Page 1 of 1  Mohsin Bin Haji Ahmad Director, Malaysian Centre for Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MaCGDI) Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment Q. How did MaCGDI come into being? It was NaLIS (National Infrastructure for Land Information System) that gave birth to the present Malaysian Centre for Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MaCGDI). NaLIS, formed in 1997, was an initiative of the Government to promote and facilitate sharing, exchange, dissemination and use of geospatial information among Land Related Agencies (LRAs) that existed as standalone systems. Moving forward, the MaCGDI was established in Dec 2002 to replace NaLIS secretariat to fulfill the need to carry out the development of geospatial data infrastructure encompassing policies, standards, technology, rules, law, safety and support for data preparation in agencies at Federal, State and Local Authorities at all level. Malaysian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MyGDI) was being developed as the Malaysian NSDI in place of NaLIS in 2002. In 2004, MaCGDI was subsumed under Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE). As part of MyGDI, currently there were 18 federal agencies and 145 local agencies involved as data providers. The two broad objectives of MaCGDI are - to help in land information sharing and exchange between agencies using latest Web-based technologies and to avoid wastage due to un-coordinated efforts in processing, maintaining, and distributing land information. Q. To what extent has the Malaysian NSDI reached? Talking of MyGDI, being one of the products of MaCGDI, it provides a basis for geospatial data exploration, evaluation and application for users and providers within all levels of government, commercial and non-profit sectors as well as the academia and the public. MyGDI has technical commissions for four of its elements viz., Clearing house, Data Framework, Policies, Standard and Metadata. Regarding the standardization of data MaCGDI has collaboration with SIRIM Berhad, formerly known as Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia, which is the national organization of standardization and quality. MaCGDI's second product is Geoinformation for Executive (G4E). G4E is an online GIS application developed for the government's top executives. The idea is promote the usage of GIS application in decision making. This initiative is being supported by Malaysian Administration Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU). Q. How important is training of staff from the local and federal agencies in the success of MaCGDI? Training or human resource development in GIS is one of the critical success factor of MaCGDI. At state level State GDCs are established that are under control and supervision of MaCGDI. MaCGDI is now in the process to collaborate with National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN) to undertake GIS training for government officials. Currently, two training centres have been established at National Institute of Land and Survey in Behrang, Perak and another one will be at MaCGDI office. Q. What were the challenges faced in setting up the Framework & Standards Development for MyGDI? The key challenges and task ahead are - a) Coordination between various government agencies. b) Awareness of importance of geospatial data especially in decision making. c) Changing the mindset of the people is critical. d) Lacking of data itself in some agencies (digital or hardcopy) is an issue. e) Willingness of agencies to share their data.
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