INITIAL STEP
The EGM was an initial step, conceived by the UN-Habitat Human Capacity Building Agenda for South and South East Asia on Transparency in Land Administration to identify the specific land-sector governance challenges and priorities in these sub-regions. Participants came from Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Also invited were source persons from Malaysia and FIG, together with others from UN-Habitat and ITC, University of Twente in the Netherlands.

TIMELY INITIATIVE
Opening proceedings, vice-president Teo congratulated and thanked on behalf of FIG the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, the Global Land Tool Network and the University of Twente for this important and timely initiative for South and South East Asia, remarking that FIG looked forward to contributing appropriately to the EGM. He later gave a presentation entitled ‘Opportunities to Enhance Land Governance in South and South East Asia'.

REGION-SPECIFIC
Transparency in land administration (TLA) is the prime training programme implemented by the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) in cooperation with the Training and Capacity Building Branch (TCBB) of UN-Habitat and the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente. A training programme comprising a Training Toolkit and Trainers' Guide has been developed and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, the implementation of which in the region in 2008 entailed running four successive courses. The training programme will incorporate region-specific content and methodology.

Working Week 2011 in Marrakesh

A call for papers has been issued for FIG Working Week 2011, to be held in the city of Marrakesh, Morocco from 18th to 22nd May, with the theme ‘Bridging the Gap between Cultures'. The theme addresses current changes in the world and the importance of cultures and understanding difference, including in professional development, traditions and legislation, when the world is becoming more harmonised through common standards and global markets. The Working Week will bring together surveyors and land professionals from all over the world in Marrakesh and Morocco: for centuries the crossroads of cultures. We invite you to submit an abstract for the FIG Working Week 2011, deadline 12th November 2010. The abstract shall not exceed 250 to 500 words in length, describing the objectives, results, conclusions and significance of your work. If you want to present a peer review paper at the FIG Working Week 2011, please submit your full paper by 12th November 2010.