness.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2014. Ulaanbaatar Financial Self-Assessment. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20048 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Domestic Public Debt in Low-Income Countries : Trends and Structure(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02)This paper introduces a new data set on the stock and structure of domestic debt in 36 low-income countries over the period 1971-2011. It characterizes the recent trends regarding the do-mestic public debt of low-income countries and explores the relevance of different arguments put forward on the benefits and costs of government borrowing in local public debt markets. The main stylized fact emerging from the data is the increase in domestic government debt since 1996. It is also observed that poor countries have been able to increase the share of long-term in-struments over time and that maturity lengthening went together with a decrease in borrowing costs. However, the concentration of the investor base, mainly dominated by commercial banks and the central bank, may crowd out lending to the private sector.Publication Analysis and Options for Namibia's Medium-Term Debt Strategy(Washington, DC, 2013-06)Since gaining its independence 23 years ago, Namibia has established an enviable track record of political stability, prudent macroeconomic policies, moderate growth, poverty reduction, and natural resource conservation. The country has achieved these gains while facing constraints imposed by geography, legacies of apartheid and colonialism, and the challenges of constructing a national government. Daunting challenges remain, however. Namibia suffers from chronic high unemployment, the ravages of HIV/AIDS, and one of the world most skewed distributions of income. The structure of the economy has remained fundamentally unchanged since Independence: minerals and metals make up the majority of exports; the public sector remains the largest employer; and there has been little investment in labor-intensive manufacturing, which in many countries has absorbed low-skilled labor exiting traditional agriculture. This report uses the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) framework developed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to analyze options facing the GRN as it prepares the new Sovereign Debt Management Strategy (SDMS). This framework emphasizes the explicit analysis of relative costs and risks in a debt management strategy, the linkages between the debt strategy and other macroeconomic policies, and the strategy's consistency with debt sustainability. The report opens with a review of the GRN's current debt management strategy, the sources of financing available to the government, and the macroeconomic environment. The report then applies the MTDS analytical tool to analyze costs and risks of alternative debt management strategies that were developed by MOF participants in the November 2012 capacity-building exercise. It also examines domestic debt market development and contingent liabilities arising from government guarantees, two issues of special concern to the GRN. Finally, it discusses institutional arrangements and implementation issues.Publication Debt Management Performance Assessment : Kazakhstan(Washington, DC, 2011-05)A World Bank mission visited Kazakhstan from July 15-23, 2010, to undertake a comprehensive assessment of debt management operations using the Debt Management Performance Assessment tool (DeMPA). The DeMPA report provides an overview of strengths and weaknesses in government debt management in Kazakhstan, as evaluated at end-July, 2010. The scores demonstrate that areas of strength clearly outnumber areas where policies and practices fall short of minimum standards for effective debt management. Areas of strength include the legal framework, governance, and operational risk management, coordination with fiscal and monetary policies, as well as debt recording and reporting. Such strengths are impressive, taking into account the relatively low debt level and modest recourse to both domestic and external borrowing. However, many areas displaying relatively low scores would benefit from attention and reform. This need is most pressing in the context of developing a medium-term debt management strategy, which would involve outlining the preferred composition of debt based on cost-risk analyses, and would provide guidance not only for the government s borrowing but also for market development.Publication Preparing for Debt Management in Ulaanbaatar : Issues to Consider(Washington, DC, 2014-04-02)This note is part of a broader technical assistance program designed to assist the City of Ulaanbaatar (UB) to improve its financial management system, assess the quality of municipal services provision, and mobilize resources from the capital markets to fund urban infrastructure. This note identifies key issues for UB to consider when putting in place an effective debt management framework prior to acquiring debt. It goes hand-in-hand with a separate "Financial Self-Assessment" that was carried out in preparation for a credit rating.Publication Montenegro After the Crisis : Towards a Smaller and More Efficient Government(Washington, DC, 2012-01)Recognizing the important progress with structural reforms so far, on October 12, 2011, the European Commission recommended the opening of formal membership negotiations for Montenegro. Further, in December 2011, Montenegro was granted the membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and in June 2012, the country is expected to open the first chapters in membership negotiations with the European Union (EU). These are major milestones on Montenegro's road to the European Union provides a broad external and institutional context, and the destination, for its ongoing reform efforts in a complex international economic environment. In this context, Montenegro needs to continue to strive to improve its policy environment and manage its public expenditures efficiently and improve the quality of public services for all its citizens. Building on the past analytical reports and ongoing economic policy dialogue, this report aims to provide new analysis, ideas, and policy advice to Montenegro's authorities on how to accelerate its public expenditure reforms with the view to reducing cost, improving quality, and increasing public service delivery.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.