Digital Government Excellence

CHAPTER 5Bolor-Erdene Battsengel: Mongolia

 

Bolor-Erdene Battsengel is the State Secretary of the newly established Ministry of Digital Development of Mongolia, effective starting January 2022. She was previously the chairwoman of Mongolia's Communication and Information Technology Authority, the youngest and first female to hold this position since July 2020.

Raised in the countryside, Bolor-Erdene has started the “Girls for Coding” program, which trains girls from vulnerable families in remote areas who do not have computer or internet access. Until end of 2021, fifty girls received training in the program and were offered jobs at companies.

Bolor-Erdene graduated from the University of Oxford with a master's degree in public policy in 2017. She previously worked at the World Bank, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, and Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom.

She has been selected into the Forbes Asia “30 Under 30” list of outstanding young leaders.

 

 

 

There had been several attempts to get a digital government going in Mongolia, but it took Bolor-Erdene to make it happen. As always, there have been important supporting factors, too: strong political support and push, plus COVID-19. As she has said herself, in a way it has been the right time and about time.

But her story is to me a good example of the premise of this book: the right strategy and right conditions do ...