The government of the Belgian region of Flanders has officially established the Agentschap Informatie Vlaanderen (Information Agency Flanders), the region announced on 18 March. The organisation is to build a government-wide information policy and support the region in its transition to an information-driven government.

The new agency was created by merging the Flanders Agency for Geographical Information (AGIV) and the government Department for Information Flanders. The new institute will be headed by Luc Lathouwers, until the regional government has appointed the agency’s Director-General, according to the announcement.

The agency is to support the regional government with its digitisation policies, acquisition, management and use of information, along with the integration of eGovernment services and management of public archives. Government information (data), and eGovernment services should be made available in user-friendly ways, and the agency is to involve public administrations, companies, organisations and citizens to make use of this information.

The information agency is to build and manage a central data platform to organise all public administration products and services, and help them to integrate these.

Products and services

The agency is starting with 24 products and services. Examples include the Geoportal, which aggregates the region’s geographic information, GRB, the regio’s topographic reference database, and VKBO, one of the country’s crossroads data banks, aggregating all information related to enterprises.

More information:

About the Agentschap Informatie Vlaanderen (in Dutch)
Announcement by the Flemish government (in Dutch)