Hong Kong government set to make selected data public, which could be a help for drivers and hospital patients, among others

Drivers could next year say goodbye to the hassle of having to hunt around Hong Kong’s narrow streets for that precious vacant parking space, as the city’s government sets out a route to opening up its data.

Victor Lam Wai-kiu, the government’s chief information officer, announced on Thursday that government bodies, including the Transport Department and the Lands Department would be releasing 650 new open data sets this year, taking the total number of open data sets available to about 4,000 by the end of this year.

One of those to be made available in March next year would be real-time parking vacancy data of on-street metered parking spaces. That means finding a parking space could by then be as simple as a few taps on one’s smartphone.

The push is in line with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s vision, announced in her policy address last year, to turn Hong Kong into a smart city.

“Opening up data is not as simple as just releasing it. The data needs to be in a machine-readable format, so companies will then be able to use it to make applications,” Victor Lam said. “By opening up the data, we are providing raw materials for companies to be creative and make new applications out of it.”

From June this year, the government will also be releasing the real-time data set of the number of vacant parking spaces in 11 government car parks. At present, the data is only updated every hour.

The Hospital Authority currently updates every 15 minutes on data on waits for emergency services. It is planning to let patients know how long they must wait for services at specialist outpatient clinics.