Government through the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources has taken the initiative to properly demarcate Fiji’s Maritime Zone.
Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources deputy secretary Mr Pene Nonu Baleinabuli made these remarks while opening the 2010 Pacific Islands Geographic Information System/Remote Sensing Conference.
He said the Ministry of Lands had also started work on the migration of its mapping datum from WGS72 to WGS84.
“I know that there have been a lot of discussions on the datum but again concerted efforts from all of you experts is needed to propel this initiative,” Mr Baleinabuli said.
“Government in its roadmap for the nation articulated some key priority areas for the ministry, as a result the establishment of a national land register was fast tracked this year.
“I need not emphasise how this mammoth project warrants the integration of different data sets – from the different databases of the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources, the NLTB Lease Administration data base and the Registrar of Titles database,” he said.
The Land Register or State Land register will be completed in December this year and it is envisaged that the whole national register project will be completed at the same time in 2011.
“The idea behind the register is basically to compile information on all land in Fiji pertaining to land tenure, boundaries, ownership, value, land use and infrastructure and biophysical features,” Mr Baleinabuli said.
“The using of GIS and technical expertise have expedited the drawing up of work programmes to facilitate the extraction and conversion of the required data into useful land information.
“Ultimately formatting the data into useful maps will allow Government to keep track of all land transactions in Fiji,” he said.
The land reform in Fiji is another critical government output targeting the optimum utilisation of all land in Fiji.
Government is aware of the need to open land for developments and investments to maximise cultivation and market agricultural investment.
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