Nor Azman Baharum
Managing Director
Antaragrafic
[email protected]
Dato’ Abdul Majid mohamed
President
ESRI, South Asia (Malaysia)
[email protected]
Dr Noordin Ahmad
Principle consultant
geoinfo services
[email protected]
| Nor Azman Baharum, Managing Director, Antaragrafik; Dato’ A Majid, President ESRI (South Asia – Malaysia and Singapore); Noordin Ahmad, Principle Consultant, GeoInfo Services share their views with GIS Development in this candid interview. With a firm foothold in the present they provide us with an insight to the future. |
What is the scenario of geomatics in Malaysia?
Nor Azman Baharum (Nab): In Malaysia it is still in an early stage. There is a lot of opportunity that needs to be explored.
Dato’ Abdul Majid Mohamed (DAMM): By ‘geomatics’ I take it that you mean the GIS industry, as opposed to the traditional land surveying, mapping and cartographic activities. The scenario is encouraging as our user base is slowly growing and we are seeing more users venturing into this field.
Noordin Ahmad (NA): The geomatics industry is increasingly taking shape. The government agencies have acquired the necessary hardware and software and the manpower in this area is also being provided and planned by the universities and colleges at various level.
What are key issues and challenges regarding this?
NAB: The key issues and challenges regarding geomatic in Malaysia lies in the data availability in the formats that could be used by other agencies or private sectors. The other issue is to get the public and private sectors to realize the potential of making use of such information in their daily operation with regards to land matters. If this is realized, the growth in this field would be tremendous.
DAMM: In terms of expanding the user base, there is a need for a more vigorous outreach program with sustainable follow-throughs. We are seeing positive outcomes in being able to garner in new users and fence-sitters. Whilst customisation and system integration issues are common in many of the applications here, the advent of user-friendly desktop GIS software has lessened this to a certain degree. From the customer’s perspective, we understand that one of the persistent issues is the availability of data that are current and are of consistent quality and integrity to feed their systems.
NA: The key issues are — availability of up dated data, cost of software, lack of high end application and legal integration.
