February 24, 2014. On the occasion of the international day of open data celebrated on February 22, the e-Government Centre launched a more accessible and efficient version of the portal www.date.gov.md within a special event, with the participation of Abdoulaye Seck  - World Bank Country Manager and key actors in this field, such as representatives of the Central Public Authorities, civil society, National Council for Participation, private and academic sector. 

After the launching of the new version of the www.date.gov.md portal (version 3:0), citizens will benefit from public information of general interest by means of innovative information. This version of the portal is connected to the CKAN open technological platform, widely used by the governments of other countries within the initiative of opening data.  The new portal provides the public institutions with the possibility to publish gross data straight from their information systems (by means of API), which will increase citizens’ access to public information. 

Stela Mocan, Executive Director at the e-Government Centre: “We should harness the potential of t he government data by rendering them open for free reuse. The access to public data can contribute to innovations, to creating new businesses, developing the academic and scientific environment. All these will contribute to the development of the Republic of Moldova, and the Government should undertake specific actions so as to meet the demand of access to information.” 

The creation of the new version of www.date.gov.md was also possible due to citizens’ involvement, who expressed their opinions, proposals and recommendations on the functionality of the open data portal. The information provided by the portal comprise public data intended for reuse: documents drafted due to the funding from the public budget or from foreign donations, public documents, documents in open formats and subject to automatic processing. The conditions of accessing and reusing the information can be found on the page and comply with the Law on reuse of public information. 

After the launching of the new version of the portal, we also launched its page on Facebook – Open Government Data. Apart from the Facebook page, the interested people can also follow the Twitter account: DateGovMD. By means of these profiles, users will be informed on the set of new published data, applications based on open data in Moldova, infromations on the techniques of reuse government data. 

The possibility to provide general data that can be used, reused and redistributed freely by anyone and is part of Moldova’s commitment related to the advance in rendering open government data.