Bio
As Chief Executive Officer of Geospatial Media and Communications (Formerly GIS Development), a geospatial media company, Sanjay Kumar has worked towards facilitating and accelerating growth of the geospatial industry worldwide and raising awareness of the industry's contribution to the global development agenda. Sanjay, who holds a Masters in Political Science and M. Phil. in International Studies from the University of Delhi, began his professional career in 1994, studying industrialization in rural India. This study led to a project management assignment, setting up industrial units in the Himalayan region. This and subsequent roles helped him understand the complications and benefits of industrialization from both a community and an industry point of view. In 1997, Sanjay joined a diverse group of professionals to co-found the Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS), a not-for-profit organisation focussed on applying GIS in development and environmental planning. Through this work, Sanjay saw how little industry and government knew about geographic information and related technologies, which inspired him to co-found GIS Development Private Limited in 1999. Since becoming CEO in 2002, Sanjay has transformed the organisation into the leading geospatial media company in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He has actively collaborated with global geospatial organisations, and a major achievement has been to conceptualise and successfully execute, since 2007, the Map World Forum, a global biennial event. Sanjay Kumar has also been associated with many geospatial professional societies and served as Chair of ISPRS WG VI-4 on distance learning from 2000-2004. He is founding Secretary of the Association of Geospatial Industries of India. He has been recently appointed as Co-Chair of Global Advisory Council of Open Geospatial Consortium.

Bio
Kees de Zeeuw (45) has a degree (MSc) in land and water management from Cranfield University, UK. He is currently a director of the Netherlands' Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, responsible for Kadaster International. In recent years he has been deeply involved in innovation of geo-information products and processes, and the development of spatial data infrastructures. In the past Kees was affiliated for more than ten years as researcher and manager toWageningen University and ResearchCentre and worked five years oversees for international organisations.

Bio
Dr. Gulnara Roll is Secretary of an intergovernmental UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee for Housing and Land Management and Head of Housing and Land Management Unit at Trade and Sustainable Land Management Division, UN Economic Commission for Europe. UNECE joins 56 countries from Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and Northern America. Gulnara’s educational background is in Human Geography and Environmental Sciences. Prior to joining UNECE in 2009, Dr. Roll worked in academia and management of international programmes on research, spatial planning and regional development in Brussels, Belgium; Tartu, Estonia; and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Rohan Bennett is an Assistant Professor with the UNU School for Land Administration Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. His work focuses on the design, application, and assessment of contemporary land administration infrastructures. The focus is on pragmatic solutions that are low-cost, fast to implement, and fit-for-purpose. He is currently working with MSc and PhD students from Rwanda, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Australia. Rohan holds a PhD in Land Administration and Bachelors degrees in Geomatics and Information Systems from The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract
Developments in Land Administration that Effect World Economy
The deep-rooted relationship between land and economic development can be made sustainable with sound land administration. With this in mind, it is interesting to consider recent economic events: the debt crisis, the credit crunch, the subprime collapse, and the food price spike. What role did land administration play in these situations? What role did it fail to play? Also of interest are predicted changes to the global economy: the rise of the new economic powers, green economies, globalization of markets, and the state building required across many parts of the developing world. What role will land administration play in all this? What role should it play? This presentation will examine these questions. It will utilize contemporary research and cases to demonstrate the inescapable impact of good and bad land administration on national and global economies. Specific attention will be paid to: the property tree cycle, large-scale land acquisition processes, progressive cadastres (high-speed, low-cost, and fit-for-purpose), organic cadastres, and crowd sourced land administration.

Jürgen Dold has been Chief Executive Officer and President of Leica Geosystems Holdings AG since April 1, 2010. Dr. Dold served as President of Geospatial Solutions Division of Leica Geosystems. from to 2008 April 1, 2010, which involves the three-dimensional data acquisition in high-resolution and mapping the earth and its infrastructure. He served as President of Hexagon Geosystems at Hexagon AB. Dr. Dold has an excellent track record and a keen understanding of the ... geospatial and geomatics markets. He has been with the Leica Geosystem since 1995. He began his career at Leica Geosystems as a product manager and general manager for several business areas of the Metrology and Surveying divisions. Prior to Leica Geosystems, Dr. Dold acted as an academic council and a lecturer at the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany). Dr. Dold holds a University Degree in Surveying of the University of Bonn (Germany) and received his doctor's degree from the University of Munich/Germany.

Abstract
Growing population in a two speed world. The United Nations declared that in 2011 the earth’s population exceeded 7 billion people and is expected to exceed 10 billion people in the next thirty to forty years. Over 80% of the population live in the emerging world which represents about 40% of the world’s GDP. The GDP of the emerging world grows annually twice as fast as in the developed world, which indicates that in the next 10 years, the emerging market will account for half of the worlds’ GDP.

The global challenge for humankind will be to manage the earth’s scarce resources, to satisfy the demand for more infrastructures and at the same time protecting our environment. In addition, we have to provide enough food and water for the growing population, also to those that belong to today’s 1 billion people that haven’t got enough food and adequate access to clean water. On top of that, we have to be prepared to manage increasing numbers of manmade and natural disasters, in order to make the world a safer place.

Geospatially managed land information is essential for decision makers to master the global challenges of humankind around the world but it also creates social and economic benefits on country levels. Governments may use land registration systems to protect the ownership of land and to reduce consequent land disputes, they use appropriate land administration for controlled development of the country’s economy and for land taxation. Companies may use the security of land rights to access loans and citizens gain access to housing through mortgage finance.

Technology provides innovation to deliver more accurate geospatial information to more people with faster updates at a lower cost. Capturing high resolution mass data from space, air and street levels, managing data in the cloud, creating spatial data interfaces to utilize data from multi sources, all delivered and visualized via the internet to experts and non-experts and creating potential new sources for income are only a few of the innovations to be mentioned.

The importance of actionable information via dynamic GIS. Collecting information which no one uses leads to unwanted bureaucracy. Therefore, the geospatial community must focus on making GIS dynamic by enabling a continuous update of outdated information, linking the information in (near) real-time to actions and helping the users to changeover to a new world of workflows.

Nathalie MARTHE-BISMUTH, IGN France International general manager - Chief engineer of bridges and roads with an MBA diploma from the HEC group, Nathalie Marthe-Bismuth is at the head of IGN France International since October 2007. She previously held the position of Commercial Director for the French National Geographic Institute (IGN).

Abstract
What are specific issues in land administration in Africa?
The issue of land is at the heart of agricultural policies, rural development, territorial planning and the management of natural resources. Africa has also become aware of the stakes attached to the land issues and thus of the necessity to define a land policy in accordance with their particular needs and backgrounds. Although geospatial information can bring a lot to the professionals in charge of land issues, it is very important not to limit the use of geospatial technology to the purely technical aspects.

The presentation reviews the main specific issues in land administration in Africa:

• The need for the completion of a geographic data set

Considering a trustable land administration is a transparent land administration for all, the land administration must be based on georeferenced data.

• The need to secure land tenure and the importance of a land title

A land title aimed at securing the property rights of its owner. In many emerging countries, they simply do not exist and when they exist, the land records are in poor conditions. It generates distortions, loss, damages, leading to fraud, disputes or delays in the transactions.

• The importance of the preparation phase
The review of official existing documents from a legal point of view such as a title vetting activity is an essential stage that must not be underestimated.

• The importance of having the people trained and well informed

The aspects in relation with capacity building, communication and public awareness are too often neglected. For instance, the capacity building and training plans must take into consideration the actual level of the participants; the stakeholders are often very well informed of the projects progress. However, what about the general public?
• The need for a strong political will

A strong policy is compulsory to provide the impetus of change at the highest level of government, to make the improvement of the land administration legal framework, to reduce the case of fraud or bribes, and eventually to make the land transactions easier, more secure and affordable for all.
The establishment of land policies is a fundamental element in the reduction of poverty and in the controlled development of territories. In addition to securing investments, it is a potentially important source of income. Modernising land administration is a long-lasting and complex process. It can also be the starting point to the completion of global spatial information infrastructures.

Eng. Didier G. SAGASHYA, is since 2008, the Deputy Director General in charge of Department of Lands and Mapping within Rwanda Natural Resources Authority. He holds MSc in Urban and Regional Planning obtained from Heriot-Watt University – Edinburgh – UK, and a BSc in Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology obtained from Kigali Institute of Sciences and Technology (KIST). Eng Didier is playing a key role in the ongoing land reform including land registration in Rwanda; his interests are security of land tenure, land administration and land use planning. Didier worked with Rwamagana District and Kigali City before joining the current job.

Abstract
Building Land Administration in Rwanda through Systematic Land Registration
Rwanda is undergoing social and economic transformations after 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, had a new Constitution in 2003 and a national land policy in 2004. Subsequently an organic law related to land use and management was enacted in 2005. The policy and the law set principles for land ownership, land use planning and land administration which were inexistent and incoherent before. In order to ensure security of tenure, institutions in charge of land were established right from national to cell level. Second legislations and design of programme relied on experiences acquired through pilots of land tenure regularisation programme in 2007/08. With high political will, target to register all lands in Rwanda was incorporated in the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS 2008-12). Under the leadership of Rwanda Natural Resources Authority; a National Rollout programme for land tenure regularisation started in June 2009 with support of DFID, EC, SIDA, IFAD and Netherlands. The programme aims at registering 10million parcels of land in 2148 cells using Aerial Ortho-photos and para-surveyors for demarcation and cell land committees together with village leaders for adjudication. As of end of February 2012, 9.7 million parcels (97%) have been adjudicated and demarcated and 2.3 million leasehold titles approved for issuance. The total cost for registering a parcel is between 5 and 7 USD. The target is to have all parcels adjudicated and demarcated by June 2012 and all titles issued by December 2013. To ensure the sustainability and maintenance of the land registry, Land Administration Information System (LAIS) was developed. The System deals with land transactions in electronic secure way and will reduce time and costs, thus improving investment climate. In the same time Rwanda also developed a National Land Use and Development Master Plan, its law was approved by Parliament in March this year.

Anna H. Namhindo is a Survey Technician in the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement. She received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tampere University of Technology, Finland and a Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering Survey and Geodesy from Nottingham University, England. She worked for the Department of Water Affairs for 3 years as an assistant engineer. Currently she works for the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement under the directorate of survey and mapping for 14 years. Her responsibilities include conducting final examination of cadastral survey records, diagrams and general plans prior to their approval to ensure that only records that meet prescribed specifications are approved and stored in the office for use in registration of title deeds in the office of registrar of deeds; reviewing and approving finalization and the pre-noting processes.

Abstract
Namibia’s present system of land surveying, registration, and development covers only part of the country due to the colonial population policy of confirming the majority people to former “homelands” (now Communal Areas) and barring them from owning land and securing tenure. In many municipalities, towns, villages and settlements there is frustration about inability to plan, survey and register land rights and the difficulty of accessing credit for investment and development. In the rapidly expanding urban areas, many poor people from rural areas in search of work opportunities have no official right to own or even reside on the land on which they have resettled. Uncertainties surrounding land holding in communal land have arisen due to the inability of legally recognized authorities to act in terms of their mandates. Government, in its determination to address these concerns and remove uncertainty about land issue, designated NLP and CLRA and most importantly grants men and women equal rights when applying for rights to communal lands. Flexible land tenure system was implemented to address the land imbalances affecting the majority of Namibia’s urban poor by creating alternative forms of land title that are simpler and cheaper to administer and provide security of title for people with low-income housing and informal settlers. Before the endorsement of CLRA in 2002, TA used to allocate communal land rights on verbal basis without any documentary proof. This type of tenure system was characterized by unfairness, biasness and unequal land distribution. Land related disputes such as double allocations, boundary disputes, unauthorized extensions and illegal fencing were also very common. In the process widows, orphans, minority groups and vulnerable people suffered the most Now that the CLRA is in force, everybody who held communal land rights before the enactment of the act on March 2003 is required to apply for the recognition and registration of such rights. Similarly everybody who did not have any land rights before the enactment is by law also required to apply for the allocation and registration of such rights. Applications for all communal land rights should be recommended by the TA and should be approved by the CLB to be considered valid and lawful. The MLR established CLB in all regions of the country to facilitate the recognition and registration of land rights that existed before enactment and the allocation of new land rights.

Moha El-ayachi is Engineer in surveying and holds a Doctorate Of Sciences in a Joint Supervision Program of the University of Minnesota, USA and IAV Hassan II, Morocco on Land and Cadastral Information Management. He’s Professor and served as Head of Department of Geodetic Sciences from 2005 to 2011, at the College of Geomatics Sciences and Surveying Engineering. Enrolled as Licensed Surveyor at the Order of Licensed Surveying Engineers in Morocco (ONIGT). Member of the commission 7 at the FIG. He published more than 30 peer and non peer review papers in the field of land information, land governance, global positioning system, and GIS development. He’s involved in many partnership searching programs at the national and international levels. He is currently consultant Educator and Trainer in Land governance enhancement using the GNSS based VRS Network technology at the African Level. He fluently conducts studies using Arabic, English, and French.

Abstract
The economical nature of land administration system in Morocco
In Morocco, land is a basic resource at the economical and social levels. The government has generated much interest over several years to develop a suitable form of cadastre for administrating and managing efficiently lands. A multitude of emerging policies has been conducted to improve the land administration system characterized by the existence of various institutions and a diversity of land regimes. The system embraces juridical and national cadastres that have social and economical impact on society and individuals.
This presentation has the aim to outline the economic viability of the system and the key factors that lead to achieving social equity and economical outcomes. It highlights features of the two cadastral instruments guarantying land ownerships and tenure security. The formalization of land rights has begun early and allowed significantly increasing the participation of individuals and groups in the formal land and labor markets. Landowners with the lowest incomes can borrow their lands to others without fearing to lose their ownerships. The system allows integrating humans in formal and informal actions to reduce transactions’ costs made by lenders. The effective property right reduces the danger of wasting natural resources caused by deforestation or ecological destruction. The regulation on land governance enables authorities to transfer land to communities and individual farmers and define the restrictions on using forest and ecological areas. The system is a critical determinant of investments. The great security associated with titles permits bringing investment closer to the optimum and increasing the value of land and the credit supply.
By means of titling and registration, the system is promoting urbanization and building on the ensured ground and plots. The aspect of municipalities and cities has completely changed by enabling the appearance of new commercial quarters, industrial districts or habitat. Municipalities use registration information on titled land against unlawful or doubtful land use. As being a reference framework, the land administration system is a fundamental key for safeguarding the real estate for the regional planning projects.

Bio
Dr. Selassie David Mayunga graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Land Surveying from Ardhi Institute Dar Es Salaam in 1986, and he then undertook postgraduate studies in the Netherlands between 1989 and 1996 at the Institute of Aerial Space Sciences (ITC), and at the University of London. His outstanding performance during his undergraduate and graduate studies led him to be awarded the Canadian Fellowship Program for PhD programme in 2001. Dr. Mayunga has had great success in initiating and implementing well-focused and high-impact Surveys and Mapping activities in the country. He has recently developed an automatic system to improve service delivery at the Ministry of Lands which is being tested. Also Dr. Mayunga taught different subjects at Ardhi Institute (Now ARDHI UNIVERSITY) and presented papers on Land surveying and mapping in several conferences. Dr. Mayunga was recently appointed as a member in the Committee of Experts on Global Geopspatial Information Management of the United Nations. Dr. Mayunga is also a member of several professional bodies including the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, The Canadian Society of Geomatics and Institution of Surveyors of Tanzania. He is a Full registered Land Surveyor in Tanzania (FRS).

Bio
Jiyeong Lee is Associate Professor of Geoinformatics at University of Seoul, South Korea and holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the Ohio State University, U.S.A. He has been Assistant Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2004-07) and Minnesota State University, U.S.A (2001-04). He is a co-chair of WG IV/8 Spatial Data Integration for Emergency Services, ISPRS and was a co-organizer of the 3rd International Workshop on 3D Geo-Information. He is currently involved in several projects, which are “Indoor Spatial Awareness Project” funded by Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, “Disaster Protection System for a Large Scale Underground Complex Space based on Ubiquitous Technology” funded by City of Seoul, and “3D Cadastre Data

Abstract
In Korea, the land administration has been implemented by two separated systems, registration system and cadastre system. The registration system begun in 1912 is a title registration system to deal with the real rights on properties in paper-based registry books. While, the cadastre system established with the start of the Land Survey (1910-1918) manages the ownerships and boundaries on parcels, whose cadastral surveys are registered on cadastral books. The land administration system has been developed and implemented depending upon the changes of land policies, which have impacted directly on the economic developments. Therefore, in order to understand how the land administration influences on economic growths in Korea: this presentation discusses on the issues in two aspects, which are the historical changes of land policies and the modernization and advancement of the Korean cadastre system. The land policies strongly related to land administrations has been planned and implemented in the following fields: 1) property taxation, 2) land use planning and management, 3) land subdivisions and supply, and 4) real estate market controls and managements. The modernized land administration system in Korea, called Korean Land Information System (KLIS) has been developed to protect the property rights of the public by managing cadastre and registry books, as well to provide the governments with political statistics to deal with the overheated real estate markets affected by the rapid economic growths since late 1980’s.

Ybhg. Dato’ Haron holds a Bachelor Science in Economics and Master of Business Administration in Human Resources Management from University of Wales, U.K. He has a strong background in land administration. He served more than 10 years as a District Officer in Pahang State. In Pahang state, he has been working with 3 difference districts. He has been appointed as a Director of e-Tanah in February 2006, and since then he play a major role in making e-Tanah system as one of the successful Information Technology project in Malaysia. His focus and passion has been in modernization of land administration to the next level where it could be fully computerize, transparent, secure and user friendly. He has work alongside this system almost 7 years.

Abstract
e-Tanah – Land Management System of Malaysia
Land management in Malaysia, is based on land registration system invented by Robert Torrens and in which the government is the keeper of the master record of all land and their owners. Currently, it is governed by Malaysian National Land Code (1965), Strata Titles Act (1985) and all related laws, rules and regulations applicable. Land Management in Malaysia is always portrayed as complicated and typical red tape bureaucracy. It started in the state of Penang as a pilot project in 2005. Malaysian Government made a bold initiative to roll-out e-Tanah to three more states--Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. This is to ensure that land process and transaction in Malaysia will be more efficient and customer centric.

e-Tanah consists of nine (9) main modules, Registration, Revenue, Strata, Disposal, Acquisition, Consent, Development, Enforcement and Auction. e-Tanah is an integrated and fully computerized system to handle the management and administration of Land Offices in order to improve the speed and quality of service delivery to the public for all land related transactions. To make sure this an efficient system, e-Tanah has also been integrated to other related government agencies such as e-Kadaster (Mapping & Survey, GIS Data), Malaysian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MyGDI), e-KPTG (formerly known as e-JKPTG); Selected Payment Agencies (Payment Portal – Online Transaction), SPEKs (State Government Accounting System) and ALIS/Citizen Registration System (CRS).Other key component that enables e-Tanah to cope with modern demand of land users are the implementation of The GIS Module. The features of GIS are used at the maximum capability in term of connectivity and functionalities. The function of GIS Module are Spatial Database Development - e-Tanah Spatial Database (”Pangkalan Data spatial’ - PDS).

e-Tanah managed to create one integrated database within land Management that used to work in silos. e-tanah also introduced one concept that eliminates many counters that handle the various type of transaction that is SPOC (Single –Point of Contact). Among the benefits of e-tanah are:

• Quit rent could be paid through online, internet, e-payment and internet banking.
• Customer could enjoy fast and efficient services
• More organized and well plan structure helps in reducing processing time
• More revenue could be collected through reliable database and many channels of payment method.

Bio
Rajapaksha holds a B-com Degree from Sri Lanka and Master of Economics from Malaysia. Presently posted as the Land Commisioner General for Sri Lanka, Rajapaksha has over 18 years of experience of working in various government departments of Sri Lanka. His current role involves managing state land including land alination, solving land disputes, clearing title problems, preparing grants with maps etc. He is proficient in English, Sinhala.

Bio
I hold engineering degree in Survey and Mapping in Hanoi and obtains M.Sc. degree in Geo-Information Management at International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Science (ITC), The Netherlands in 2006. Since last eighteen years I have been working in the fields of Survey and Mapping, Land Administration, and IT applications, and I have long experiences in digital map technology, Land Information System, National Data Infrastructure development, implementation of Government, International cooperation projects in LIS/GIS and Land statistics database in Vietnam. I am member of Vietnam Association of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote sensing (VGCR). Currently, I am Deputy Director of VLAP Centre Project Management Unit, Vietnam Ministry of Nature Resources and Environments.

Peter J. Sullivan, C.L.S., A.L.S., MBA, has been Surveyor General of Canada Lands, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada, since August 2005. Mr. Sullivan previously served as Deputy Surveyor General, Western Canada and as a Geomatics Project Supervisor in the private sector. Mr. Sullivan has led many initiatives during his career in government including the development of geomatics programs for Aboriginal property rights and the modernization of cadastral systems for Canada Lands. Mr. Sullivan serves as Canada’s Commissioner on the Canada-United States International Boundary Commission. He also currently serves as a statutory member on the Council of the Association of Canada Lands Surveyors and on the Canadian Council on Geomatics.

Abstract
Canada: Geomatics and the Canadian economy
Canada is a federation with incredibly vast and diverse geography and complex social structures. The Canadian economy is reliant on natural resource development. Four levels of government; federal, provincial, municipal and Aboriginal, contribute to a complex mélange of surface and subsurface rights administration. The Canadian constitution informs the responsibilities of each level. For example, the provinces and territories have enacted legislation that establishes key institutions (land registry systems, environmental regulatory bodies and the legal land surveying professional associations). Some half of the country’s territory (land mass and offshore space) is not under provincial jurisdiction (the northern territories, Canada’s offshore region and Aboriginal lands). As such, the federal government continues to play a vital role in nation building and frontier lands administration. A high performing geomatics sector is critical to the natural resource component of Canada’s economy however, what was once a relatively narrow and well-defined field, focused on land and resource development, now permeates almost every facet of Canadian society. Natural Resources Canada therefore provides a leadership role to the Geomatics Sector at the pan-Canadian level through the Canadian Council on Geomatics and more recently through national Geomatics Roundtables. So, a key challenge for Canada is to ensure that there is a strong understanding among decision makers of the importance and contribution of location-based information to the Canadian economy. To that end, the Roundtables have recommended that two studies be conducted: 1) to provide an overview of the 2012 Geomatics Sector in Canada and 2) to provide an economic evaluation of the contribution of geomatics to the Canadian economy.

Alexander González Salas graduated as an Engineer in Geodesy and Surveying from National University of Costa Rica. He works as Professor at National University of Costa Rica, from 1985 to date. He has worked as a Professor of GIS and land registry systems. Alex is also a researcher in development of applications of the geographic information systems to the cadastre in local government. Currently, he works as Coordinator of Cadastral Development for the Program for the Regularization of Cadastre and Registry of Costa Rica, developed with resources from the Inter-American Development Bank. Alex is responsible for the formation of the new geodetic and cartographic base of the country and the development of the cadastre (cadastral map) compatible with the registry. He holds memberships of College of Engineers Surveyors, Costa Rica and is a representative of the Standing Committee of the Cadastre in Iberoamerica. Alex has published research papers in topics related to cadastral systems.

Abstract
Land Administration, Economy Impacts in Costa Rica: A vision to legal security and sustainable development
Costa Rica is a small country; the land area is 51,100 km2. The economy is limited, estimated GDP for 2011 is USD 40.1 billion with exports to USD 10.4 billion and an annual inflation rate of 4.21%. Over the course of the years, the country has created a system of land administration with two basic principles: i) the real estate registration system of private property and ii) the legal framework of creating and restriction of public lands. The Public Registry established in 1865 is responsible for the registration of the property. This institution was strengthened by playing a role in the legal system, increasing legal certainty and economic activity. With the consolidation of the coffee activity, the registration was not only support for large property owners, but also contributed to the expansion of the activity with the appearance and development of small producers. The principle of publicity of registration has been a main factor for real estate transactions. Recent data show that overall 90% of the territory under private ownership (urban and rural) enrolled in the registry. Also the mortgage market is dynamic; a considerable percentage of the properties had been subject of mortgage. With regard to public lands from the 1970's a series of laws was developed, these laws had the goal of the creation, protection and consolidation of public domain lands. This period included the creation of the National Cadastre (1981), it was created to complement the Public Registry in order to that the state had a physical description of the property. Also, with the National Cadastre, were defined mechanisms in order to control public and private land. Although the system of land administration of Costa Rica has weaknesses, it had contributed significantly to economic development in Costa Rica. This is a system of transparency and certainty about the ownership and land use. This situation has contributed to a climate that is attractive for foreign investment in various economic activities and in specific sectors of real estate development and tourism. The Costa Rica government had recognized the value of the system of land administration, for that reason it is currently developing a program to ensure it, through regularizing the data of private property and public lands.

Rik Wouters gained his MSc in Agricultural Sciences at Wageningen University (the Netherlands) in 1982. After his study he worked 5 years for the Food and Agriculture Organization where he had assignments in watershed management and forestry projects in Africa and Asia. In the Netherlands he worked over 10 years in IT-projects. From 1996 he joined the Kadaster and was responsible for large and complex IT-projects. His last project dealt with the renewal of major parts of the land registration system. In April 2006 he became regional manager for Kadaster International. Since June 2011 he is Bureau Member of the Working Party for Land Administration.

Bio
Peter currently holds the position of Head of Regional Directorate, Agency for Geoinformation and Land Development Lower Saxony (LGLN), Regional Directorate Hannover and is also Representative of AdV in the UNECE WPLA. In the past, Peter held the position of Secretary General of the Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States of the Federal Republic of Germany (AdV) from 1998 till 2002. He also served as the Chairman of the Working Party on Land Administration (WPLA) of the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management from 2005 till 2009.

Margrét Hauksdóttir Deputy Director General of Registers Iceland. She has a law degree from the University of Iceland and got recently MBA degree (Master of Business Administration) from the same University. She worked in the Ministry of Justice for 11 years and has now been within the Registers Iceland for 11 years as a head of Real Property Registration, Head of Department of Legal Affairs and Deputy Director General. She was a member of the Board of UNECE Working Party of Land Administration from 2004 to 2008 and has also participated in EuroGeographics, EULIS and Nordic cooperation.

Abstract
The presentation will give basic information and figures about the land and population in Iceland and on the national economy in Iceland. The importance of land administration in the society will be emphasized in the national economy and examples given on how things could be like if there was no land administration. Figures of interest from our land administration system will be explained and a short description of the integration of the real property registration system and the land registry will be given. Economic issues will be discussed, especially what are the hot topics after the Icelandic economy has gone through dramatic changes due to the collapse of its financial sector in the autumn 2008 and how land administration issues have played a vital role in those turbulence times and also in rebuilding the economy. Now when Iceland is slowly facing that the economy is getting rehabilitated at last consideration will be shared on what impact has this all on land administration in Iceland. All state organisations have faced flat cut down in finance from the state budget, will some systemic changes be done and what challenges are we expecting? What new opportunities do we foresee in coming years and what are the possible obstacles we might meet. And at last some examples will be mentioned on how is Land Administration influencing economy in Iceland.

Bio
Dr. Dimitris Rokos, is the Director of Planning and Investments of KTIMATOLOGIO S.A., (Hellenic Cadastre). He holds an MSc in Rural and Surveying Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a M.A. and a PhD in Geography from the University of Iowa. He has been involved in the project of developing Cadastre in Greece since 1995 serving in different posts. He has represented the Hellenic Cadastre in many international forums and conferences since 1999. He has lectured in the graduate program Geoinformatics in the NTUA and taught a course in the III International Training Course for young Surveyors organised by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale Geometri e Geometri Laureati. He is the author of many scientific and technical reports and papers that have been published and presented in various international conferences.

Abstract
The Hellenic Cadastre as a tool to reverse the effects of the economic crisis in Greece
For the past two years Greece is in the epicenter of the eurozone economic crisis. In Greece’s effort to come out of the crisis, the lack of a complete cadastre and land registry system, presents one of the biggest problems. The State does not know its real estate property and there is no legal certainty about real property ownership. These facts seriously hinder investments. The project of developing a unified Cadastre / Land Registry in Greece started in the mid 1990s by the Ministry of Environment. The development of such a system has to learn from best practices from similar systems in other countries, however, it is a unique project that has to take into account the historic, legal, social, economic and cultural characteristics of each country. Thus, the first programme of cadastral projects in Greece went through childhood diseases, leading to considerable delays and budget overruns. Since, 2009, a new framework is setup for the development of the cadastral project with the assistance and the co-financing of the European Commission. A solid infrastructure has been established that can speed up the development of cadastre for the rest of the Country. The new cadastral projects that have started since then showed great quality improvements in the cadastral database and tight project timetables. However, great problems still remain in order to be able to speed up the completion of the project. Characteristic examples are the lack of clear distinction of responsibilities among State agencies, not having flexible organizations, an extremely bureaucratic environment and the existence of strong interests against the establishment of cadastre in Greece. The establishment of a unified cadastre / land registry in Greece is one of the key projects that can contribute to overcome the economic crisis. However, it is not just an infrastructure project, it is a new institution and as such, it needs the complete support of the Government and the Greek society.

Bio
Sedat graduated from Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering at Istanbul Technical University in 1988 and completed postgraduate training in photogrammetry field at University of Stuttgart in 1991. He started working as an engineer at the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre of Turkey (TKGM) in 1989. In 2004, appointed as head of Photogrammetry and Geodesy Department then appointed as the Deputy General Director of TKGM in January 2011. During his employment, he managed first Cadaster, Turkish National SDI, Geo-metadata portal, CORS-TR, digital orthophoto production & web services and real estate acquisition of foreigner’s projects. In August 2011, Sedat was appointed as General Director of Geographical Information Systems under the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. He published over 50 national and 17 international papers.