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The 4^th Edition of the Open Data Barometer report on East Asian countries found the Philippines leading the way among lower middle-income countries in its overall openness category, ranking 22nd of 115 countries. Even without a Freedom of Information law, by their annual budget legislation, open data is required to be published by agencies. There have been new initiatives being made available through this initiate and gaining popularity. They are Bottom-Up Budgeting, Open Reconstruction and Project NOAH, which will make budgeting and planning inclusive, make donor and government projects more transparent, and improve disaster-preparedness.

The report also shows that Indonesia, being ranked 38^th, continues to improve its readiness to implement its open data policies. The government continues to create collaboration with civil society on a multitude of projects such as Hackathon Merdeka and Compfest which shows promising support for open data at regional and national levels. It goes on to say however, that implementation and visible impact of open data in the country is still lacking.

A rather promising finding of the report looks at countries in the region are challenging the early open data leaders, with four countries already taking spots in the top 10. A surprising finding to see South Korea as the top performing country in the region coming in 5^th.

The report highlights an important aspect on how the region is doing globally, which says that its implementation is still slow. Sighting only 7% of datasets analysed in the region were open, and key datasets that make governments accountable, pertaining to contracts, companies and spending data, remain unshared. It showed that this remained the least open dataset in the region.

However, the civil society being part of the transformation isn’t showing signs of letting up. In fact, the report says, even countries with a weak history of civil society participation such as Malaysia and Singapore are strong. Hopefully with government support pouring in the private sector will start to shake off their shackles and move into open data readiness.

Other findings show that through high income countries in the region, publication of innovation datasets is improving and leading the way in using data to improve its economic growth.

Also more and more evidence is being gathered on how open data is helping governments become more efficient across the board, thus helping even low to middle class countries. However, it is lacking, it says, in actual terms of being of use to its citizens and the marginalised.

By participating in Big Open Wrangle you are personally helping to improve Malaysia’s rank against our South East Asian neighbours. A large contributing factor to a nation’s ranking includes, is open data being used and are individuals contributing to open data initiatives? By becoming a Big Open Wrangler you are doing exactly that. Please sign up by clicking this link.

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