Oman tops region in data openness ranking

Energy Saturday 02/March/2019 21:16 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman tops region in data openness ranking

Muscat: The Sultanate, represented by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), secured the first place in data openness at the West Asian and Middle East regional level and the 27th place at the world level, according to ODIN Report issued, yesterday, by the Open Data Watch Inventory (ODIN).
The report is the only one providing evaluation covering the openness of data on the websites offered (the data) by the national apparatuses concerned with statistics. The ODIN report stated that the Sultanate has advanced 27 places in 2018 compared to 2017 and secured the 27th place among 178 countries at the world level and that the Sultanate maintained the 54th place in 2017 out of 180 countries. Oman got 64 points in 2018 compared to 51 points in 2017.
The ODIN report of 2018 evaluated the Sultanate’s open data through evaluation of the data of the website of the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) mainly the three portals for social data, economic data and environmental data.
The report also pointed to the improvement the Sultanate’s economic data witnessed as it improved from 61 points in 2017 to 83 points in 2018 due to the improvement of statistics of databases of banks in particular.
The report also indicted that the Sultanate has managed to secure high values in openness and coverage in the majority of statistics sectors available to users through the data portals of NCSI.
The report also pointed to the progress made in data related to social statistics as the overall degree in this sector improved to 72 in 2018 compared to 64 in 2017.
The significance of the ODIN report stems from the importance of the open data in sustainable development and as it helps enhance the country’s open data policies.