United Nations Sponsors Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP) Ad hoc Meeting

27 October 2011, KINTEX, Ilsan, Republic of Korea

PCGIAP convened an Ad hoc meeting on the sideline of the United Nations 1st High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management and the meeting was attended by 13 of the 56 member jurisdictions.

The meeting not only considered administrative matters and reports, but reviewed ongoing activities undertaken by its Working Groups. More importantly, on the heels of the successful inaugural United Nations High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management, the meeting discussed common issues and challenges within the region as well as the future direction of PCGIAP. There were consensus to have PCGIAP renamed to UN-GGIM Asia and the Pacific, to consider policy and institutional related challenges and to collaborate with international geospatial information societies such as FIG on technical and capacity related challenges.

The challenges of small island developing states in the Pacific in participating in PCGIAP’s meeting and activities was highlighted and FIG expressed its desire to collaborate with PCGIAP in particularly to further the intent and objects of the FIG “Sydney Agenda for Action”. FIG and the Task Force on Surveyors and Climate Change should begin a dialogue with her member associations in Australia and New Zealand to consider avenues to further the intent and objects of the FIG “Sydney Agenda for Action”. This also has to be taken into consideration the light of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 4 – 6 June 2012.

The meeting also welcomed the support and collaboration of FIG and its sister organizations within the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies, namely GSDI, ICA and ISPRS in this instance, in the upcoming International Symposium on Spatially Enabled Government and Society with the theme “Towards Spatial Maturity” that will be organised by the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 15 & 16 February, 2012. The outline program was discussed and endorsed at the meeting and members present expressed both enthusiasm and intention to participate in this important symposium, essentially the first response from the Asia and the Pacific Region following the highly successful United Nations inaugural High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management. The Symposium will have the following four sub-themes –
Spatial Enablement: Legislative and Governance Framework;
Spatial Enablement: Positioning and Information Infrastructure;
Spatial Enablement: Contribution of Geospatial Professionals and Industry; and
Spatial Enablement in Action and Towards Spatial Maturity.

In addition, it was proposed that there will be a forum on Malaysia’s User Driven Approaches, bring the user’s dimension into the consideration of the symposium as well as a Panel Discussion on “Spatial Maturity: Dream or Reality”.

CheeHai TEO
President
October 2011

11 November 2011