This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 22, 2021 - February 28, 2021

THE Malaysian government plans to improve its open data implementation, which is currently far behind most other countries, through the implementation of certain strategic initiatives outlined in the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint.

Open government data is data generated specifically by the government that can be freely used, shared and built on by anyone. Malaysia currently ranks 87th on the latest Global Open Data Index, only eight spots from the bottom. Open government data allows businesses to better evaluate locations to set up operations, enables greater citizen participation in policymaking, measures the effectiveness of existing policies and improves efficiencies in the delivery of public services.

One of the blueprint initiatives involves improving the current data-sharing environment to enhance evidence-based policy development. The government plans to establish guidelines to make government data open by default and to make it more accessible, reliable and comprehensive.

The Malaysian Government Central Data Exchange (MyGDX) will expand its service catalogues to include all ministries and government agencies to facilitate more data sharing. Ministries and agencies are required to produce their own open Application Programming Interface (API) to share real-time and aggregated data.

The authorities are targeting 50% of the data shared to be machine-readable and accessible through APIs, and for all ministries and agencies to use MyGDX by 2025. Through improved data sharing, authorities can incorporate more data in their analysis and development of future policies.

The blueprint also highlights the transformation of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) to become the sole agency responsible for pushing forward the public sector digital transformation agenda, including enforcing open data policies.

The government will review and strengthen Mampu’s role in designing nationwide systems for both federal and state governments to better drive digitalisation. Mampu has also been granted a greater mandate in enforcement, as well as the power to act as an advisor, project member or subject matter expert on nationwide digital-related projects.

Another initiative is for all current chief information officers from every ministry and government agency to assume the role of chief digital officer (CDO) at the top management level, leading in areas related to digital technologies, including open data, data infrastructure, data governance, data analytics, digital literacy and smart technology.

The government also plans to organise national open data digital challenges to create locally grown regional champions that use open data to resolve social and environmental issues. The challenges are also aimed at improving Malaysia’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index, currently 33 out of 131 globally.

The blueprint also highlights initiatives to increase data sharing and usage among specific sectors — agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services through an open API system and centralised data access.

Ashraf Shaharudin, a research associate at Khazanah Research Institute (KRI), welcomes the initiative to grant Mampu a greater mandate for enforcement. However, he is keen to know the form and extent of the mandate when it comes to open government data.

“For example, the Official Secrets Act 1972 gives broad discretionary power to individual government agencies to decide what data can be shared. Therefore, as it stands, Mampu has very limited power to enforce open data by default across all agencies,” says Ashraf.

“Likewise, privacy matters with regard to data collected and held by individual government agencies are regulated at agency level since there is no overarching privacy law for government data,” he adds.

He highlights that open government data is not only shaped by digital policies, but also “non-digital” policies as well. For example, although the blueprint cites plans to ensure government data is open by default, the absence of a Right to Information law does not compel agencies to share data.

“I would suggest that Malaysia seals its commitment to open government data by adopting international partnerships and declarations. Notably, Malaysia is not a member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) or the Open Data Charter (ODC),” says Ashraf.

Nurazam Malim, Twistcode Technologies Sdn Bhd CEO, voices his concerns about the government’s ability to set up the necessary infrastructure and back-end architecture to facilitate open government data. Twistcode is a high-performance computing and artificial intelligence solutions provider that has experience collaborating with several government agencies.

“For every ministry and government agency to establish an API system to feed MyGDX data, the typical way is to employ local vendors to help them set up the back-end processes,” says Nurazam.

“The problem is that many local vendors are using proprietary software or are subsidiaries of foreign companies, which are neither scalable nor future-proof. This may also introduce national security risks because cybersecurity agencies are not involved in every vertical.

“That means the government needs to develop the back-end processes internally with the help of Mampu. Mampu would then need to train people to facilitate the process. But as we have seen from many government agencies, once they are properly trained, many will resign and work for the private sector.”

Nurazam recommends that Mampu work with government-linked companies (GLCs) alongside agencies and ministries to create open GLC data. Doing so will allow Mampu to set up infrastructure and back-end processes that are aligned with market needs and, more importantly, provide talent with the motivation and incentives to continue working for the public sector.

Although there are merits for organising national open data challenges, Terato Tech and Slurp! CEO Reza Razali is afraid that these challenges merely serve as public relations stunts without any other impact.

“All these competitions, hackathons and challenges are definitely good platforms to help up-and-coming developers. But so far, the blueprint has yet to show how these events can be used to recruit data scientists to help execute the open data policy,” says Reza.

He points out that if Mampu plans on being the sole agency overseeing the public sector’s digital transformation progress, acquiring high-quality talent should be its highest priority as talented data scientists are in great demand and constantly poached by large corporations and GLCs.

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