The Asian Development Bank said Monday that it approved a loan worth 170 million dollars to fund a road project in one of the poorest areas of Mongolia. The money would be used to build about 300 kilometres of regional roads in western Mongolia that would become part of a network that connects to China and Russia, the Manila-based bank said. “The remote western region of Mongolia suffers from high levels of poverty and underdevelopment, partly as a result of the lack of paved roads,” said Steven Lewis-Workman, a transport economist with the bank. “Building paved roads in an area where there are very few will bring broad social and economic benefits, including increased access to jobs and markets,” he said.