More Than Half of Asia/Pacific Governments Believe Cohesive Data Sharing Environments Need National-Level Guidance, IDC Reveals

SINGAPORE– The emergence of digital adoption demands country governments establish a well-defined regulatory system to enable cohesive data sharing environments, according to the IDC report titled Asia/Pacific Governments’ Data Policies to Enable Digital Economies . Almost 2/3rd of the national governments in the region said increased digital adoption is the driving force for implementing data governance policies.

Due to accelerated data generation, most countries in Asia/Pacific have started formulating different acts or policies centrally or across various states, provinces, or regions in terms of data protection, data security, data privacy, and data sharing to reduce the risk of cyberthreats and other types of data breaches. Establishing governance processes to enable collaboration and flow of data is crucial to improving the industry ecosystem. However, individual organizations’ cooperation is vital in ensuring sound enforcement.

“The responsibility for the protection of organizational and constituents’ digital assets does not lie solely within the IT departments of government agencies. Every stakeholder that gains access or owns a digital intellectual property (IP) needs to be compliant with the overarching regulations and norms of information flows within the jurisdictions in which they operate. Although access to information is critical for the survival of digital economies, governments need to continually monitor, legislate, and audit digital exchanges to ensure that trust is maintained and reinforced as data assets are leveraged and transacted within digital ecosystems,” said Gerald Wang, Head of IDC Asia/Pacific Public Sector for IDC Government Insights and Health Insights.

The report emphasizes that the country governments either take up new policies or amend the existing traditional ones to ensure timely intervention to drive data sharing and keep up with the pace of data explosion. Continuous engagement between respective governments and members of society is also necessary to raise awareness about data privacy and foster accountability, as well as to ensure that data protection laws are constantly evolving to deal with potential loopholes.

“Updated policies to protect and safeguard personal data are the need of the day with the accelerated digital adoption across sectors. Well-defined acts and policies provide confidence to organizations in adopting technological solutions. It is imperative that country governments adopt best practices and involve key stakeholders in finalizing policy guidelines for wider acceptance and seamless adoption. The focus must be on the enforcement of policies, and the responsibility goes beyond governments to all ecosystem players, including businesses and citizens, to help ensure governance and trust,” said Manoj Vallikkat, Research Manager, Public Sector, IDC Asia/Pacific.

For more information on this report, please contact, Gerald Wang at gwang@idc.com  or Manoj Vallikkat at mvallikkat@idc.com. For media inquiries, please contact Tessa Rago trago@idc.com  or Alvin Afuang aafuang@idc.com.

*Note: Asia/Pacific excluding Japan

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