Jakarta - The Indonesian government has handed the data and names of 4,981 islands in the 14 province of the country to the 24th conference of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) at the UN headquarters in New York from Aug.20 to Aug.31,2007.
In an official statement, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said on Tuesday that the UNGEGN was an institution granting recognition to the legal status of ownership or sovereignty of a country over an island.
A UNGEGN resolution guarantees that naming of an island as a geographical element by an authorized national institution is considered meeting international standards.
An accurate and consistent toponym will support an effective communication in social and economic activities, such as postal services, trade, population census, education or in disaster handling.
Under Presidential Decree No 112/2006, the Indonesian government set up a national team for name standardization to show government`s commitment to support accurate geographical standardization in the country.
The team is chaired by the home affairs minister, and members including the defense minister, the foreign minister, and the marine affairs minister, while the national education minister acts as its executive chairman under further coordination of the head of the National Mapping and Survey Coordinating Agency.
The team would then proceed with identifying 8,742 islands in 19 other provinces starting in September 2007.
The Indonesian government has been actively participating in the activities of UNGEGN including the holding of the third toponym training for the Asia and Pacific region in Batu, Malang, East Java in 2005.
Indonesia is now the UNGEGN chairman of the Southeast Asian and Southwest Pacific Division.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (23 Agustus 2007)
