Data governance in the public sector is a whole-of-government approach to creating, protecting, using, managing, and sharing data as a strategic asset, enabling informed decisions that lead to better outcomes and services for citizens. Good data governance is therefore compulsory for governments that aim to become more data driven as part of their digital strategy and initiatives. The 2020 global digital government ranking of the 193 UN members, which reflects the scope and quality of online services, status of telecommunication infrastructure, and human capacity in digitalization, ranked the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the top 20 in the 2020 UN E-Government Survey. This means the ROK can offer learning opportunities to other APO members in terms of digital or e-government initiatives.

To facilitate this, the APO organized a multicountry observational study mission on Data Governance in the Public Sector to Improve Productivity, 24–25 November, in partnership with the Korea Productivity Center. The program included sessions on understanding the data-driven public sector; the data ecosystem in the ROK; a case study of Seoul transport; the ROK government’s digital policy, open government data policies, and best practices; and sharing of examples in other countries by participants.

The 34 participants came from various public-sector organizations in 12 member countries. Five resource persons, four from the ROK and one from the Philippines, gave presentations, responded to queries, and guided discussions.