Taiwan has come out on top among 122 nations and areas in this year’s Global Open Data Index, emerging as the first non-European nation to place in the top three, according to Open Knowledge International, which released the index on Tuesday.
The result represented a major leap for Taiwan, which finished 36th in 2013 and 11th last year in the annual index that measures how open governments are in providing key information.
However, in a statement on this year’s index, Open Knowledge International said that “significant progress is still to be made, as Taiwan’s overall score reveals that their data is only 78 percent open.”
“Crucial datasets such as government spending, postcodes and land ownership are still closed and inaccessible to citizens,” the British non-profit organization said.
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said that open data and value-added applications are an important strategy for promoting good governance, service innovation and overall economic development, and are a solid foundation for the government’s Internet policy, called “ide@Taiwan.”
Under the policy, concrete goals and plans were drawn up for the nation to become fully digitized by 2020, according to the Executive Yuan.
Rounding out the Open Data Index top 10 following Taiwan were the UK, Denmark, Colombia, Finland, Australia, Uruguay, the US, the Netherlands and Norway.
The next-highest ranked countries in Asia were India at 19th, South Korea at 23rd and Singapore at 25th.
While the top rankings remained dominated by OECD members, three non-OECD nations broke into the top 10 this year for the first time, Open Knowledge said, referring to Taiwan, Colombia and Uruguay.
“Overall, whilst there was meaningful improvement in the number of open datasets (from 124 to 154), the percentage of open datasets across all the surveyed countries fell from 11 percent in 2014 to 9 percent in 2015,” the group said. “It is clear that little progress has been made at the global level.”
According to Open Knowledge, the index is the result of civil society collaboration to track the state of open data in countries and places around the world.
The index ranks nations based on the availability and accessibility of data in 13 key categories, including national statistics, government budgets, government spending, legislation, election results, procurement tenders and national maps.
Other categories are pollution emissions, weather forecasts, company registers, location datasets, water quality and land ownership.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to