Vice President Paul van der Molen delivers a keynote at the 2nd Cadastral Congress in Ankara

Ankara, Turkey, 21-24 May 2008

At the occasion of its 161st anniversary, the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre together with the FIG Turkish member association Chamber of Surveying and Cadastral Engineers organised the 2nd Cadastral Congress in the Turkish capital Ankara. From 21-24 May, about 500 colleagues discussed the hot topics of the profession in a very well organised conference. After speeches from Ali Fahri Ötzen, the President of the Chamber, and Mehmet Zeki Adli, the General Director of Land Registry and Cadastre, and the Minister of Public Works Faruk Nafiz Özak, the Vice President of FIG, Prof. Paul van der Molen, delivered a key-note speech, addressing the view of FIG on land administration world wide, the development and trends, and the role of land valuation for society.

During the four-days conference a variety of subjects came at stake, such as the status of e-government and NDSI in Turkey, and the new approaches within the Turkish General Directorate, such as the application of the new TAKBIS system. Past chair of FIG Commission 3, Gerhard Muggenhuber, briefed the audience on recent trends in e-cadastre, which is currently developed in Turkey. As Turkey is about to embark on NSDI, this subject was treated thoroughly by various speakers, amongst them Muhittin Ipek, highlighting the role of the private sector.

The open approach of our Turkish colleagues was also demonstrated by giving the floor to quite a few external users of cadastral services, to report critically on their experiences with the cadastre and to come up with proposals for improvement. Another topic concerned the valuation of properties, which is under debate in Turkey on how to develop a more coordinated mechanism for property valuation in the country. Various speakers, such as Nesim Gültekin from the State Hydraulic Works and Kürşat Koç from the Highway Authority, reported on their experience with valuation for expropriation purposes. The relation between respectively rural development, environmental protection and forest management with the cadastre was extensively dealt with. After all sessions lively debates took place, in which the three vice director generals of the General Directorate Nihat Şahin, Şinasi Bayraktar and Ömer Ali Anbar, often took the opportunity to cross swords with the speakers and members of the audience. After the closing of the conference by Prof. Hüseyin Erkan, the participants could look back on a fruitful and active conference.

Paul van der Molen
FIG Vice President