Govt: NZ at “forefront” of Open Data

New Zealand continues to be one of the best countries in the world at allowing open access to government data, according to Finance Minister Bill English and Land Information Minister Louise Upston.

As reported by Computerworld New Zealand, the recently released 2014/15 Open Data Barometer Global Report shows that the country leads the East Asia-Pacific region and ranks fourth-equal with France in the world behind the UK, US and Sweden.

“Open data is a key indicator of a country’s innovation, transparency and lack of corruption,” English says.

English believes the Government’s Open Data Initiative, led by Land Information New Zealand, is one of a range of measures driving better use of public data, while upholding high ethical and privacy standards.

Measures include investing in Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure system, establishing the Data Futures Forum and the data.govt initiative.

“The actuarial valuation of the welfare system is an example of how data can be used to help deliver better public services at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” he adds.

Minister for Land Information Louise Upston says it was pleasing that New Zealand had scored highly for the release of map and land ownership data, as well as statistics about the Census, Budget, international trade and crime.

The rapidly increasing number of people and businesses accessing information through the LINZ data service demonstrates the benefit of making data easily accessible,” Upston adds.

“Open data is a rapidly expanding area and we could not have maintained our fourth place on the Open Data Barometer’s Global Report without making significant progress since the previous report.”