GIS@development March - April 1999; The GIS@development outlook for the South Asian Region

Our esteemed readers must have noticed slight change in the GIS@development logo. Instead of calling ourselves India’s first GIS/GPS bimonthly, we are now rechristening ourselves as South Asia’s first GIS/GPS bimonthly. The obvious question is why?

In nearly two years of existence of the magazine, we have realised that there is a lot that can be done if India, and for that matter, any other country can learn from others experiences through better interaction. And what a better way to start with our neighbours, the South Asian countries. In fact, the global trends in economy and information technology are forcing countries to heed to more and more global factors.

Developing a South Asian GIS Strategy
The regional co-operation in GIS should be seen in the context of ongoing process of globalisation. Nations are moving from independent states trading within a small group of nations to interdependent states participating in a global trading system. A new European Community has emerged. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia have established a Free Trade Zone. The Asia-Pacific region is moving towards increased economic integration. The Concorda Agreement sets the stage for free trade between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and is seen as the precursor to a Pan American Economic Community. Mexico, the United States and Canada are partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The development of a trade agreement for all of the Americas seems inevitable, as is a single interdependent European alliance. SAARC is a reality. SAPTA (South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement) can not be far away.

Let us review the various imperatives for having a regional outlook in GIS for the South Asian countries.

IT Revolution
Information technology is dramatically changing the activities of mankind. It is laying the foundation for the transformation of existing social and economic relationships into an "information society". This is leading us to an ‘information revolution’, which is going to have deep impact in the history of mankind. Unlike other technological changes, the rapid development and diffusion of communication and information technologies have the potential to affect all economic sectors, organisational and work structures, public services, cultural and social activities.

A number of South Asian countries have put forward their visions of information society. They have understood that the realisation of these visions is not easy. For this vision to come true private sector should take the lead in the development and diffusion of new economic opportunities. But the rapid realisation of these economic opportunities will depend on governments designing and implementing a number of new policy frameworks, reviewing a number of existing institutional, legal and economic policies, ensuring access and providing appropriate incentives to private enterprises. These policy issues can be termed as the backbone, determining the economic growth in the region. Worldwide co-operation is indispensable for globalisation of economy particularly when it is dependent on the information technology, which is not restricted by borders.

Economic Reforms
National debts are on the priority list of the governments of South Asia Region, and will continue to be in the beginning of the new millennium. Reduction in government expenditure, coupled with measures to increase revenues, will continue to influence the way governments work in the region. Increasing globalisation and liberalisation trends have forced the South Asian economies to the threshold of potentially radical structural changes in their economic structures.

In order to pursue regional co-operation in GIS, we must understand and account for the influences that are driving the paradigm shift in public sector organisations worldwide as we move to a new century. They have traditionally and willcontinue, under different organisational structures, to be major clients and potential partners organisational structures, to be major clients and potential partners in the provision of GIS products and services. The influences are many and complex, and we will deal with those we believe are the most critical for all of us. The present scenario of world economy, the pace of globalisation, more informed and more demanding clients, technological and environmental issues will continue to be the some of the most influential factors affecting us. These external influences have to be considered while developing the objectives, strategies and framework of the regional co-operation in GIS.

Environmental Planning Needs
Many of the environmental issues of the region are trans-boundary. For example the study of Himalayan ecosystems in an integrated fashion requires close co-ordination of most of the countries of the region and beyond. Understanding the coastal system will require better scientific interaction between these countries. Disasters, which affect the region in a big way, needs co-ordinated approach to handle these problem. GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing technologies are proving to be efficient tools that enable decision-makers to address problems of natural resources and environmental management in an integrated manner. GIS integrates biophysical and socio-economic data and can be used to develop attractive studies for decision makers to address complex and highly multi-dimensional problems. Contrary to the conventional approach, these tools enable the compilation of multi-sectoral spatial data and their presentation in reasonably understandable map-format.

Spatial planning and political needs
With the building up of SAARC association and the near possible formation of SAFTA, the need for physical planning at the regional scale is being envisaged. The lack of spatial data sets showing inter alia communications infrastructures is being increasingly missed. Though explicitly it is yet to be expressed, there is certainly going to be an increasing need for GIS data in support of SAARC regional business activities. In particular, multi-national companies looking upon the SAARC region as a separate sales area, will most likely demand market relevant and comparable spatial information from the region.
This points to the future need of comparable socio-economic data and presentations thereof. These data sets are needed to support political agenda setting and policy developments at various political/administrative levels.

Dealing with vendors
Another area that concerns the entire South Asia Region is the vendors of the technology. Most of these vendors are based in the West, Australia or Japan. In some cases, these dealings have been frustrating (for both sides) with external solutions not living up to the promise, the solution provided being dictated more by what a donor hadto offer than by what the client needed.

Commercialisation of GIS and Remote Sensing
The South Asian region is slowly emerging as the global software service centre. This has led to emergence of many GIS data conversion centres in the region (RMSI in India, GeoSpatial in Nepal for example). The potential for this activity to expand in the region is immense. There is no reason why this sector of the economy should not develop strategies for attracting big GIS companies to invest in the region. All the South Asian countries are going to benefit by the development of a domestic commercial sector in this area.

Conclusion
There is a need to strengthen regional co-operation amongst the countries in the SAARC region to harness the potential of mapping technologies in better way. Effective co-ordination and transfer of technology on mutual basis is the need of the hour and the geographical and cultural proximity of the region also supports such co-operation. GIS@development will try to help facilitate the transition of South Asian GIS from closed markets with no, or limited competition in the geographic information technology areas, to open and dynamic markets for forging linkages between institutes in the region, exchange of information and technology from within the region.

Reference:

Global Information Infrastructure – Global Information Society (GII – GIS): Policy Requirements, OCDE/GD(97)139.
O’Donnell, J. Hugh, Global GIS Markets, Second International Geographic Information Systems (GIS)/Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Conference, Qatar, 1997.
Ryerson Bob, Common Challenges in the region for both GIS and remote sensing, GIS User, June-July 1998.