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October 2003 |
A man of all seasons
During this period, a funding grant was obtained from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to acquire some basic infrastructure such as computers, image processing software as well as GIS facilities, etc. An amount of 3 million Canadian dollar was involved. "Only space and infrastructure are not enough to run a Centre. One needs to have skilled and trained man power as well."
Dato Nik recalls, " I requested the Government to give some professionals from other department for managerial post and also started sending professionals with relevant background overseas for training."
In 1990, the Government provided 15 temporary staff, but they had to return to their organizations after serving for two years. In 1993, the Government finally approved a permanent staff structure of around 150 people. As the technology was new and most of the staff were fresh graduates, they were required to be trained in Remote Sensing at post graduate level, MSc and PhD.
Time to deliver
Once the Centre was established, it was also expected to deliver. One of the projects undertaken was NAREM - a satellite remote sensing based National Resources and Environmental Management Programme under which disparate databases of satellite imageries was collated together - helped in capacity building of the staff.
"There are, however, several other factors which are important. While heading the Centre, I realized that it is the human factor that comes first. We had to develop relationship with other organizations in a way that we are accepted as a facilitator rather than a threat that encroach on their work. With this approach the sense of insecurity started disappearing." Said Dato'.
With this in mind, MACRES signed several MoUs with organisations working in the field such as JUPEM, UPM, Forest Department, Agriculture Department etc. Several projects got formulated after this and started being implemented in unison. A level of close inter-organisational interaction was established. In the same period, training schedules for various departments were worked out. Eventually, an atmosphere of collaborative and unified working started emerging.
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