Geospatial council meet to strengthen ocean information

The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources will host the Geospatial Information Council Meeting in Suva today.

This is in a bid to further enhance the co-ordination and collation of geospatial information.

The Fiji Geospatial Information Management Council meeting also comes on the back of the launch of the Vanua GIS portal.

It is expected to bolster the sharing of data between relevant agencies to centralise information regarding Fiji’s aerial, land and underground and ocean territory. Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources Permanent Secretary and Geospatial Information Council chair Malakai Finau said that accessibility to geospatial information was important in efforts to further national development.

“There is a need for cooperation and data sharing between all agencies especially on essential data and information that we need access to in order to centralise and streamline geospatial information,” Mr Finau said.

“We want to further progress the Vanua GIS as we had focused solely on gathering information on land prior to this, this is something we hope to improve on to boost strategic mapping of our landscape, both on land and in the sea,” he added.

Mr Finau said this would also be the Ministry’s commitment to the Oceans Conference as Fiji would be copresident of the UN Oceans Conference. Representatives from the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs, Fiji Elections Office, Department of Town and Country Planning and the Fiji Bureau of Statistics will present to members of the council who comprise of relevant Government Departments and key agencies like Water Authority of Fiji, Fiji Electricity Authority, Fiji Roads Authority, iTaukei Lands Trust Board, Telecom Fiji Limited with academic institutions such as University of the South Pacific, Fiji National University as well as Secretariat of the Pacific Community sitting in as observers. The meeting will be held at the Vale Ni Bose-Member’s Lounge at the GCC Complex.