Mongolia will get a financial aid of one billion U.S. dollars to help cushion the impact of the global economic crisis on the country's poor, who make up a third of the total population, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Thursday.

ADB's Board of Directors has approved a loan equivalent to 43.1 million dollars and a grant of 16.9 million dollars from its concessional Asian Development Fund for the Mongolia Social Sectors Support Program, the lender said in a statement. The Japan International Cooperation Agency, funded by the Japanese government, will provide co-finance of 50 million dollars.

Mongolia's economy has expanded quickly over the past decade, driven by the rising value of its vast copper deposits, but the onset of the global economic crisis and slump in mineral prices have severely dented its fiscal resources, forcing it to pare back planned social sector spending, ADB said.

Mongolia is one of the most exposed countries in the world to poverty fallout from the crisis, due to its reliance on volatile mining revenue.

"Unless the government is able to bring about an orderly adjustment to this external shock, the social consequences will be severe, potentially unwinding the gains of recent years and threatening the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals," Wendy Walker, social development specialist in ADB's East Asia Department, was quoted in the statement.

The Millennium Development Goals are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability.

"Support will be given for reforms to improve the targeting of social assistance to the most needy," said Claude Bodart, Senior Health Specialist in ADB's East Asia Department.

The loan for the Mongolia Social Sectors Support Program has a 24 year tenor, with an annual interest charge of 1.0 percent during the 8-year grace period, followed by 1.5 percent for the rest of the term, ADB said. Mongolia's Ministry of Finance will be the executing agency for the program, which is due for completion in December 2010.