Gombojavyn Zandanshatar
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Gombojav Zandanshatar (; born 18 March 1970) is a Mongolian politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Mongolia since June 2025. He previously served as the 12th
chairman of the State Great Khural The Chairman of the State Great Khural () is the speaker (politics), presiding officer of the State Great Khural. List of chairmen References

{{Chairmen of the State Great Khural 1990 establishments in Mongolia Chairmen of the State ...
from 2019 to 2024, the chief cabinet secretary of Mongolia under the government Prime Minister
Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh (; born 14 June 1968), also referred to as Khürelsükh Ukhnaa, is a Mongolian politician who has been the sixth president of Mongolia since 2021. He previously served as the 30th Prime Minister of Mongolia, prime minist ...
from 2017 to 2019, and as well as the
Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...
and
Trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...
under Prime Ministers Sanjaagiin Bayar and Sükhbaataryn Batbold from 2009 to 2012.


Early career

Zandanshatar’s early career started as a lecturer in the College of Trade and Industry (1992–1995), after which he worked at the Agricultural Bank of Mongolia, progressively as economist, restructuring manager, director of the forex department, and director of the loan and monetary policy department (1995–1998). Then he was appointed as a member of the Receivership Team by the Central Bank of Mongolia at the Agricultural Bank and later, after its restructuring, was promoted to deputy director of the bank (1998–2003). As a result of restructuring and reorganization, the bank was recapitalized and successfully privatized in 2003.


Politics


Deputy Minister of food and agriculture (2003–2004)

The agricultural sector of the country was in serious crisis, especially the state of crop farming and flour production were in despair. Zandanshatar actively worked to mobilize state support and attract foreign aid to the sector. His Ministry’s team drafted state policy on farming and agriculture which was later adopted by Parliament.  This work laid the foundation for “Atar III” campaign work that revived wheat and crop farming in Mongolia.


Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009–2012)

During his tenure, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked to prioritize economic relations in foreign affairs. Subsequently, the country renewed its Foreign Policy vision in 2011, for the first time after 17 years. Also, from 2011 to 2013 Mongolia chaired the Community of Democracies. As Minister, his schedule comprised official visits to almost 20 countries such as the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, Italy, Germany, etc.  He also started work to upgrade Mongolian-Japanese relations from Comprehensive partnership to Strategic partnership. Zandanshatar took a series of measures to improve the ethics, discipline, and responsibility of diplomats at all levels.


Chief of the Cabinet secretariat (2017–2019)

As Chief of Cabinet Secretariat, Zandanshatar worked tirelessly on government priorities, which were to establish fair, transparent, and accountable structure for public officials and to strengthen the responsibilities and regulations on all levels of government agencies. An updated Law of Public Service was adopted by the Parliament in 2018 to be adhered to starting from 2019. He summarized all development policies and resolutions issued until that time into the “Three pillars development policy” encompassing areas of public service reform, social reform, and economic reform. Other notable achievements during his tenure include strong anti-corruption measures taken against illegal privatization of large mining enterprises and a 50 percent improvement in air quality of Ulaanbaatar as a result of implementing smokeless fuel supply to households.


Chairman of the State Great Khural (2019–2024)

In 2019, his predecessor, Miyeegombyn Enkhbold, was ousted after numerous demonstrations by his political opponents, and Gombojavyn Zandanshatar was proposed and later elected unanimously by the Members of the Parliament as Chairman (Speaker). As Chairman he brought to successful completion the historic Constitutional Amendment process.  The current Constitution of Mongolia was adopted in 1992 and since then, changes were necessitated by the socio-economic development of the country.  Amendments to the main law were discussed throughout the last three terms of Parliament and Zandanshatar was an active force in the process of studying and preparing draft amendments.  An important step in the discussion and drafting of the amendments was made in 2015 by way of introducing deliberative democracy and deliberative polling methods that Zandanshatar studied in depth while he worked as visiting scholar and fellow at Stanford University. He introduced this methodology of enabling citizens’ participation in main political changes and reaching political consensus in Mongolia.   Based upon the opinions of the Mongolian people that have been expressed by Mongolia's Law on Deliberative Polling, the Parliament of Mongolia under the chairmanship of Zandanshatar has successfully adopted the Amendments to the Constitution on the 14th of November, 2019].


Prime Minister (2025–present)

On 12 June 2025, Gombojavyn was selected as prime minister by the
State Great Khural The State Great Khural is the unicameral parliament of Mongolia,Montsame News Agency. ''Mongolia''. 2006, Foreign Service office of Montsame News Agency, , p. 40 located in the Government Palace in the capital Ulaanbaatar. History 191 ...
. He received the support of 108 votes in the 126-member chamber, with the other MPs absent.


Education

Zandanshatar graduated from Baikal State University in 1992 (formerly Institute of National Economy in Soviet Union with a diploma of Specialist in Finance. He also earned a Master’s degree in Economics and Finance (1992) from Baikal State University. He is the recipient of Honorary Professorship from his alma-mater Baikal State University (2011), Mongolian University of Science and Technology (2019), and Ikh Zasag University (2019). In 2014–2015 and 2016, Zandanshatar was a visiting scholar at the
Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in California. He was impressed by the concept of
deliberative polling A deliberative opinion poll, sometimes called a deliberative poll, is a form of opinion poll taken before and after significant deliberation. Professor James S. Fishkin of Stanford University first described the concept in 1988. The typical delib ...
developed by the center's director,
James Fishkin James S. Fishkin (born 1948) is an American political scientist and communications scholar. He holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, where he serves as a professor ...
, and translated his book on it, ''When the People Speak'', into Mongolian. In 2017 the country officially adopted deliberative polling as a condition for constitutional changes.Milenko Martinovich
"Collaboration at Stanford leads to Mongolian parliament passing law on public opinion polling"
News, Stanford University, May 2, 2017.


Personal life

Zandanshatar married his wife Ganbayaryn Otgongerel in 1992, together they have four children.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zandanshatar, Gombojavyn 1970 births Living people Members of the State Great Khural Chairmen of the State Great Khural Mongolian People's Party politicians Foreign ministers of Mongolia Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 3rd class People from Bayankhongor Province 21st-century Mongolian politicians