The Singapore Government has embarked on its National Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative. The chief executive of the Singapore Land Authority, Lam Joon Khoi, told the 2009 ESRI User Conference in Singapore that the S$12 million initiative, named the Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment, started in April 2008.
It aims to provide an infrastructure, mechanism and policies to allow convenient access to quality geospatial information in usable form. Key deliverables include new data, policies, institutional arrangements, standards, a clearinghouse and applications.
The project is a joint undertaking of the Infocomm Development Authority and the SLA. SLA is a division of the Ministry of Law. Infocomm is part of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts.
In his speech, Mr Lam pointed to two major challenges: getting good authoritative data, and convincing decision makers to invest in geospatial applications and information. He highlighted the importance of creating a transparent and collaborative environment to give confidence to data owners to share their data, and to reap its benefits.
Source:asmmag.com
