UNITED NATIONS CARTOGRAPHIC CONFERENCE FOR ASIA AND PACIFIC CONCLUDES IN OKINAWA

United Nations Cartographic Conference for Asia and Pacific CONCLUDES IN Okinawa

(Delayed in transmission.)

On Friday, 18 July, the Sixteenth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific concluded its five-day meeting.  About 215 participants from 42 countries and four specialized agencies and international scientific organizations, as well as 30 invited speakers came together in Okinawa, Japan to advance work on cartography and geographical information technologies and applications throughout the region.

In his opening remarks, Chuuma Kouki, Senior Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan, stressed the socio-economic importance of developing national, regional and global spatial data infrastructures and highlighted their critical role for economic and sustainable development.  He also emphasized the key role of cadastral and land administration systems in spatial data infrastructure as well as the importance of the Global Mapping project.

The reports of plenary sessions and three technical committees reflected substantial progress being made with respect to technical developments in the field of cartography and geographic information, and other issues related to assisting member States in the region to utilize fully the opportunities provided by geographic information technologies and applications.

Among the significant progress achieved since the last conference held in Kuala Lumpur in 2000, are the development of many national spatial data infrastructures in the Pacific region, the progress made on regional geodetic projects and the efforts made to improve institutional capacity-building and educational programmes as well as spatial data collection, management and dissemination policies.

Special emphasis was placed on the importance of spatial data infrastructures as part of the national spatial data infrastructure, their promotion through international co-operation, and the dissemination of cartographic and GIS products to the users through Internet and other media.

The United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific is organized and substantively serviced by the United Nations Statistics Division/ Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

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