MUSCAT: The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology will launch a unified open data platform by the end of this year, according to a senior Ministry official.

Hassan bin Fida Hussain al Lawati, Head of the National Programme for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies, shared the following, "The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology is currently working on a project to establish a unified open data platform, which is expected to be launched on a trial basis by the end of this year. This platform will provide a vast amount of open data across various fields and sectors." He added: "In the face of rapid digital transformation, open data has become one of the vital factors for enhancing transparency, stimulating innovation, and improving public services. It also plays a role in raising Oman’s ranking in digital transformation and government readiness for artificial intelligence.” “Therefore, the ministry, as part of the National Open Data Initiative, seeks to encourage government entities to start publishing their data and enhancing its availability across various sectors and fields. To achieve this, the Open Data Policy was issued in June 2020, which sets the basic standards for open data and unifies the approach in making and publishing open data produced and collected by state administrative units.

According to this policy, all government institutions are required to make their data available for public use for research and commercial purposes," Al Lawati stated.

According to the policy, open data is defined as “digital data that can be used or reused freely by any individuals or organisations without technical, financial, or legal restrictions”.

However, for data to be considered as open, they must be provided in formats that “allows users to benefit from and reuse it in innovative and useful ways.”

In order to facilitate the process, 18 open data teams have been formed with government bodies thus far, said Hamdan bin Mohammed al Alawi, Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies Development Department.

"Forming open data teams in government institutions is a cornerstone for achieving the goals of the Open Data Initiative. The ministry has formed a dedicated open data team and encouraged other government institutions to form their own teams. So far, 18 open data teams have been formed within government institutions.

These teams work together to ensure their efforts align with the National Digital Transformation Initiative and the Open Data Policy. The ministry also holds regular workshops between these teams to introduce the principles of the Open Data Publication Policy, explain the criteria for evaluating government entities in the field of open data publication, and promote best practices for data classification and publication."

The official further noted: "Until the unified open data platform is established, these teams, in cooperation with digital transformation teams in various government institutions, are working to accelerate the availability of open data on dedicated pages within the websites of those institutions."

Similarly, the Ministry has also recently unveiled a personal data protection policy earlier this year, which establishes a framework for the collection, processing and dissemination of personal data by government units.

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