As it was the first time to celebrate this day here in the northern region of Iraq, for many it was even the first time hearing the word. The clueless audience was listening with curiosity as presentations including basic and more detailed information about how GIS can change and improve their lives were shown.
Presentations and speeches reiterated the endless benefits of making use of GIS. A brief summary is perhaps provided by the American writer, Amy Gahran, who defines GIS as a tool“used to create maps and 3-D models, and to provide information to create more accurate reports and make better decisions. It also powers popular interactive services like Google Street View, or GPS features that help apps on your smartphone know what you mean by "nearby."
Most of these usages, now unthinkable, can be made possible in Iraq’s Kurdistan in less than three years’ time, said Najib Khatib, director general of the Lebanon-based Khatib & Alami, an engineering consulting company.
“You have the willingness and decision to built a regional GIS system,” said Khatib referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that established an IT Department two years ago.
The ceremony for GIS day, which is held each year in other countries in the third week of November, on the Wednesday during Geography Awareness Week, was organized by the KRG’s IT Department in coordination with Khatib & Alami and ESRI, two prominent international companies. The event has been recognized since 1987.
Khatib regarded the current situation of Iraqi Kurdistan as being in the early stages of making use of technology and data, despite their high level of availability.
“It [GIS] is a decision-making tool. It is a visual decision-making tool,” Khatib exclusively told Rudaw. “When you see the entire picture, it makes you make the right choice at the right time.”
As a first step what the KRG had to do, Khatib said, was to bring ministries and government departments together to discuss the possibility of GIS if the departments are willing to share information with each other and then suggest the existing needs of the region.
“Very importantly you don’t have what we call SDI,” added Khatib, using the acronym for Spatial Data Infrastructure, an application that gives you the ability to collaborate and distribute geospatially related data.
KRG’s Director of IT Department, Botan Osman, agreed and lamented that the new government being installed since the July 2009 elections is reluctant to spend necessary money in information of communication technologies (ICT).
“Budget is the main thing,” said Osman, talking to Rudaw in the KRG’s IT Academy that was established last year. “In 2010, no budget was availed for new projects.”
“In 2011, it’s likely that we would have no budget again.”
Half a billion US dollars were estimated by Osman as the necessary amount of budget to complete an in-depth IT Strategy that has 38 objectives in the next four or five years.
“Kurdistan is oil-rich,” added Osman.
“A strategic decision” was required about whether the KRG wants to fulfill the vision of becoming an e-government to empower its citizens, promote transparency and democracy, said Osman.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Namo Abdulla
Quelle/Source: Rudaw, 29.11.2010
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