144  No. 50741 GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 31 May 2024 15.2. Access to Data and Cloud Services Data possesses several critical features that provide opportunities for socio-economic development and inclusion. The government, as a repository of vast volumes of data from various sectors, is uniquely positioned to offer complete, high-quality, and reliable data for use by SMMEs, startups, and industry, while ensuring compliance with privacy protection requirements. This necessitates the development and adoption of frameworks to make government data available to different sectors of society. A significant portion of government data remains in paper form due to the slow pace of technology adoption and a lack of resources. To enable meaningful processing, this data needs to be converted into digital formats. The private sector also amasses substantial volumes of data through its transactional relationships with customers, which include citizens, organizations, institutions, and other companies. When made available and utilized, this data can help derive insights that drive innovation, foster creativity in problem-solving, and facilitate the development of new and tradable digital goods and services. If the government and private sector collectively pool their data to ensure accessibility to all, while ensuring compliance with privacy protections, such data can create a robust foundation for a digital and data-driven economy. Importantly, it can significantly contribute to the development of evidence-based policies and strategies by the government and ensure that its service delivery programs are responsive to diverse and unique citizen needs. In summary, access to both government and private sector data can: • Enhance innovation and creativity in problem-solving. • Facilitate the development of new digital goods and services. • Support the creation of evidence-based policies and strategies. • Ensure responsive and efficient government service delivery. For data to be truly valuable, it must be timely, consistently available, accurate, complete, unique, and valid. This ensures that the data can be effectively used to drive socioeconomic development and foster inclusivity. 22 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za