Winter Special Edition: Mongolia’s Digital Revolution
Author: Kristi Ross
Editors: Ava Holtzman, Joshua Blaustein
Mongolia is a sparsely populated country situated between two global superpowers, bordering China to the south and Russia to the north. Mongolia- a country with a nomadic culture- is the next nation to join the digital revolution. In 2020, the Mongolian government laid out its five-year plan to build a “Digital Nation”.
To procure official documents, Mongolian citizens often have to bribe officials and/or use familial connections. In response to rapid corruption and inefficient public government service, e-Mongolia was founded. Launched in October 2020, e-Mongolia is a platform that provides government services through web and mobile applications. The goal of e-Mongolia was to minimize the amount of bureaucracy by providing an easy-to-use app that connects citizens to public services directly.
As of June 2022, e-Mongolia has digitalized 656 public services, integrated with 61 government entities, and has enrolled over 1.3 million users. With a total population of roughly three million, nearly one-third of adults use the platform. Mongolian citizens can now receive a wide range of services, such as accessing daily updates on Covid-19 restrictions and the number of people infected in each province; wait times for passport and driver's license applications have been cut thanks to e-Mongolia. The pursuit of digitalization has forced Mongolian governmental and private-sector agencies to reflect on their previous lack of accessibility- leading to an increase in accountability.
Internationally, the World Bank and International Development Association launched the Smart Government II Project with a credit of nearly forty million dollars aimed at increasing digital-enabled jobs. Domestically, the State Great Kural (Mongolian parliament), established the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Innovation and Digital Policy to overlook digital development. The State Great Kural has since drafted the Law on Public Information, Law on Digital Signatures, Law on Personal Data Protection, and the law on Cyber Security in order to provide needed updates in cybersecurity. The bills drafted to protect citizens' personal data have yet to be turned into law.
“While the e-Mongolia project might have some success in combating everyday, low-level corruption, it is unlikely to have an impact on grand corruption which is arguably the greater scourge on Mongolian development,” said Julian Dierkes, a senior Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia.
While e-Mongolia has been a technological game changer, those who live in the countryside and ger khoroolol (slums that are located on the border of Ulaanbaatar) who don’t have internet access, are unable to take full advantage of the services and resources e-Mongolia provides. Contrastingly, “communities that might be excluded/marginalized further through e-Mongolia might also find it easier to interact with online resources, due to their reluctance to approach officials for a variety of reasons,” says Professor Dierkes. According to a 2019 study by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union, only 3% of Mongolians had advanced technology skills, 10% had basic skills, and 13% had standard skills. For even the most tech-savvy Mongolians, e-Mongolia can still feel like an overwhelming app.
The digital revolution has taken place in many countries, but its large-scale impact on Mongolian civil society remains unparalleled. As Mongolia continues to pursue digital governance, marginalized communities who live in the digital gap must be assisted by governmental agencies. If the digital gap is ignored, existing inequalities will be exacerbated, and marginalized communities will face added barriers to receiving governmental services. Mongolia’s institutions, private-sector service providers, and the e-Mongolia platform itself must prioritize transparency and accountability. Additionally, improvements in legal protections and serious investments in technology must be made. Only once these investments and reforms are made, will Mongolia reach its goal to become a “Digital Nation”.
