NMBS [Belgian National Railway] timetable should be made available as open data
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Digital Agenda, Alexander De Croo, responds positively to the call to make the NMBS timetable and real-time information available as open data. Open data is one of the objectives of Digital Belgium, the digital strategy that was announced earlier this week by the Minister.
The Minister is currently working with Secretary of State for Simplified Administration, Theo Francken, on a bill and federal open data strategy that will oblige government departments to release their data, unless there are legal grounds not to do so. This mainly involves reasons relating to privacy and security.
The bill, which overturns the European Public Sector Information (PSI) directive, shall be linked to a federal open data strategy to eliminate our country's trailing position in relation to open data. Opening up access to more data should stimulate innovation and lead to user-friendly applications for citizens and businesses.
The fact that Belgium must make an effort is demonstrated by the fact that Belgium is ranked 16th out of 28 EU countries in relation to open data. Our country is also missing out on a great deal of economic growth as a result. The total economic benefits resulting from making government data accessible might be as many as 40 billion euros per year according to the European Commission.
The potential profit for Belgium was estimated by Agoria as being 900 million euros as a result of opening up access to government data. Implementing this federal strategy the Minister and the Secretary of State not only wish to make more government data accessible to increase transparency, but also wish to improve the quality of this data and the ease of using it for businesses and citizens.
