Minister of National Development Planning emphasises strengthening governance of geospatial information

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Rachmat Pambudy, said that strengthening the governance of geospatial information is a fundamental foundation for safeguarding national sovereignty while ensuring the accuracy of national development planning. In a meeting with Mohammad Arief Syafii, Deputy for Basic Geospatial Information at the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG), the minister noted that future mapping challenges will become more complex and will not be limited to surface mapping. ‘Mapping is not just surface mapping. In the future it must extend to underground mapping and underwater mapping. We must consider BIG’s vision as an institution that safeguards security and sovereignty from a mapping perspective. So don’t stop here,’ said Rachmat Pambudy in an official statement in Jakarta on Friday. On that occasion, Pambudy also stressed the importance of technological independence in managing national geospatial data to support BIG in becoming the national reference centre for spatial data. ‘Sensors, conductors, chips — these must be treated with great care. A map may be good, but if the chip can be hacked from behind, it’s useless. BIG must be the centre of the map for Indonesian society. If you want a map, come to BIG. Data that is map-related, come to BIG. In this way you become a centre of excellence and truly hold one map of Indonesia,’ he said. BIG has centralised all base-map production processes in the Integrated Map Production Centre facility. The new scheme ensures all data will reside on a central server and be managed with strict security. Regarding the implementation of the One Map policy, Arief Syafii said there is a need for a single national data reference. With an integrated, secure, and accurate system, the One Map policy and One Data Indonesia (SDI) can be increasingly effective in supporting development planning, reducing licensing overlaps, and strengthening national data sovereignty.