Mongolia

"Information can be a shorter way to develop Mongolia" says A.Yamanaka, an ICT officer in UNDP Mongolia. Indeed, various surveys conducted in Mongolia by experts, prove that Mongolia with literacy rate of over 96% and highly trained population with many scientists and engineers can become a knowledge-based society by proper exploring the latest means of information technologies.

Yes, it sounds a bit unusual when you speak so about the country where 40% of population are nomadic herders living in ‘gers’ (nomadic tents), just as they did a thousand years ago. This is the highest percentage in the world. In addition, Mongolia has a poor infrastructure and the telephone density is 4.1 and radio density is 15.7 per 100 inhabitants. As a consequence, traditional media can’t reach more than a small proportion of country’s population. Although, needs for information in countryside are large. For these people who live in tune with the nature, knowing weather forecasts, selling their products is a difficult task. The winters in Mongolia are very cold. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the world. There is a strong need to give access to information to Mongolian herders, who care for more than 30 million animals in this harsh climate. It can be accomplished by exploiting the information and communication technologies.

Bearing this in mind, UNDP started to implement in Mongolia the project called "Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Human Development". The major objective of this project is to promote the usage of information and communication technologies among Mongolians, especially among Government officers and ordinary people of Mongolia. The high-tech inter-governmental network was established which is very convenient and cost-effective to the state administrative system of Mongolia of which the territorial units are widely scattered (for example, in Gobi desert population density is 0,1 persons/1km²) and the national economy is underdeveloped. This month the governmental resolutions database was put on the website to make accessible the latest government decisions to broad public. Updated weekly it gives opportunities to government officials to use this network as a channel for reaching people in remote areas and provide them with the latest governmental resolutions.

In order to facilitate this information exchange the project extended its activities by founding Citizens Information Service Centers (CISC) equipped with latest information technologies in Ulaanbaatar and six Aimags (provinces). Herders now can surf the vast range of information available on the Internet. It helps them to learn about life in other countries, exchange ideas and learn new ways of doing things, nurturing environment and raising their thrusty livestock. Last winter when many herders have lost a large percentage of their livestock (1.4 million) during a heavy snowfall, some herders faced with difficult task of finding other alternative ways of living and earning money for living. And here, the Internet can help them to discover opportunities to rebuild their lives and livelihoods with new ideas and skills.

The access to information is really the key point in empowering people of Mongolia. In today’s information age where there is a deepening gap between info haves and have-nots in developed and developing countries it is increasingly important for Mongolia to get access to information and information technology for all its citizens. Only knowledge-equipped people can guide Mongolia in the 21^st century.

Last summer UNDP Mongolia country office together with Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) opened a National Internetworking Academy at the Computer Management and Technical University in Ulaanbaatar. Now young Mongolian people who are eager to learn the Internet technologies can use UNDP sponsored computers to learn principles and practices of designing, building and maintaining Internet networks by multimedia-based curriculum. These Academies, which are planned to be set up in nine developing countries in Asia-Pacific, were made possible by an innovative partnership between APDIP and Cisco Systems, a leader in network equipment. They will train internationally certified network engineers through a four-semester program. As Mr.Gabriel Accascina, APDIP Regional Coordinator said, "it was the fist institution to participate in our Internetworking Academy programme and we’ll see the first graduates in the region coming from Mongolia". Government hopes that these people will bring technological innovations into remote areas of Mongolia.

In contrast to some misconceptions about Mongolia as a land-locked country with no access to information, there are historical facts about Mongolia’s use of communication. In 1234 Uguudei Khan (Chinggis Khan’s son) set-up a "pony express" mail system that could move letters thousands of miles in just a few days. In 1898 Mongolians exchanged information in Mongolian, Russian and Chinese languages by telegraph between Ih Huree (former capital of Mongolia) and Hiagt (city in the border with Russia). The first computer "Minsk-32" Mongolians started to exploit in 1973. Then in 1986 the first personal computer IBM was introduced in Mongolia. The first computer was hooked up to the international computer network in 1982. So, Mongolians used historically different means of information dissemination and communication. Nowadays, the government hopes that power of information technology will help Mongolia to become a high-tech information society.

For Yamanaka, one of the models of development of Mongolia could be the so-called "Irish Miracle" where the agricultural country becomes a high-tech society by avoiding negative impacts of traditional industry. In the Global Resident Representatives Meeting held earlier this year in New York the former UNDP Resident Representative in Mongolia Douglas Gardner said, "UNDP will make it possible for Mongolian steppe nomads to soon access information about weather and commodity prices by means of a "Cyber Ger".