Taipei, June 16 (CNA) Taiwan has maintained its top spot in the Global Open Data Index for a second consecutive year, according to the latest index released by Open Knowledge International on Thursday.
In the annual index that measures how open governments are in providing key information, Taiwan was ranked first among 94 countries and areas this year, followed by Australia and France.
They were followed by Great Britain in fourth and Norway in fifth, with Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and Northern Ireland rounding out the top 10.
The next highest ranked countries in Asia were Japan at 16th, Singapore at 18th and Hong Kong at 24th. China was not covered in the survey.
Taiwan was one of only two countries to achieve a level of 100 percent openness in at least half of the 15 categories of government information that make up the survey.
It had a perfect score in 12 of the 15 categories, compared to eight out of 15 for Australia.
The only categories in which government data in Taiwan was found to not be completely open was in the areas of water quality (85 percent open), national laws (65 percent open) and government spending (which rated a 0).
The National Development Council, the top economic planning agency in the country, said Taiwan's strong performance in the index represented global recognition of the central and local government efforts to promote open data.
According to the council, more than 27,000 data entries are available to the public through various government platforms, with information related to air quality, election results, government budgets and real estate transactions offering the most valuable and innovative applications.
The NDC pledged that the government will continue its efforts to provide accurate and up-to-date public information and said it is also working with the private sector to ensure that the information compiled can be informative as well as practical.
