The FINANCIAL — Georgia is going to build the most expensive infrastructure in its history – the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), for which GEL 270,000 has initially been allocated from the 2014 budget.
The project, whose full implementation might take 20 years, will boost investments in Georgia, will raise its competitive advantage and encourage the business community to come up with innovative ideas, according to experts. As they say, 2015 is realistically when Georgia will be able to see the first results of NSDI’s implementation.
A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a data infrastructure implementing a framework of geographic data, metadata, users and tools that are interactively connected in order to use spatial data in an efficient and flexible way. Another definition is the technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire, process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data, explain the experts.
In Georgia the National Agency of Public Registry is involved with building the NSDI, as it is the largest producer and consumer of spatial data at the national level, says Papuna Ugrekhelidze, the Head of the National Agency of Public Registry. Experts from Austria are working to create an NSDI action plan for 2014-2015, which will be ready by June 2014.
“Spatial data infrastructure will dramatically reduce the costs of hardware and data collecting,” said Papuna Ugrekhelidze. “Access to data will be improved and simplified by offering the 24/7 affordable services. It will support the development of business based on the use of data received from e-Governance and governmental institutions. NSDI will also contribute to environmental management, will help prevent catastrophes and will support the effective functioning of the systems of agriculture, defence, infrastructural projects, emergencies, communication and navigation. Despite the fact that Georgia is not a member of the EU, it was the first country in the Caucasus region to have taken steps toward creating a spatial data infrastructure and this initiative will support the country’s integration process with EU,” he added.
“To be able to exchange information at a harmonized level is a difficult task for Georgia as well as Europe,” said Manfred Mittlbock, key researcher. “It is becoming a real economic factor. Georgia needs an IT infrastructural background, which is not cheap, on the contrary – it is the most expensive infrastructure Georgia might have. The cost of this infrastructure depends on the skills and that is why we suggest educating more people. If everybody has the correct skills and everybody applies the same standards, then it will cost less money to put in an additional information layer because the standards and maps which are already here can be used. It is difficult to estimate the relationship between the additional cost of creating a professional NSDI and cost savings from having this improved system in the future. But the advice and conclusion is that the state needs to have a long-term strategy also from the budget side and the Ministry of Finance needs to be aware of how the country needs to put money aside for this task every year,” he added.
“We had some paperwork in Europe where it was mentioned that by using the spatial data infrastructure Europe saves about EUR 16 billion per year. In a way it is not a matter of cost, it is a matter of need,” Mittlbock said.
In an ideal situation the Government and business should develop the spatial data infrastructure together, suggests expert Frits Kroiss. “When the spatial data information becomes available it will stimulate innovation in the private sector. Businesses will be coming up with applications or other services which will be developed by private companies. Georgia is a country with a high potential in tourism. I know from the example of Montenegro that to provide online tourism helps those looking to find the right hiking path, or certain other information like accommodation, sights and restaurants for instance,” Kroiss said.
“NSDI increases the overall competitiveness of the country – you have roads, communications, educated people. It opens business opportunities for the state. It will encourage foreign investors to come and invest in Georgia. Investors always look at infrastructure and IT is one of the most important infrastructures a country should have. Every utility company needs spatial information,” he added.
“If you are using a smartphone everyday you need a geographic coding to find the next right place much quicker,” Christian Rupp, Federal Executive Secretary for eGovernance in Austria. “This helps business as well as public administration. If, for example, you want to rent a flat, or buy a house, or want to know where the next supermarket is, what the surroundings of the flat that you are going to buy are, which infrastructure do you have – all this information is useful and will be available in Georgia,” he added.
Creating a legal basis is one of the tasks included in the whole process of creating NSDI. “From a legal perspective in many cases there is no legal basis for the work of ministries and agencies,” said Clemens Konrad, expert and lawyer.
“We had discussions on how we shall proceed to foster the information exchange. We designed a guideline for the next two years about what we suggest to the Government on technical or law matters. In Georgia there is a good situation in the sense that there is already a governmental decision expressing willingness to bring together all the stakeholders and create NSDI. There will be one technically working group, one group which will cover the legal issues and a third working group which will be oriented on a business model,” he added.
“Our recommendation is that Georgia does not forget about education. Students should get familiar at an early stage with the principle of sharing data. Education is a key factor for the future success of NSDI. Also, the staff of the ministries which are currently working on the data should be trained as well,” Konrad said.
However, Georgia has to create spatial data infrastructure by 15 May, 2019, as in Europe INSPIRE Directive entered in force in May 2007, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment, according to the European Commission.
INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 27 Member States of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications, with key components specified through technical implementing rules. This makes INSPIRE a unique example of a legislative “regional” approach, according to the European Commission.
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