HCM City (VNA) - Though Vietnam has made great strides in streamliningadministrative procedures and developing e-governance, more needs to be done toenable businesses and the public to access information from the Government, aroundtable heard in Ho Chi Minh City on January 23.

Tran Ngoc Liem, deputy director of the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry’s HCM City Branch, said businesses need manykinds of information such as domestic and global markets and the output ofcertain sectors, but they find it hard to get it.

This is valuable information that helpsbusinesses analyse their investment and trading opportunities, Liem said.

He said the World Bank had anopen data for business tool and hoped its working group would suggestrecommendations and support Vietnam’s efforts to successfully establish adigital government and open data.

Open data is freely availableonline for anyone to use and reproduce. While social media, companies andnon-government organisations (NGOs) can all be sources of open data, the mostwidely used data comes from governments and government-supported institutions.

Using open data would offerbenefits like more efficient public administration, economic growth in theprivate sector and social welfare.

Alla Morrison, innovation dataprogramme coordinator at the World Bank, said businesses can use open data “asa source of information for research and decision making, and as new materialto create new data-driven products, services and application platforms”.

Many countries have developedopen data and reaped its benefits, she said.

The most widely quoted is astudy by McKinsey Global Institute, which estimated that open data (fromgovernment and non-government sources) could create 3-5 trillion USD annuallyin economic value worldwide in the seven sectors of education, transportation,consumer products, electricity, oil and gas, healthcare and consumer services.

Open data can give potentialinvestors essential information they need about a country’s governance,infrastructure and resources.

Investors may be interested indata about a country’s census statistics, workforce skills, tariffs, land orthe national infrastructure.

It can help launch newbusinesses, make existing businesses more efficient and profitable, increaseemployment and attract foreign investment, according to the World Bank.

The bank’s internationalexperts are working with local partners to collect information about thereality and Vietnam’s readiness level with respect to open data and digitalgovernment.

At the Roundtable on Open Dataand Digital Government Readiness Assessment, delegates, including businessesleaders, representatives of business groups and others, were divided intogroups to discuss how their organisations use data, the current or potentialbarriers to data access and use and other issues.

In spring this year, the WorldBank will offer Vietnam a roadmap and recommendations on developing opendata.-VNA