Taiwan’s 6 special municipalities adopt Open Data Charter

2018/08/02

Taiwan’s six special municipalities—Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung—have adopted the Open Data Charter, becoming the first cities in Asia to do so, the Cabinet-level National Development Council announced July 31.
 
 The six cities in northern, central and southern Taiwan have pledged to implement the charter’s six key principles on how government information should be made available. These include ensuring data are open by default; timely and comprehensive; and for the purposes of better governance and engaging citizens.
 
 Adopting the charter will promote closer exchanges between the six municipalities and the other 48 national and local governments and 46 nongovernmental organizations that have signed up to it, the NDC said. It will also help deepen a culture of transparency in local government practices, while improving the quality of government data that is made public, the council added.
 
 Leading international organizations, including the U.N., Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and World Bank Group, are involved in the development of the charter, launched in 2015.
 
 Taiwan has taken numerous measures to promote access to and use of open government data. These include promulgating the Freedom of Government Information Law in 2005 and establishing an open government data platform in 2012.
 
 In April 2013, Taiwan joined U.K.-based Open Knowledge International, a nonprofit organization advocating the use of technology and training to create and share knowledge. The nation ranked top in the latest Global Open Data Index released by OKI in 2017.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=10&post=138968)