“State bodies are closed not only to citizens, but also to other government organizations” – Expert

On September 27, the international conference “Open Data Tashkent 2019” was held at the INHA University within the framework of the “ICT Week – Uzbekistan 2019”. 

At the conference, an exchange of views took place on ensuring the openness of government bodies, with participation of specialists from the State Statistics Committee, World Bank, National Agency for Project Management, Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications and OSCE project coordinator in Uzbekistan.

A consultant of the OSCE project coordinator in Uzbekistan Azimiddin Rakhmatov spoke about the factors that impede the openness of state bodies in the country.

“In Uzbekistan, there are a number of factors that impede the openness of state bodies. Firstly, the existing normative-legal and methodological framework does not meet modern requirements. Secondly, an open data monitoring system has not been formed. Thirdly, state bodies are closed not only to citizens, but also to other government organizations. What needs to be done to improve the situation? The biggest challenge is to develop an open data development concept in Uzbekistan. It is necessary to gain trust of citizens in government bodies. By monitoring the activities of government organizations, a solid civil society can be built. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to create an ecosystem of open data,” Kun.uz correspondent quoted the expert as saying.

Rakhmatov also noted that in the normative-legal acts that are being developed in this sphere, it is necessary to clearly identify open and closed data, adopt international legal standards and establish responsibility for disclosure of classified information.