Capacity building is a major challenge

		Dato’ Dr. Abdul Kadir bin Taib Deputy Director General, JUPEM

What’s new in JUPEM?

JUPEM is working in tune with new technologies. One of the biggest project is e-Cadastre project. The project has started this year and will be completed by the end of next year. The project envisages a complete digital cadastral database of high quality and integrity. For this purpose, advance techniques and methodologies have been employed like GPS etc.

Are the people of Malaysia going to be benefited by this project?

The project aims to improve the delivery system especially the process of issuing land title. The benefit is in terms of time. The process that earlier used to take two years time now take two months only. The ultimate beneficiaries of the
project are the citizens of Malaysia.

Are there any other projects that you would like to mention?

JUPEM has recently improved its geodetic infrastructure with RTK project. The geodetic products and services include information on horizontal control coordinates, vertical control heights, tidal prediction, coordinate transformation and GPS real-time kinematic network data. One can get access to this services and products through JUPEM GeoPortal.

What are the challenges before JUPEM?

Since JUPEM is modernized with new technologies like total stations, GPS etc, we need to have professionals who are well trained to use such technologies. We need to train not only government surveyors but also professionals from private sector as many work is outsourced to the private sector. I think that the capacity building is one of the thrusts as well as the challenge before JUPEM.

What about data accessibility?

We have launched JUPEM GeoPortal for data dissemination. We have two sets of data- restricted and nonrestricted. The non-restricted data are easily available from our website. One can go to the site and register himself. Apply for the copyright license and pay the license fee through credit card or by post. The fee is nominal. Data is available large scale and small scale both. However, for the restricted data, the process includes the process of security vetting. After the clearance from defence and security, one can get the restricted data as well.

What are major application areas for JUPEM data?

The data and information available with JUPEM is useful and being used for various applications like natural resource management, geological, land use information, flood management, etc. JUPEM provides the base data.