Brunei Darussalam has awarded a US$6.3 million project for delivery of the country's National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

Through the project, geomatics software company CARIS will deliver its spatial database and web-mapping technology.

The primary contractor for the project is Selective Powertech Consulting of Brunei Darussalam, which has a specialization in information and communications technology consultation and implementation for e-government.

In addition to CARIS, the project team and major subcontractors include CARIS regional representative, Maicons Technology Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia); e-commerce and finance specialists, Dalplus Technologies (Brunei Darussalam).

Titled e-Map, this Brunei NSDI project is estimated to be completed over a twelve-month period. The main components of e-Map are Framework Data (vector, raster and grid), Products, Metadata, NSDI Catalogue, Data Warehouse and Online Business Applications. The primary proponents of the project are the Ministry of Development Departments of Survey, Land and Town & Country Planning.

The e-Map provides a significant undertaking to further advance e-Brunei, as His Majesty the Sultan outlines in his vision for e-Brunei in 2005: "The national e-strategy will further strengthen the present national IT plan that will together uphold the vision towards taking advantage of the integration of IT and telecommunication for the prosperity of the nation."

"E-Map is a system which will disseminate information related to geographic, survey, land, development, town planning and other information over the Internet. It comprises of a group of subsystems, all of which will access a common set of databases," explains Haji Mohammed Jamil bin Haji Mohammed Ali, Surveyor General of the Survey Department, Ministry of Development.

He noted that, "Through this infrastructure, Brunei will reduce duplication of effort among agencies, improve quality and reduce costs related to geographic information, make geographic data more accessible to the public, increase the benefits of using available data, establish key partnerships with government agencies, academia, public and the private sector, and increase data availability."

The e-Map infrastructure will provide a common means to share geographical data among all users and promote the development of business applications that utilize spatial data. This will produce significant savings for data collection and use and enhance decision-making.

The common point of access for all e-Map online applications is an E-Map Portal. Applications will be delivered for online mapping, e-PPT land subdivision and consolidation, e-Planning for Town and Country Planning for land development, and e-Land land administration and taxation.