E-Government

 

Overview:

According to the World Bank, E-government refers to “the use of information and communications technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government”. E-government can be divided into Government-to-Government (G2G) and Government to Citizens (G2C).4



E-Government in Mongolia

The delivery of information through the use of information and telecommunication technology is strategically important for developing countries like Mongolia.

E-Government is the new topic in the area of Information Technology (IT) of Mongolia. Recognizing the importance of IT, Mongolian Government adopted a policy paper entitled "Vision for the development of information and communication technology until 2010". The paper details the basic scope of the promotion of information technology and the priorities of IT application in Mongolia. 6

In order to establish a development of government IT system among the government-legislation, business-economic, and people-society, there are three main frameworks as follows:

    1. Framework is within the government-legislation: The Government is the Founder of a social system with Information and Communication Technologies, an open source for information and data and it should offer the main service

    2. Within business-economic framework: Set up a business environment that can be integrated efficiently with the world economy

    3. Framework is the people-society: Create a favorable environment for Mongolian citizens to communicate freely among themselves and with the world community regardless of location, and to provide equal and active involvement and participation in the social relationships



The major objectives of the vision mentioned above are:

  • Harmonize Information and Communication Technology standards Internationally

  • Set up an Information and Communication Technology structure

  • Set up a system to make government information accessible

  • Promote the favorable legal and development environment of e-commerce

  • Meet the requirements of the international agreements

"Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Human Development" (ICT for SHD) project of Cabinet Secretariat of Government of Mongolia and United Nations Development Programme has started its activities from June 1997. The main purpose of the project was to establish the Government Information Network (GIN), assist the Ministries and Government agencies on the setting up LAN's and provide the possibility of exchanging information in electronic format between government organizations.6

Since the project implementation, 27 government organizations, agencies and the governor's offices of provinces were connected to the GIN. More than 800 government employees have been trained on various Windows Operating Systems, Microsoft Office packages and web publishing application.

The Mongolian Government recognizes the potential role that emergent Internet-based distance education technologies can play in its educational system, to spread and make available the teaching resources from the capital, Ulaanbataar, to the country's vast rural provinces.

According to Mr R Bat-Erdene, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Culture (MOSTEC), the Government aims to deliver distance education to 75% of the population by the year 2010. There is great optimism that this mission will succeed due to Mongolia's high literacy rate - at 82.9%, it is one of the highest in the world. Through this project, the government is assisting the educational authorities in Mongolia to strategize a plan for technology-based distance education within its national education policy framework. 23

It is highly optimistic that the Mongolian distance education model will become a prototype from which it can transfer and share the lessons learnt to other Asian countries which are looking to the new educational technologies to help solve the problems of access to education for their rural populations.



Information Technology Development

The Government of Mongolia is sensitively feeling the great implication of information technology's advanced achievement on social and economic development and gives high priority to it. The modern way of information dissemination (inter-network) is not new for Mongolians, even in the period Chinggis Khaan the success of his great victories was based on it. The digital infrastructure is in place and growing and there has already been experience with the implementation of ICT in a variety of fields. There are currently 7 Internet service providers and 2 mobile operators run their business in the country. One of every ten Mongolians uses mobile phone and there are over 50 000 Internet users.

Around 60 ICT companies deal with development of software application and local contents including e-commerce and e banking. With regard to deepening liberalization and competitiveness in this sector, the Communication law was renewed in 2001, which aims to create more favorable and clearly defined legal environment in communication sector. According to the newly revised law, General service fund is to be set up distributing communication services to the population of remote local areas. In February 2000, Parliament of Mongolia has adopted the "Concept on Information and Communication Technology Development of Mongolia up to 2010". The Government of Mongolia set up the National Committee for Information and Communication Technology headed by the Prime Minister.

 

Top of Page

[Home] [Size of Domestic IT Market] [National ICT Policies] [Telecommunications Infrastructure and Regulation] [Computing & Internet Diffusion] [Electronic Commerce & E-Business] [R&D, Software Development and Hardware Manufacturing] [IT Workforce] [IT Geographics] [IT Financing] [E-Government] [IT Legal Environment] [National IT Strengths & Weaknesses] [Sources and Links] [About the Author] [Back to INITEB]