Study: Hungary should redouble open data initiatives | Joinup

"The government of Hungary should redouble its efforts to make public sector information available as open data, and actively help to create market opportunities, a government white paper recommends. The ‘White Paper on National Data Policy’ was approved by the government in December.

[...]

The report, submitted in July by the advisory board of Hungary’s Council for Telecommunications and Information (NHIT), warns that Hungary risks falling behind in the use of public sector data. The NHIT in 2014 started pushing the government to take action to allow the broad-scale re-use of public sector information.

The White Paper is one of the outcomes of a 2015 Government Decree (No. 1310/2015), to set the groundwork for open data policies and activities.

The document makes seven recommendations:

• Set higher than EU-required open data targets;
• Actively encourage the use of open data, to create market opportunities and generate growth;
• Create a national data repository that can also host private sector open data;
• Make data available for free or at marginal cost;
• Create an organisation that specialises in the open data process;
• Consolidate the provisioning of data; and
• Start as soon as possible.

NHIT points out that by making open data available, Hungary can jumpstart the country’s data industry, potentially adding millions to GPD and creating thousands of new jobs. 'Public sector data and the data industry’s services will help establish the data economy, stimulate economic growth and advance society’s well-being', NHIT writes.

According to the White Paper, Hungary will now create and implement an action plan, to define responsibilities and set deadlines."