An NGO - Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) - is offering federal and state governments free consultation on how to adopt open data as part of their good governance agenda.

Ideas CEO Tricia Yeoh said this move supports the government's desire to transform public service for productivity, as stated in the 11th Malaysia Plan.

Yeoh said last year Malaysia's scores fell from 30.76 to 24.6 out of 100 in the 2015 Open Data Barometer (ODB).

ODB measures the open data performance of governments around the world.

Malaysia has started addressing the issue, while the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) recently announced its objective to take the country to the top 30 by 2020, Yeoh noted.

“This is achievable if we make more data available and accessible,” she said in her speech at the "Fighting Corruption through a Transparent and Open Government" seminar in Penang today.

The event, jointly organised by Ideas and the Governance, Integrity, Accountability and Transparency (GIAT) Coalition, was held at the Penang Institute in conjunction with the International Right to Know Day, which falls today, Sept 28.

Yeoh urged the federal government to lead the way by making this possible, adding that “we would like to see state governments follow suit too”.

“We can offer help by providing briefings, workshops and training sessions to federal and state legislators, local councillors and public servants at all levels,” she said.

Yeoh (photo) said governments that make use of open data have been able to improve their public service delivery.

She added that such administrations were able to increase public trust, boost business innovation in the economy, increase regional and international credibility, and enhance citizen participation in important policy-making processes.

“Civil society involvement can also provide oversight over the implementation of projects."

Increase capability of public servants

Yeoh also said the Malaysian government already has an open data agenda being rolled out at the national level.

In March, Public Service Department director-general Mohd Zabidi Zainal had expressed the government's desire to re-engineer the public sector.

The aim was to increase the capability of public servants to enable a dynamic, agile and flexible organisational structure strongly supported by technology.

The government wants to enhance service delivery for citizen-centric services, Mohd Zabidi had said.

"We want to support this aim. We see today that new data sets are being uploaded on the government's data portal on a regular basis.

“Information thayt has impact on peoples' lives are increasingly being shared. The government is moving in the right direction and we would like to help catalyse the process,” Yeoh said.

"Countries like Indonesia and the Philippines have already shown us that this can be done. By adopting open data principles, we can improve the governance of the federal government as well as state governments,” she added.