Annex 7

Report by the Secretary
Mr Drew Clarke, Australia
to the
4th Meeting of the
Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific
Tehran, Iran
28 February – 4 March 1998

This report highlights the activities of the Australian Secretariat since the meeting of the Permanent Committee in Bangkok, Thailand in February 1997. The Secretary offers sincere gratitude to all who assisted the Secretariat during this period.

The report also covers the proposed activities of the Secretariat following this meeting in Tehran.

The Secretariat sees the Tehran meeting as an opportunity for the Committee to ensure its directions for the future are on the right course. The Committee has already demonstrated the capacity to take a lead role globally in spatial data activities and to further coordinate its activities with other like bodies around the world, for mutual benefit.

Mr Drew Clarke, Head, Analytical and Mapping Division, of the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism replaced Mr Brendan Godfrey as the Australian Secretary to the Permanent Committee in November 1997.

Mr Tony Bevin, New Zealand tendered his resignation as Chairman of Working Group 2. Mr Peter Holland, Australia agreed to take on the role of acting Chairman of Working Group 2 up to the Tehran meeting.

The final report of the 3rd meeting of the Permanent Committee held in Bangkok, Thailand was published by the Australian Secretariat and distributed to all members and participants from the meeting in Bangkok. The Secretariat has made the report available on the Permanent Committee World Wide Web site.

The Australian Secretariat is particularly grateful to The Royal Thai Survey Department and The Department of Survey and Mapping, Malaysia who put together a draft report of the meeting and provided it to the Secretariat.

Japan, who so ably hosted the Executive Board meeting held in Kobe on 10-11 November 1997, arranged production of the proceedings of the meeting and related correspondence with assistance from Australia. The report has been distributed by Japan to all Board Members.

The Secretariat has assisted the President and the Iranian Organising Committee in preparation for this meeting in Tehran. The Secretariat is very grateful to the President and Iran for their excellent cooperation in this regard.

The Secretariat produced Permanent Committee stationery incorporating a Permanent Committee logo that has also been included in the Permanent Committee World Wide Web site.

Printed on the stationery is the standard email contact for the Secretariat: permcom@auslig.gov.au

In support of the promotional activities of the Permanent Committee, representatives of the Secretariat presented the following two papers about the Permanent Committee as follows:

by Dato’ Abdul Majid Bin Mohamed

Presented by Mr Alister Nairn, Manager Spatial Data Infrastructure Program, AUSLIG

at the GIS Asia Pacific Conference in Jakarta 14-16 October 1997.

by Brendan Godfrey, Peter Holland, Alister Nairn, Graham Baker and Bob Irwin.

Presented by Peter Holland at the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure conference Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 19-21 October 1997. The paper featured in the December 1997 edition of Cartography, the Journal of the Mapping Sciences Institute, Australia. This journal was distributed to all Permanent Committee Members in December 1997 and limited numbers are available from the Organising Committee.

The Committee receives considerable promotion through its World Wide Web site which is maintained by the Secretariat.

A significant upgrade and update of the Web site was carried out that includes:

• Improved links between the various pages in the Web site and links to related Web sites;
• The final reports from the Sydney and Bangkok meetings;
• Documentation of Resolutions and Recommendations from meetings of the Permanent Committee;
• A What$BCT(B New page;

• Technical Papers including the above mentioned:
  
  RECENT ACTIVITIES OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON GIS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

and

• Pages for each Working Group and progress reports on their activities. The Working Group 3 page on geodesy has been designed to encourage the collation of basic geodetic information from each member country;
• Information about the meeting in Tehran.

The Web site undergoes continued updating and upgrading that includes:

• Outcomes from the meeting of the Kobe Executive Board and the Tehran meeting;
• Progress reports on working group activities;
• A template that will enable Committee Members to report on their national surveying, mapping and GIS activities;
• Resolutions of United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences for Asia and the Pacific (UNRCC-AP);
• Information about related activities around the world, for example the GSDI Conference in Canberra in November 1998;
• Further development of links to other sites, for example to related United Nations activities including for the UNRCC-AP and other UNRCCs, and to the ISO/TC211 site.

• The Secretary will present a paper during the Tehran meeting on proposed future directions for the Permanent Committee.

• Ongoing provision of secretariat support to the Executive Board, the Committee, and the Working Groups.
• Undertake action from meetings of the Committee and the Executive Board.
• Maintenance of the Permanent Committee Web site.
• On behalf of the Committee, the Secretariat is arranging the next GSDI Conference in Canberra on 16-18 November 1998. The most recent GSDI Conference held in North Carolina in October 1997 invited the Permanent Committee to host the next GSDI Conference in the Asia-Pacific rim.
• Several Committee members have been invited to participate in a Special Working Group Meeting of the United Nations Regional Conferences which will take place in Aguascalientes , Mexico, from 25 to 27 March, 1998. Peter Holland will represent the Committee at this meeting and will report back to the Committee on outcomes.

Mr Drew Clarke
Secretary

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