The Austrian government has updated its working program, thereby defining and extending the previous one from 2013. The government’s overall aim is to strengthen growth and employment, support corporations, guarantee more security for citizens and create a more competitive and sustainable Austria. Furthermore, new opportunities will be used in the area of digitalisation, energy-, climate- and environmental protection issues. In terms of digitalisation, Austria is facing the need to catch up in developing and using digital infrastructure. Amongst other measures, the government therefore envisages to make extensive use of the potentials that Open Data offers. The platform data.gv.at provides access to more than 2,100 data sources and is supposed to be further extended. Until the end of 2020, all of the public administration data shall be available, as far as possible, as Open Data. On the one hand, this will increase transparency and on the other hand, it creates a basis for business opportunities for innovative start-ups and corporations. In order to reach this goal, the available databases will be tested for their Open Data suitability until October 2017. In addition, the integration of private sector databases will be accelerated on a voluntary basis.
