HEAD OF CABINET SECRETARIAT ATTENDS OGP GLOBAL SUMMIT 2018

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Head of Cabinet Secretariat and Head of the Open Government Partnership Board of Mongolia G.Zandanshatar attended the fifth Open Government (OGP) Global Summit held in Tbilisi, Georgia on July 17-19. Opening the conference, CEO of the OGP Sanjay Pradhan delivered opening remarks. He emphasized good experience of Mongolia, saying “100 countries are encouraging citizen engagement. Citizens' voice and engagement is essential to improve state policy planning and implementation, and it is important to encourage new ideas and learn from mutually beneficial experiences. For instance, a village in rural area of Mongolia has reduced the government expense by 10 percent with the Citizen Participation Budget.” During the conference, Head of Cabinet Secretariat G.Zandanshatar met with the CEO of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Eddie Rich and discussed the measures taken on disclosing identities of beneficial owners of extracting companies, achievements and the ‘Road Map 2020’ plan on disclosing identities of beneficial owners of extracting sector. Moreover, Mr. Eddie Rich was asked for further financing of the EITI Mongolia office and he committed to respond it studying possible fundings. Senior Advisor to Prime Minister and Secretariat of the EITI Mongolia L.Enkh-Amgalan attended the Extractive Industry Transparency- Central Asian and Caucasus Regional meeting on Beneficial Ownership and noted that the Government is actively working on disclosure of identities of beneficial owners and amendments to several laws and a new draft law are being developed to achieve the goal. Mr. Zandanshatar met with former Prime Minister of Georgia Nika Gilauri and Minister of Public Administration of the Republic of Estonia Janek Mäggi and they agreed to cooperate in introducing best practices of e-government in these countries and new technologies to the public sector, facilitating access to public services, increasing transparency and eliminating corruption. The Head of Cabinet Secretariat invited Mr. Nika Gilauri to the International Academic Conference on Consultative Democracy to be held in Ulaanbaatar this October and his invitation was accepted. Head of Cabinet Secretariat Zandanshatar held a bilateral meeting with the Deputy Head of the OGP Paul Maassen. Mr. Paul Maassen approved Mongolia’s active participation in OGP activities and it’s leadership on regional and international levels. Mr. Zandanshatar also held a bilateral meeting with the Secretary of Budget and Management of the Philippines Benjamin Diokno and the parties agreed to organize a study tour for sharing experiences in the coming months. Over 2000 representatives including heads of governments, civil society organizations and international partnering organizations representing more than 70 member countries attended the conference and exchanged experiences on participation of civil society, anti-corruption and improving quality and accessibility of public services. B.Misheel