Prof. Gerhard Beutler, newly elected President of the International Association of Geodesy and Prof. Christian Tscherning, Secretary General of IAG visited the FIG Office 29 September 2003 in conjunction to the Executive Committee meeting of IAG in Copenhagen. The purpose of the visit was to discuss with Prof. Holger Magel, FIG President and Markku Villikka, Director of FIG office the future co-operation between the two associations and the implementation of the memorandum of understanding.

In the discussion it was noted that IAG and FIG have many common issues and fields of activities where joint action is needed. Prof. Beutler described the new structure of IAG, which more information is available at: http://www.iag-aig.org/. Matt Higgins, Chair of FIG Commission 5 and focal point to IAG had prepared a document how FIG and its commissions can co-operate with the IAG commissions in the new structure. It was agreed that IAG and FIG will co-operate at the 2nd FIG Regional Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 3-7, 2004 and at the IAG Scientific Assembly in Cairns, Australia in August 2005. Prof. Magel also invited President Beutler to make a keynote presentation at the FIG Working Week in Athens in May 2004. Matt Higgins’ report is available here.

Among the issues of common interest were the educational topics especially in developing countries. IAG will send its representative Prof. Charles Merry to the Round Table on Surveying/Geomatics Education to be held in Marrakech in December 2003. Other topics discussed were the role of the Joint Board of Spatial Information Societies, which will be discussed at the next meeting in Istanbul in 2004 and the joint co-operation with the United Nations and its agencies.