GOVERNMENT OF BURYATIA TO HELP MONGOLIAN STOCK-BREEDERS








ULAN BATOR, MARCH 7, 2001 /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER ALTMAN/ -- The government of Buryatia (a republic forming part of the Russian Federation and neighbouring on Mongolia) will render assistance to Mongolian livestock-breeders, President of Buryatia Leonid Potapov stated in Ulan Bator during the official visit at the invitation of the Mongolian government.


	More than 3 million head of livestock have already perished in Mongolia because of the major drought and the severe frosty winter. Besides that, more than twenty seats of foot-and-mouth, a dangerous infectious disease, have now been registered in three eastern aimaks of Mongolia.


	Leonid Potapov said that Buryatia will give Mongolia 30,000 US dollars for vaccines from different infectious diseases of animals. Besides that, he added, the business community of Buryatia and the enterprises of the republic have already remitted over 1.5 million roubles into a special account of assistance to the Mongolian livestock-breeders, affected by the disaster, while the apparatuses of the government and the president, as well as the deputies of Buryatia's parliament have transferred their one-day pay to the assistance fund.