FIG Commission 7

SYMPOSIUM on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries

Held in conjunction with FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting

In Penang, Malaysia, 7 May 1997

Contents

Preface by the Chairperson of Working Group 7.2
Report of Proceedings

A. Introduction
B. Attendance
C. Objective
D. Opening
E. Programme
F. Panel Discussion
G. Closure

Annex 1

List of Foreign Participants
List of Local Participants

Annex 2

Programme

Annex 3

Summary of Panel Discussion

SYMPOSIUM on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries

Held in conjunction with FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting

In Penang, Malaysia, 7 May 1997

Preface

Commission 7 of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) is concerned with land management and cadastral systems. The commission has organised its work in three working groups for the time to the Brighton congress 1998.

Working Group 7.1 Modern Cadastres

Working Group 7.2 Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries

Working Group 7.3 Land Management

Each working group has organised a symposium in conjunction with the annual meeting of the commission. This seminar has been organised by the Working Group on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries.

The aim of the symposium in Penang was to study the cadastral development in Malaysia and the elaborate on the cadastral options identified by the commission in previous discussions. The cadastral options are:

- Legal options

- Institutional options

- Land Policy options

- Technical options

This report includes the contribution and discussions during the seminar. The working group would like to express its sincere thanks to the organisers, Dato Abdul Majid Mohamed, Surveyor General and all staff memebers from Survey Department who organised the symposium in an excellent manner and published this symposium report, to the Malaysian Government for contribution to the symposium and for sponsorship to several participants from developing countries. We also want to thank the Government of Australia and United Kingdom, who also have sponsored participants from developing countries.

Tommy Österberg

Chairperson Working Group 7.2

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS

From The Symposium On Cadastral System In Developing Countries

7th May 1997, Penang, Malaysia

A. Introduction

The Symposium on Cadastral System in Developing Countries was held at the Parkroyal Resort Hotel Penang, Malaysia on the 6th May 1997. The symposium was held in conjunction with the FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting. This symposium presented several local and overseas academician and experts who discuss issues relating to laws, institutions, land development policies and cadastral technicalities in developing countries.

B. Attendance

The symposium was attended by a total of 141 representatives, members, experts and observers from 33 countries. The full list of participants is attached as Annex 1.

C. Objective

The objective of this symposium is to continue the work and further elaborate on the previously identified cadastral options, namely legal options, institutional options, land policy options and technical options. The programme included presentations related to the four options from an international perspective and a presentation about woman's access to land. The presentations attempted to answer the following questions from the perspective of developing countries and countries in transition:

(a) Which are the different options available and what are their advantages and disadvantages in various circumstances?

(b) Which of the options are universal and valid for cadastral development in general and which are related to typical situation in specific groups of countries or specific types of problems?

(c) Given the situation in many developing countries, which are the advices you would like to give for cadastral development?

D. Opening

On behalf of the Government of Malaysia Dato' Abdul Majid Mohamed opened the seminar by welcoming all participants and expressing a desire that the seminar would be successful.

E. Programme

The running of the symposium was divided into 3 sessions. Prof. Ian Williamson of Australia chaired the first session, which began at 0945 hour. Six papers were presented during this session. Dato' Abdul Majid Mohamed of Malaysia chaired the second session, which began at 1400 hour. Four more papers were presented during this second session. Mr. Tommy Osterberg of Sweden chaired session 3, which began at 1630 hour. A panel discussion was held during this session, which saw active participation from the floor. A copy of the programme is attached as Annex 2.

F. Panel Discussion

Various remarks and recommendations were noted during the panel discussion. A summary of the panel discussion is attached as Annex 3.

G. Closure

After accomplishing the panel discussion, the Dato' Abdul Majid Mohamed closed the seminar by thanking all lecturers and participants for their involvement and interest in the seminar.

 

Annex 1

LIST OF FOREIGN PARTICIPANTS

LIST OF LOCAL PARTICIPANTS

Annex 2

Symposium Programme

Cadastral System in Developing Countries

Annex 3

Summary of Panel Discussion

In the panel discussion that followed after the presentations, among others the following remarks were made:

• Discussions about costs for cadastral systems are usually connected to the establishment of systems and to lesser degree to maintenance costs. More emphasise is need on maintenance.

• No cadastral system in the world has been established without governmental funding. Maintenance however, is more and more financed through cost recovery. If however the direct costing on users will be too high, there is a risk for development of informal markets on land.

• Modern cadastral and land registration systems do not only recover its operational costs, but give also a considerable revenue to the state budget through land taxes and fees. Zambia is an example, where computerisation has increased the governmental revenue from land considerably.

• The involvement of the private sector in cadastral activities is today in several countries seen as a way for development of creativity and new ideas and a way to lower operational costs. Experiences from some countries who has gone far on the privatisation road show that it has contributed to lower operational costs, but that innovative new ideas not yet has emerged. And the government has been cautious to keep ownership of the information in these cases.

• FIG should look more into cost and financing questions. Even if cadastral systems are different in each country, the problems at the bottom are very similar in all systems.

• Land registers need to be more standardised. The work in Europe through the newly established Meeting of Officials in Land Administration (MOLA) can contribute to a standardisation.

• Cadastral systems must be user-friendly. Users are not interested of systems, which demands long training. On the other hand students in for instance land use planning, who will become potential users need more training in handling graphical systems in their education.

• The development of digital tools and systems will increase the demand on professional surveyors, who use the information for case handling and problem solution and decrease the demand on technical surveyors for pure measurement and map production. Also the demands on professional management of organisations and of systems will increase.

• The questionnaire regarding cadastral projects need to be more detailed to be useful and include for instance questions about employed technology and equipment and possibilities to relate the production to actual input of human and technical resources.

Last Modified: November 1997