Programme director
Honourable ministers
Academics and researchers
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of South Africa and its people I would like to extend a warm welcome to all visitors and delegates to this Map Africa Conference and Exhibition. Map Africa Conference is a combination of a conference and a technical exhibition event.
The delegates will discuss various aspects pertaining to maps and geo-information services while the technical industrialists will have an opportunity to display their latest technical wares relating to mapping and geo spatial information.
South Africa is an immense, beautiful country with a geographical diversity equal to the diversity of its people and cultures. The country is experiencing a period of reform, development and reconstruction.
To nurture and guide this process it is essential to have a record of what was, what is and what may be. Sustainable development is dependent upon good geo-spatial information.
South Africa is fortunate in having a legacy of geo-spatial information that satisfies this requirement. Map Africa, an annual conference and technical exhibition, showcases the developments in Africa in the fields of mapping, remote sensing and survey.
These elements are important in a country that is developing rapidly and it is essential for us to fulfill our promise of land reform to our people. My department owns a depository of aerial photography dating back to the 1930’s and this precious store is assisting us with land claims today.
We can track where people grazed their cattle and where their villages were built with absolute certainty. This is valuable information to us. Geo-spatial data is more than a map though, more than an image, it is data that is intelligent.
No more is a map coloured lines within a grid, but geo-spatial data that tells us our exact position, that gives us real information wherever we are. Looking back this geo-spatial information not only positively resolves land claims but looking to the future will contribute to the achievement of the country’s full potential.
Africa, a continent of large reservoir of natural resources, great trade opportunities, multi-cultural population and willingness to adopt latest technologies is paving a path of sustainable development in order to capitalise its available human and natural resources, it is adopting advanced technologies and applications serving various verticals.
Geo-spatial technologies serve as an excellent tool in decision-making at various levels of governance and application domains. Other areas like infrastructure, utilities, land administration, disaster management, climate change, public safety etcetera are dedicatedly adopting the usage of geo-spatial technologies to give the continent a new direction.
Land and its resources, how they are used by whom and who owns them, is one of the greatest concerns in South Africa today. It is a complex and often emotive subject.
Finding solutions to the current controversies is one of the greatest challenges facing this country. It impacts on the economic future, political and social development and is inextricably linked to the issues of equity, democracy and good governance.
Map Africa 2010 aims to look into many aspects of this technology in building the continent and highlight the significant role that geospatial technologies hold in serving the various building blocks of a nation and the continent.
I thank you.
