In a new working paper published in the international ‘Journal of Public Administration & Governance’, the Emirates Identity Authority has called upon governments around the world to promote concepts and practices of ‘Open Data’ through focusing on disseminating qualitative data that can be used worldwide to enhance transparency and accountability.
In its paper entitled “Open Data.. A quantum leap in the government system”, Emirates ID emphasized that using and reusing open data will positively reflect on improving governments’ performance, level of services they provide and citizens’ welfare, as well as support economic transformation and boost countries’ competitiveness.
In the paper that was prepared by Dr. Eng. Ali Mohammed Al Khouri, Emirates ID’s Director General, Emirates ID called for devising well thought out plans for open data at the level of public organizations. “Those plans should be based on comprehensive government strategies with a clear vision of the objectives each government seeks to achieve through aligning them with their developmental goals,” Emirates ID clarified.
The paper, a copy of which is available on Emirates ID website www.emiratesid.ae, contained a case study on U.A.E., who took the leadership in developing a world-class model in utilizing open data as a means for supporting strategic decision making, foreseeing the future, facilitating government service delivery and making them at the reach of customers, towards elevating the citizens’ and residents’ lifestyle, especially through the “mGovernment” project.
The paper praised the U.A.E. government’s deep awareness of the significance of sharing data and information and learning about the world’s best practices in optimizing open data to achieve customer satisfaction within the framework of a philosophy that is based on understanding community’s needs and meeting the requirements of global competitiveness. “This is why the U.A.E. had ranked first in the global transparency index 2013 at the level of Middle East and North Africa region and came in the 26th place worldwide,” the paper added.
“Open Data helps government bodies create new ideas that contribute to improving their relationship with the citizens, which in turn helps support the gigantic economic transformations and maintaining high levels of living through encouraging innovation by the means of utilizing data to create new value added services and boost scientific research. This can be done through conducting researches and studies based on data and statistics published by those organizations,” the Emirates ID pointed out.
In this context, the paper highlighted the necessity of bolstering cooperation among government entities and developing partnership between the public and private sectors, in addition to encouraging the private sector to develop useful information models and systems, generating thereby new investment opportunities for entrepreneurs.
“In light of the contemporary global economy, governments around the world need to understand the new facts and move towards adopting new methodology to manage their relationships with their citizens,” the paper said, noting that the concept of open data has become the primary fact and trend over the past few years.
Journal of Public Administration and Governance (JPAG) is an internationally refereed journal published quarterly by Macrothink Institute, US. JPAG covers the fields of Public Policy, Governance, Administration and Human Resource Management. It also provides in-depth analysis of developments in the http://www.businesstoday.me/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/sample10.jpgistrative sciences worldwide.
Emirates ID had recently organized the “Open Government Data Forum” in collaboration with the UN in participation of international officials and experts from 15 countries.
Source : WAM News Agency for United Arab Emirates
