CYBERJAYA, Nov 2 — Malaysia will be the first country in Asean to employ the World Bank-developed Open Data Readiness Assessment (Odra) methodology to improve public service delivery, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun.
He said Odra would help the government to prepare for future challenges as Malaysia moved towards achieving the vision of becoming an advanced nation by 2020.
This would be done by harnessing the power of open data for the public and private bodies to collaborate and communicate on iniatives that would improve the quality of the people's life and well-being, he said.
"Global evidence suggests the strong role that open data can play in improving public service delivery, strengthening accountability, building trust between government and people, generating entrepreneurship and innovation," he said.
Entulu said this in his opening speech at the Odra Seminar in collaboration with the World Bank here today. The seminar was organised by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) in conjunction with Odra (assessment) from Oct 31 to Nov 8 here.
Entulu said the government had taken the initiative in formulating the fundamental developments needed in supporting Malaysia's drive towards the establishment of a knowledge-based economy.
He said Malaysia ranked 51 among 86 countries last year, and was aiming to be in the top 30 of the Global Open Data Barometer in 2020.
On the Odra seminar, Entulu said the programmes were to share knowledge and experience on the implementation of open data from international experts from the World Bank.
"This initiative is a common platform to transform the government service delivery towards improved quality of life, prosperity of the rakyat and raise Malaysia's ranking globally," he added.
Entulu said he hoped that the assessment, which was being carried out, would help to create an action plan for Malaysia to take forward its open data agenda where efforts could be prioritised to continue to support the open data environment.
"The report will also highlight good practices and lessons learned from the international community, contextualised for Malaysia. The assessment will be in accordance with our country's readiness," he said.
The assessement on readiness of the government will focus on eight areas, namely leadership, legal framework or policy, institutions, application and co-creation, capability, development, people engagement, innovation funding and infrastructure or technology.
Meanwhile, Mampu director-general Datuk Seri Zainal Rahim Seman said Mampu would collaborate with the World Bank to produce a report with the focus on the institutional arrangements, engagements with consumer groups and priorities setting of the open dataset.
"Open Data plays an important role in Malaysia's digital economy as it provides a company or government the data in search of valuable business information and insights," he said.
Zainal Rahim said government ministries and agencies had made available 1,300 open datasets, which members of the public could access at data.gov.my portal. — Bernama
