MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: New Straits Times

With its implementation in July 1992, Penang became the first state in the country to have such a system.

Universiti Sains Malaysia School of Humanities lecturer Associate Professor Dr Ruslan Rainis said that Pegis was used as a tool to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the State Government with regards to land management.

He said many of the problem of dealing with land-related data stemmed from the perpetuation of manual systems kept individually by various agencies, resulting in duplication of data recording.

"In view of these opportunities and the existing data handling problems, in July 1992, the State Government with assistance from the Survey Board of Malaysia initiated the implementation of Pegis," he said.

He said this when presenting a paper titled "The Development of Statewide GIS (Geographical Information System): A Case Study of Penang GIS" which he co-wrote with Pegis Centre Co-ordinator Abdul Ghapar Othman.

The paper was presented at the two-day Seminar and Exhibition on Information Technology Applications in Planning and Development held at Universiti Sains Malaysia. The event was organised by the USM's School of Housing, Building and Planning.

Pegis, he explained, was under the direction of the State Secretary through the State Computer Centre. The Pegis Centre was set up to co-ordinate and act as a hub of GIS activities for the State.

He said five user agencies were directly involved with Pegis - Survey and National Mapping Department, Land and Mines Department, Town and Country Planning Department and the Seberang Prai Municipal Council's Department of Valuation.

Pegis has nine staff comprising four officers (including system analysts) and five administrative assistants. For the 1996 financial year, the Pegis Centre plans to hire nine more administrative assistants to speed up the data "capture" process.