This document discusses open data development in Mongolia. It identifies legal and organizational issues that need to be addressed, including the lack of a comprehensive legal framework and data protection policies. Currently, few government datasets are openly available. The National Information Technology Park has started an Open Data Initiative to define policies, standards and licenses. Opening transportation, budget and statistical data from Ulaanbaatar city could help boost open data initiatives in Mongolia by providing a successful case study. Overall progress requires improved data management, technical skills and awareness of open data across government.

1. Department of Information and Computer Sciences
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MONGOLIA
NATIONAL INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY PARK OF MONGOLIA
TOWARDS OPEN DATA DEVELOPMENT IN
MONGOLIA
Amarsanaa Ganbold, Tsolmon Zundui
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION, COMPUTER SCIENCE
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
National University of Mongolia
amarsanaag@disi.unitn.it, tsolmonz@num.edu.mn
2014-11-25 DISI Seminar

2. Contents
 About Mongolia
1. Issues
 Legal
 Organizational
2. Open Data Initiative in Mongolia
 At the National Information Technology Park (NITP) of Mongolia
 Discussions
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3. About Mongolia
3
Language Mongolian (uses Mongolian Cyrillic Script)
Culture Nomadic lifestyle in rural (285K herders)
Population3 2.9 M (46% in capital city Ulaanbaatar)
GDP2 $11.52 B
GDP growth2 11.7%
Total area 1,564,000 km2
Mobile Users1 4.3 M (smart phone users 1.4 M – 34%)
Internet Users1 1 M
IDI Rank 85 (up 5 places 2011-2012, top rank increase)
2 http://data.worldbank.org/country/mongolia
1 Communications Regulatory Commission of Mongolia, 2014 statistics
3 Mongolian Statistical Information Service, http://1212.mn

4. From BIG state to Smart state
4
E-Government
 No open data
projects?
 No standards?
 No policy?
Smart
Ulaanbaatar
Smart
Government

5. Initiatives, Programs, Projects
4 Apr
2012
• E-Government national program
Decree No.101 of the Government
16 Nov
2013
• From big state to smart state initiative
National Consultative Meeting
27 Mar
2014
• Smart Ulaanbaatar program
Decree No.16/11 of the City Council
24 Jun
2014
• Smart Government project
under debate to the Parliament of Mongolia
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6. Laws on IT (Open Data related)
6
Legislated Needed
LEGAL FRAMEWORK ISSUES

7. Freedom of Information
 Constitution of the Mongolian People's Republic, 1992
 16.17 Right to seek and receive information except that which the State and its
bodies are legally bound to protect as secret
 Information Transparency, Right to Receive Information Act, 2011 (=FOIA)
 5.1.3. any other information should be open except legally protected as secret
 11.1.3. right to receive any other information related to institution activities
 Directive to use of database of government organizations, 2013
 1.3.2. organizations should provide citizens and institutions to receive and use of
information stored in database of government organizations by alternative rules
 Regulation on payment to provide information, discount and exemption, 2013
 2.1 information in digital format should be provided free for citizen, legal body
 Transparency Budget Act, 2014
 3.2. budget, financial plan, performance, implementation, report and related cash
flow and transactions should be open
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LEGAL FRAMEWORK ISSUES

8. Freedom of Information (2)
in the FOIA, 2011 following
information? should be open
 Institutional activities
 Human resource
 Budget, Finance
 Procurement
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in the General Rule for
Information transparency
following information?
 Procurement plan
 Investment
 Loan, subsidy
 Welfare expenditure
 Assessment audit etc.
+
Appropriate definitions on data,
information? etc.
No mention about license?
Needed to be reflected
LEGAL FRAMEWORK ISSUES
 ITPTA, Survey report on performance of FOIA, July 2014
 75 organizations, 36 indicators – average 19.5% open

9. Legal issues
 Not complete, lack of other legislations
 E.g., Data Protection Act is needed
 No policy on Open Data or (re-)use of public sector
information
 Government institutions don’t use any license with respect
to release/use of its data
 No license on data or information
 Don’t assume that data is an asset
 No legislation on data protection
 Private data is not protected -> civil servants are not sure to publish
datasets
 Implementation of legislation
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LEGAL FRAMEWORK ISSUES

10. IT organizational structure
Information Technology, Post
and Telecommunication
Authority
(ITPTA)
National IT Park
(NITP)
National Data Center
(NDC)
Government Chief of
Information Office
10
ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
proposed
current
Legend

11. Institutional Readiness
 No agency or entity managing Open Data
 NITP is starting Open Data Initiative without sufficient political
authority
 No political leaderships supporting Open Data
 No agency dedicated to data management or responsible
for ICT systems – e.g., Chief of Information Office (CIO)
 National Data Center is just hosting government
information systems
 now responsible for hardware infrastructure only
 should coordinate to inter-agency mechanisms
 No performance management or measurement on quality
of service delivery with respect to ICT
 National Statistics Office (NSO) is responsible for statistical
data.
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

12. Released Open Data in Mongolia
• has published statistical data as Open Data (in CVS, XLS
formats) in the Mongolian Statistical Information Service -
1212.mn
National Statistical Office
• General category and codes of terms on Information Exchange
Portal - code.gov.mn which provides some API
Information Technology, Post and
Telecommunication Authority
• All national laws, acts, decrees etc. in the Mongolian Legislation
Portal – legalinfo.mn
Ministry of Law
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

13. Data within government
Title Stars Description
Transport Timetables  Bus routes, bus stops (only UB)
Government Budget  State general budget
Government Spending 
Not individual agency level, forced to be
opened by Transparency Budget Act since 2015
Election Results  Results of Parliament and President Elections
Company Register None
National Map ? OpenStreetMap.org
National Statistics  Various statistics in XLS, CSV + apps
Legislation 
Records of proceedings, draft laws under
debate and enacted version of legislation
Postcodes / Zipcodes  Postal codes for administrative divisions
Emissions of pollutants  Air pollution data by infographics
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

14. Government data issues
 No management of government information
 No process for information and data security
 No standard exists on accuracy and quality of data
 Data archiving on papers only, not in digital formats
 No inventory across government organizations
 Cross-government standards are paper based
 Metadata standards are very poor
 Only NSO has own inventory
 Less core common reference datasets across government
 Published data are not in non-proprietary formats
 Re-use of data is unknown
 Data through API is not common
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

15. Demand for Open Data
 Civil societies and citizens don’t know their rights to
access information
 Too much bureaucracy on data request
 Data journalism is new term in Mongolia
 No business uses government data
 But, Government Service Machine delivers services
 No local businesses in geospatial data and maps, in weather or in
transport information
 Intra-government data is not shared enough
 Public agencies don’t listen to demands for data and
respond
 overall ICT skill base among senior government leaders
and civil servants is poor
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ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES

16. Open Data Initiative at NITP
Open Data
Policy
Open Data
Platform
• CKAN 2.2 Localization - 62%
• Releasing Alpha version
Release NITP
open data
• Starting from Jan 2015
Federate
Open Data
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• Released Oct 2014 in scope of NITP
• Joined to the workgroup of Data Protection
Act

17. More actions of the ODI
Define licenses, guidelines, standards
Produce proposals on legislative acts
Promote open data to civil societies and public
agencies
Produce training program and train civil servants
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18. Discussions
 Opening government data is possible in Mongolia without
legal restriction.
 Starting point is Ulaanbaatar city which is ready to open
up data
 CIO of the city could manage Open Data
 ICT Skills are relatively high
 Demand for Open Data with respect to Smart Ulaanbaatar program
 We need to show a successful case study and boost Open
Data Initiative in Mongolia.
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19. Thank you for your attention.
amarsanaag@disi.unitn.it
Any questions?
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