The government is providing open data to encourage innovation, Vice Premier Chang San-cheng said today at the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Development Bureau's (IDB) presentation of the achievements of its open data program.
Chang affirmed the related efforts of ministries and agencies in the past few years, and he expects the government to make open data development more sophisticated and not only meet global standards but surpass them.
"The government must change its attitude and place more importance on communication with the public," the vice premier said. In turn, agencies must change their thinking and proactively make data publicly accessible rather than focusing on how open data can serve the government itself. Open data should be used to meet the public's needs, and through a "supply and demand" mechanism the range and sophistication of open data can be enhanced.
The IDB pointed out that under one of its guidance plans for businesses this year, commercial application of government open data on traffic volume and population density will strengthen enterprises' competitiveness by helping them choose better business sites.
Open data will also benefit citizens in many ways, the bureau said. For example, a new open-data product combines registered information on actual real estate prices with technology to assess the value of personal property in order to provide citizens needed services for real estate transactions.
The vice premier also viewed products that use open data and watched a micro movie, directed by Arthur Luo-chun Chang, about open data's benefits to the world.