World Bank approves $40.7m credit to help Mongolia improve online public services

The Smart Government II Project aims to improve Mongolia’s legal and regulatory environment for building trust and cybersecurity in the use of digital technologies.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a credit of $40.7 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to help Mongolia improve online public services to citizens and businesses, boost digital skills training, and increase digital-enabled jobs.

The Smart Government II Project aims to improve Mongolia’s legal and regulatory environment for building trust and cybersecurity in the use of digital technologies. The project will also enable the development of public services, shared use of cloud computing, and cybersecurity services in the public sector.

The project also aims to help develop Mongolia's digital economy in response to the impact of disruptive technologies transforming economies and societies globally, and to provide new opportunities for Mongolia's development. For the digital economy, the project will provide skills and literacy training to 13,000 civil servants and citizens, create 3,000 new digital jobs for youth and women, and help digitalize 2,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to improve their competitiveness and resilience in the global economy.

The project will expand on the successful interventions of the first SMART Government Project that will close on August 31, 2022. The closing project had built and strengthened critical enablers for public sector transformation and online service delivery, including the national-level disaster recovery center, government enterprise architecture, e-Mongolia, and open data portal, and e-property registration system.

"It is important that all Mongolian citizens and businesses be able to benefit from the global digital transformation and their country's digital development efforts,” said Andrei Mikhnev, World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia. “This project will provide Mongolian women, persons with disabilities, and rural or remote inhabitants with easy-to-use and efficient digital public services, and allow youths to develop digital skills and access a wider range of jobs. It will help SMEs – especially those owned or led by women – increase their competitiveness in the global digital market and build their resilience for future crises.”

The Mongolian government has succeeded in providing online public services to citizens and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This experience has added momentum to the government's longstanding commitment to use the digital transformation as a new driver of economic growth, to develop efficient and accessible public services, and to become a “Digital Nation” in the next five years.

The new project will assist the government in adopting an integrated, whole-of-government approach for its online public services and digital investments.