First generation of national spatial data infrastructures
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a basic distinction between core and thematic data. With this in mind its has played a leading role in the creation of digital core data sets for the Netherlands as a whole at the 1 5 10 000 scale and also at the larger scales required for the municipal administration and public utility management purposes. It has also initiated a National Geographic Information Clearing House project which builds upon the experience of a number of metadata initiatives by various agencies in the Netherlands. 2 .6 . Indonesia
An inter-agency working group was established in 1993 to identify the main land data users and producers with the objective of establishing a National Geographic Information System for planning purposes. This project is coordinated by the National Coordinating Agency for Surveying and Mapping (Bakosurtanal). High priority is being given to the creation of a national framework to ensure that the information produced by di erent agencies has the same geographic referencing frame. Given that only 62 % of the land area of Indonesia is covered by topographic base maps it was decided in 1993 to complete the coverage of the whole country using digital mapping methods (Godfrey et al. 1997 , p. 19 ), A national GIS arrangement law is also under preparation and a number of GIS projects have been included in Indonesia’s Sixth ® ve year plan (REPELITA VI). These include GIS training and awareness raising activities as well as technology transfer and digital database development (Suharto 1996 ). 2 .7 . Malaysia
Although the need for an e ective land information system to assist planning and development in Malaysia has been felt since the early 1970 s, the ® rst steps towards setting up a national infrastructure were not taken until 1994 when the Ministry of Land and Cooperative Development appointed Renong Berhad to carry out a feasibility study. This study produced a comprehensive set of proposals setting out its vision of a National infrastructure for Land Information Systems which would `make it possible to access the entire range of information required for the planning and maintenance of expensive infrastructure systems and support the sustainable development of natural resources such as oil, gas, forests, water and soil’ (Renong Berhad 1995 , paragraph 1 .5 ). Following the publication of this report a task force was set up to make proposals for implementation at both the federal and state levels (NaLIS 1996 ). Work on a prototype has also begun in the Kuala Lumpur area (Tamin 1997 ) and in January 1997 the Prime Minister’s Department of the federal government issued its guidelines for the establishment of the national infrastructure for land information system. 2 .8 . Korea
A National Geographic Information System (NGIS) was set up in 1995 by the Korean government to stimulate the development of digital spatial databases and the standardisation of geographic information. The implementation of this programme is overseen by a steering committee of representatives from 11 ministries chaired by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. The budget allocated to NGIS is $360 m over a ® ve-year period. It is expected that about 64 % of these costs will be met by central and local government and that the remainder will come from the private sector (MOCT 1995 , 2 ). Phase 1 of this programme lasts from 1995 to 2002 . It is primarily concerned with