1. NAME OF NATION: MALAYSIA
  1. Name of Respondent Supplying Information:
    Title (if any): Director General of Survey and Mapping

    Mailing Address: Department of Survey and Mapping, Bangunan Ukur, Jalan Semarak, 50578 Kuala Lumpur
    E-mail Address: kpup@po.jaring.my or dg@jupem.gov.my
    Telephone Number: 603-292 5932
    Fax Number: 603-291 7457

  2. Does your nation have an active or proposed initiative for developing a national spatial data infrastructure (or its equivalent)?

    3. YES

    **** POLICY ISSUES ****

  3. LEADERSHIP: Which agency or organization is coordinating or leading national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) development efforts in your nation? (If no single agency is coordinating, please provide a primary point of contact from whom we may learn more.)

    4. Agency/Organization Name: NaLIS Coordinating Committee (NaLIS - National Infrastructure for Land Information System)
    Mailing Address: NaLIS Secretariat, Ministry of Land and Cooperative Development, Wisma Tanah, Jalan Semarak, 50574 Kuala Lumpur
    E-mail Address: senalis@nalis.gov.my     
    Telephone Number: 603-293 7286 
    Fax Number: 603-291 9426
    Name of Agency Head or Primary Contact Person: Mr. Mohd. Yunus Bin Tamin

  4. AVAILABILITY: What are the primary types, categories or forms of spatial digital data being made available through your nation's NSDI?

    5. The primary types of spatial digital data being made available are geodetic, cadastral and topographic data, which are being produced by the Department of Survey and Mapping (DSMM).

  5. MECHANICS OF ACCESS: Through what technical and organizational mechanisms are spatial data being made available through the NSDI?

    6. Access to spatial data is being provided through the NaLIS Clearinghouse nodes similar to that of the US NSDI model. However, the NaLIS Coordinating Committee is also studying other model and the possibility of adopting them for Malaysia.

  6. LEGAL AND ECONOMIC FRAMEWORKS FOR ACCESS: What are the legal and economic constraints under which citizens, businesses or others may gain access to data available through the NSDI?

    7. The Fees and Royalties (Survey Data and Digital Mapping) Order 1997 has been gazetted by the Malaysian Government in February 1997. The Order provided copyright protection for all forms of digital survey and mapping data as well as regulating the fees and royalties chargeable by the government.

  7. DATA COLLECTION COORDINATION: What parties are involved in collecting data for the NSDI and how is data collection coordinated?

    8. The National Mapping and Spatial Data Committee (NMSDC), is tasked with the coordination of spatial data acquisition. This committee, headed by the Department of Survey and Mapping (DSMM), comprises of various land related departments and agencies such as the Departments of Agriculture, Forestry, Geological Survey at both the state and federal levels, the National Remote Sensing Centre and the relevant academic institutions.

  8. PRICING: If charges are assessed for spatial data made available through the NSDI, what is the basis or method for determining the price of various forms of spatial data?

    9. As NSDI is still in the earlier stage of its implementation no specific cost structure has yet been developed on spatial data made available through the infrastructure. However, the Fees and Royalties (Survey Data and Digital Mapping) Order 1997 will serve as a basis in determining the cost of spatial data. It is recommended at the NaLIS Convention held in September 1997 that NSDI policy makers should quickly develop guidelines with regards to issues such as pricing, copyright, custodianship, confidentiality, security and funding.

  9. COMMERCIAL INVOLVEMENT: Please describe how private commercial firms are involved in helping to build the NSDI.

    10. The NaLIS Convention 1997 recommended that the Government continue to hold the custodianship of NaLIS and its assets, while at the same time, encouraging the private sector to participate in the development of the NSDI, the value adding of products and services, the dissemination of data and information and promotion of the NSDI.

  10. PUBLIC DOMAIN DATA SETS: Please describe those digital spatial data sets for jurisdictions within your nation that are available to anyone without any licensing or intellectual property restrictions imposed on the data sets and the data sets are available at no cost or little cost. How may copies be acquired of these public domain data sets?

    11. As the NSDI is still in its infancy stage and work on policy matters are still on-going, a decision has yet to be reached on the datasets that will be made available to the public without any licensing or intellectual property restrictions imposed. The Environment and Land Resources Management Technical Committee setup by the National Mapping and Spatial Data Committee (NMSDC) has been given the task of determining the fundamental dataset that is required for national land resources management and planning.

  11. PUBLIC GOODS ASPECTS OF NSDI: Please describe any additional services or goods provided by government in support of the NSDI for which individual users are not charged.

    12. Besides the hardware and software provided by the Government for the implementation of NSDI the activities of the NCC and its 3 sub-committees; the Clearinghouse, Standards and Metadata and Framework sub-committees, which are necessary to ensure the success of the NSDI are examples of services provided by the government in support of the NSDI for which individual users are not charged.

  12. PRIVACY: Please describe how the information privacy of individual citizens is protected relative to data that may be accessed through the NSDI.

    13. Sensitive data such as those relating to the privacy of individual citizens would be protected as much as possible through a system of passwords, different levels of security, etc. In addition, various cyberlaws are now being drafted which would ensure this privacy is maintained.

    **** OPERATIONAL ISSUES ****

  13. AUTHORITY: Do the laws or formal orders of any legislative or executive branches of government explicitly recognize the need to establish or further develop the NSDI?

    14. YES

    If YES, please provide citations to those laws or orders.

    If YES, to whom has authority been granted and for what tasks?

    No law has yet been enacted, but the Chief Secretary to the Government has issued a Public Administration Development Circular (1/1997), which provides guidelines to the Secretary General, Heads of Federal/State Departments, and Local Authorities on the establishment of NaLIS.

    The circular effectively established the NaLIS Coordinating Committee (NCC) at the federal level under the chairmanship of the Secretary General to the Ministry of Land and Cooperative Development and the State NaLIS Coordinating Committee (SNCC) under the chairmanship of the respective State Secretaries. Besides, the coordinating committees the circular also established the National Land Information Clearinghouse

  14. FUNDING: Have funds been specifically budgeted and acquired for NSDI activities?

    15. YES

    If YES, please describe the purpose of the funds and the amounts.

    A budget of approximately 1 billion Ringgit (approximately US$250,000) had been allocated under the 7th Malaysian Development Plan for the implementation of the NaLIS.

  15. INCLUSIVENESS: Please describe the types and extent of participants involved in building the NSDI and their roles.

    16. In the Public Administration Development Circular 1/1997 the NaLIS Coordinating Committee was given the mandate to involve the Economic Planning Unit, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation Planning Unit, the Federal Treasury, Malaysian Institute of Micro Electronic System, the National Mapping and Spatial Data Committee, Ministry of Land and Cooperative Development, 15 federal departments and 13 state secretariats. Other land related agencies may be invited to attend NCC meeting where necessary. The roles of various parties and their relationships in moving towards a common NSDI vision are being developed over time.

  16. COMPONENTS: Please indicate whether the vision of an NSDI for your nation incorporates the following components or concepts.

    17. A. METADATA YES
    B. CLEARINGHOUSE YES
    C. DATA STANDARDS YES
    D. CORE DATA YES

  17. RESEARCH: Have funds been specifically budgeted and spent on research projects to advance NSDI concepts?

    18. YES

    If YES, please describe the types of projects that have been funded.

    A prototype NaLIS is now under development with the cooperation of 4 federal agencies with hardware and software procured under the NaLIS allocation. The NaLIS Prototype application is developed by the NaLIS Development team using Java, HTML, CGI, Perl and MapInfo Proserver. This prototype is developed to demonstrate the capability of the web technology to access land information kept in land related agencies.

    The 4 agencies that were selected for the prototype are Federal Territory Survey and Mapping Department, Federal Territory Land and Mines Department, Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Federal Territory Valuation and Property Services Department. The prototype data covers the region of Kuala Lumpur only.

  18. LINKAGE TO GENERAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS - Which international or national information and communication technology standards has the NSDI adopted?

    19. The International Organisation for Standardisation Technical Committee 211 (ISO/TC 211) suite of standards on geographic information and geomatics.

  19. GLOBAL SPATIAL DATASETS: Does your NSDI provide access to spatial datasets with global coverage?

    20. NO

  20. GLOBAL OR REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES: Is your NSDI formally affiliated with or connected to any global or regional spatial data infrastructure initiatives?

    21. YES

    If YES, which initiative(s)?

    The Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP), the Global Mapping and the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) initiatives.

  21. LONG TERM VISION OR STRATEGIC PLAN: Has a long term vision statement or strategic plan been developed for your country's NSDI?

    22. No - but please see below

    At the NaLIS Convention held in September 1997 various recommendations were made in regard to ‘policy and institutional’, ‘coordination and integration’, ‘funding and training’ issues and there was consensus on the need for a 'road map' (strategic plan) with timelines and milestones regarding the overall development of NaLIS.

  22. GRAND CHALLEGES: Name one of the most pressing challenges for NSDI development in your nation.

    23. Commitment and cooperation of the participating agencies, at both the state and federal levels, is vital for the success of this venture and constitute one of the biggest challenges. NaLIS' own budgetary allocation, as well as the budgetary allocation that each participating agency can commit to this project, especially so in the climate of the economic downturn now prevailing, would be crucial.

  23. FURTHER INFORMATION: If an NSDI WEB SITE exists where information about NSDI efforts in your nation may be found in the future, please provide the web site address.

    24. http://www.nalis.gov.my/

    If brochures are other written materials exist describing NSDI efforts in your nation, please provide an address for requesting copies of these materials.

    Numerous brochures are available on the web site or are available from the address listed in item 4 above.

    If a user requirements analysis or cost-benefits analysis was undertaken to estimate the benefits of building a spatial data infrastructure for your country, please provide an address for requesting a copy.

    Refer to contact as in item 4.