ULAN BATOR, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced Friday that its Board of Directors has approved a loan of 25 million U.S. dollars to help Mongolia improve its tax administration and public investment management using information and communication technology (ICT).

"A well-functioning system to manage taxes on one hand and better public investment management on the other hand should help Mongolia weather volatile commodity prices and channel funds into much-needed infrastructure investment," said Seung-Min Lee, Financial Sector Specialist for ADB's East Asia Department.

"The existing ICT systems for tax administration in Mongolia are fragmented and inefficient. This is also true of the country's public investment management system, which has caused delays in some investment projects, leading to cost overruns for the government," he said, adding that using ICT will be more efficient and transparent, which will help attract local and foreign investment.

The project to strengthen ICT systems will support the Mongolian Tax Authority in its tax collection efforts by providing necessary ICT infrastructure - network, security, computing, and storage infrastructure - to host it, the ADB said.

The project is part of ADB's efforts to improve public financial resource mobilization and management in Mongolia.

Over the past 25 years, the ADB has implemented about 280 projects and programs in Mongolia worth a total of 1.9 billion dollars in fields such as health, social protection, infrastructure and urban planning.