PCIDEA's CURRENT ACTIVITIES IN THE AMERICAS
Mario Alberto Reyes Ibarra
President, PCIDEA
Abstract
PCIDEA as is well known was officially established in March 2000,
pursuant to resolution number 3 of the 6th. UNRCCA in 1997. At this
moment the organization has a membership of 24 American countries in the
Americas and has held 4 meetings to date, the last one in June 2003, in
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America, where several business were
brought to attention, mainly in connection with the activities and
progress of Working Groups, as well as the election o new authorities.
After being hosted by Colombia and Venezuela in the previous years, the
Presidency and Executive Secretariat are now in Aguascalientes, Mexico,
where the main offices of the National Institute of Statistics,
Geography and Informatics (INEGI) are located. PCIDEA is organized at
the time in three main Working Groups; one on legal and Economic
Affairs, a second on Communications, and a third group on Technical
Issues, this last one comprising 7 sub-groups, each one chaired by a
representative of a member country and composed of appointed technicians
and professionals from a number of several member countries. Current
initiatives in PCIDEA are mostly centered in the efforts of some 20
countries to develop their NSDI´s. Several members have already a
Clearinghouse established through the support of the United States of
America. Many of them are still in the conceptual stage, others are
taking definite steps through implementation, with different degrees of
progress to date. Others, like the United States of America and Canada
have very important achievements both in the conceptual component as in
the implementation stages. Fostering and support of National SDI´s
development is an objective of PCIDEA pursuant to resolution number 4 of
the aforementioned UNRCCA. A result from the Fourth Meeting in Costa
Rica was the need to redefine working groups both in their scope and in
the establishment of their goals in an integrated PCIDEA context. PCIDEA
is actually involved in encouraging national SDI´s developments, as well
as in connection with side regional initiatives as SIRGA and of
subregional scope, such as MACGA and PROCIG, both dealing with Central
American geospatial information initiatives and programs in the context
of SDI´s, for which a better relationship is of the utmost interest. An
effort is underway to reinforce links, both with and among member
countries by encouraging the use of modern information and
communications technologies. Standardization is an important component
of PCIDEA´s objectives, so a Class A liaison has been established with
ISO TC/211 to have a first class source of information on digital
geospatial standards for the benefit of member countries of PCIDEA. In
this matter information from TC/211 is regularly received and organized
in the Executive Secretariat. It is of the utmost interest of the
Presidency to upgrade and enhance links with leading geospatial
organizations in the regional and global levels and is actually working
to meet such objective. PCIDEA´s 5th Meeting will take place by
October, next year in Aguascalientes, Mexico, probably along with a shop
on Earth Management Policies. By the time this paper is being written, a
Program of Work for 2004-2005, including several of the considerations
so far defined here, has been drafted by the Presidency and will be
presented in due time for the consideration of member countries.
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