Singapore – Dr Victor Khoo, Director of Survey & Geomatics at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), has been appointed to represent Singapore as the Co-Chair of the United Nations Expert Group on Land Administration and Management (EG-LAM) for three years from August 2022. The appointment marks the first time a Singaporean has assumed the Co-Chair appointment for the EG-LAM since its founding in 2015.

The EG-LAM is an expert group under the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). The group is represented by geospatial professionals from over 28 countries across Europe, South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. Singapore takes over founding Co-Chair The Netherlands, and will lead the group with Co-Chair from the SNIT-IDE (the National System of Territorial Information), Chile. More information on the EG-LAM and Dr Khoo’s profile is detailed in the Annexes.

The appointment is a strong recognition of Singapore’s achievements in maintaining a reliable and robust framework in land registration and management, and in using digitalisation to revolutionise its cadastre for land ownership, which has enabled cadastral inspection and approval to be completed using a digital format. Singapore will contribute to guiding the EG-LAM’s transition from the planning to implementation of its land administration framework globally. The appointment also places Singapore at the centre of global geospatial policy making, and further positions Singapore as a global hub for geospatial innovation and economic activities.

“Geospatial technology, particularly in 3D data acquisition, usage of space-based earth observation data and environmental monitoring can help address some of the most pressing climate change issues such as rising sea-levels and coastal damage. In Singapore, SLA has worked with various agencies and institutions on research and implementation of novel use cases to monitor and mitigate their effects. From our experience, such collaborative efforts are necessary to address complex climate related challenges. I look forward to working with the Co-Chair from Chile as well as global experts, companies, and researchers to unlock the potential of geospatial technology and expertise to prepare nations for future climate challenges,” said Dr Victor Khoo, Director of Survey & Geomatics Division, SLA.