In 1990, Hungary’s renewal program was started to turn the economy from a centrally planned, command-based system to a market-oriented one with peaceful transition supported by democratic government. The process is now in the enhancement phase while the the Euro-Atlantic integration generates additional challenges related to competitiveness, efficiency in central and local governments, paving the way toward the Information Society. Based on multi-channel expert level discussions, an action plan for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure and proposal on the information strategy for the administration has been elaborated. Recently, the National Spatial Data Strategy (NSDS) initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office has been formulised for the Government. In-depth studies related to major factors such as macro-economic impacts, GI-related legislation environment, regulations, quality and standards, spatial data collection and management, information access, product/service marketing and public relations support the document. The NSDS offers a unified structure for spatial data infrastructure projects that are being planned, are in definition or already in the implementation phase. If it, in association with the Action Plan of the Information Society, is approved the implementation of the spatial data strategy actions and tasks related to the NSDI will be accelerated.

Area: 93,030 km²

Population: 10.2 millions inhabitants, 65% in urban areas (1998)

Agricultural cultivated areas: 66% , 624 thousand production units

Gross Domestic Product: 38.1 billion ECU (1997)

Per capita GDP: 3745 ECU (1997)

Projected 1998 GDP growth rate: 4%

Projected 1998 inflation rate: 12%

Unemployement rate: about 9% (1998)

Export orientation: EU Member States 70% (1998)

Projected 1998 GI market growth rate: over 30%

Hungary is a country in transition. The political turnover and social changes since 1989 have resulted an unprecedently rapid development toward the establishment of a market oriented economy. In 1990, Hungary’s renewal program was started to turn the economy from a centrally planned, command-based system to a market-oriented one with peaceful transition supported by democratic government. The process is now in the enhancement phase while the Euro-Atlantic integration generates additional challenges related to competitiveness, efficiency in central and local governments. The role and importance of the information technology and its direct impact on the present, and anticipated effects on the future economical and social structure was realised by senior decision makers who had clear vision on the necessity for Hungary’s response to the challenge of the Information Society.

Firstly the discussion document, Hungary’s National Informatics Strategy was set up in 1995-1996, followed by the Strategy on Governmental Informatics. Simultaneously, an action plan for the Hungarian Spatial Data Infrastructure and National Spatial Data Strategy has been discussed by expert panels for the Government for several years, especially during the past several months. The Prime Minister’s Office has decided to pursue the formulation of an Information Society Action Plan and a National Spatial Data Strategy in order to facilitate geospatial data availability and access for use by the public/private sectors.

The major driving forces in Hungary to develop a harmonised National Spatial Data Strategy (NSDS) include:

Steadily growing needs of the private sector, especially those of the utility companies for reliable, accurate and up-to date large scale base maps in digital form since the late 80’s. Moreover, the local governments of at least 10% of the country’s 3200 settlements have shown interest to apply such kind of data when available for urban management systems. The first National GIS Project was launched by the National Committee for Technological Development in 1993. It has supported about 30 municipalities implementing GIS systems and applications using digital mapping standard developed by FÖMI, the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing.

The creation and update of digital mapping data is costly. Public authorities and data/service providers, especially related to lands, surveying, mapping, photogrammetry and remote sensing have already realised their common interest and are ready to co-operate in joint data production actions and development program under governmental co-ordination. It allows balanced public-private partnership and user sector involvement also encouraging the interagency spatial data sharing in the administration.

The increasing need for accessing and using geospatial data in geographic information systems and related technologies required the development and adoption of harmonised standards. Development of the enabling technologies incl. appropriate, network based hw/sw infrastructures and human resources (professional skills, knowledge and know-how on best practices) was also a fostering factor.

The cost effective implementation of the NSDS and the use of this advanced technology is depends on the widest possible dissemination of map-based data in the government administrations and other areas of the society in order to achieve higher level efficiency in the public sector.

The process of the Euro-Atlantic integration generates additional challenges related to GI market competitiveness, fostering application of GIS/RS-based sectorial decision supporting systems and cross border applications such as those related to transportation, water management or environmental assessments.

Establishing the National Remote Sensing Centre 18 years ago, Hungary has a already collected about 400 man-years experiences and expertise how to transform value added products from row remotely sensed data. Recently, all the operational applications (e.g. crop monitoring and yield estimation, land cover digital mapping) are using GI technologies in handling, analysing and in visualisation of geo-referenced spatial-temporal data.

In Hungary, one of the dominant movers is the Lands and Mapping authority of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where the 8-year long gradual and systematic evolution of the IT -based infrastructure in the Land Office Network lead to the near implementation of the National Land Information Service scheduled for the Year 2001. The sector has formulized a series of long term programs having interdisciplinary and interagency interest, prepared the Law, which today governs all surveying, mapping and related activities. The integrated land registration and cadastral mapping, land use and large scale topographic mapping responsibilities are coordinated by the same ministry. Awareness raising, education and staff training of the 4600 civil servants and employees are under implementation partly in international co-operation using advanced methods such as distance learning.

Hungary experienced good economic recovery that has considerably raised the confidence level of the business community. Taking into account the major input factors as domestic economy, internationalisation, government, finance, infrastructure, management, science and technology as well as people, the overall attractiveness ranking of the country emerged from the 36^th position to 28^th within a single year on the top 46. The chart includes key market players of the world economy surveyed and ranked by IMD International based on the analysis of 136 hard criteria. Not surprisingly the information technology, telecommunication, computer and social infrastructures are the dominating factors measuring the information society in terms of infrastructures required for the citizens to access, absorb and utilise information and ITs. On the information society index rankings of the top 55 countries Hungary got the 27^th place according to the survey and analysis of the World Times/IDC team.

The Hungarian NSDS document is now in the final stage of debate and it appears that it will be finalized in some months. If the NSDS document in association with the Action Plan of the Information Society is approved, the implementation of the spatial data strategy actions and tasks will begin. The present authorisation has largely grown out of earlier existing co-ordination of the National Committee for Technological Development (OMFB). The leading role of the Co-ordination Office of Informatics of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in GI is based on the direct mandate received from the government. The milestones of the NSDI-related actions can be summarised as follows:

The importance and role of IT and telecommunication was realised by the Government in the early 90’s. As first high level action, the Co-ordination Office on Informatics (COI) at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was established. The National Information Strategy as a blueprint was elaborated and compiled by representatives of NGOs in 1994-1996. The National Committee for Technological Development launched the multisectoral National GI Programme focusing on local government applications, and R+TD support to produce marketable digital map products and services, CEN and ECE harmonised standardisation, satellite positioning technologies as well as geo-referenced environmental database and agricultural (crop) monitoring. The Working Group on GI (WGGI) was set up in 1996 by the COI at the PMO. This forum, consisting of representatives of all relevant ministries and governmental agencies elaborated the Action Plan of the establishment of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. It was approved by the Governmental Commission for Informatics and Telecommunications in mid-October 1997. The government formulated an Information Society Action Plan in early 1998. A team of senior decision makers completed various supporting projects. As a result of this activity, the draft National Spatial Data Strategy (NSDS) is now ready for final intersectoral discussion.

The NSDS background studies were been initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office in early 1998. The NSDS sets out the strategic issues in six key areas:

• macro-economic impacts,
• bottlenecks in the legal environment,
• overall regulation issues, public-private partnership, outsourcing
• data management: improvement in data collection and data access,
• quality assurance, standards,
• public relations, marketing.

The implementation of the above mentioned projects provided in-depth investigation on the present stage in Hungary, highlighting best practices. Some major goals to be achieved and appropriate, applicable tools and feasible methods have been recommended. The study on regulation has also included an outlook on worldwide trends and selected national (USA, UK, Netherlands), regional (EGII and GI2000) as well as global (GSDI, Santa Barbara Statement) initiatives and concepts on GI strategies and infrastructure developments. The context is the relation chain of data ð information ð knowledge and the market. The focus is now on the final formulation of the NSDS and it is expected, that the document will be submitted for approval in the next months.

The results of the six preliminary studies provide a basis for the Hungarian NSDS:

• The first study focused on the macro-economic relationships. It investigated the impacts and anticipated benefits for the general administration and the private sector generated by investments in the spatial data infrastructure and use of service. Special emphasis was given to the issue of effectiveness based on investigation of larger spatial data application projects to clarify the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) measures and actions needed to meet the requirements of the European Union and NATO accessions based. A detailed review of national spatial data strategies and infrastructures of the USA, EU, UK, and the Netherlands was conducted in this study.
• The second study analyzed the legal issues related to mapping data and map-based information with the objective to localize the legal barriers that are partly based on relevant international legal practices.
• The third study was devoted to the regulation issues. Investigated topics included data gathering, mandatory and optional tasks of the central government, the role of the local administrations in the establishment of the NSDI, promotion, and in the area of research and development. Recommendations resulting from this study identify: ways to share tasks and responsibilities between the main market players; ways to strengthen public private partnership (including outsourcing); tools and organizational actions that are needed to achieve better performance through coordination.
• The fourth study investigated spatial data management issues concerning base data sets, their production, quality, maintenance, scheduling, and the financial resources needed. Further investigations included spatial data accessibility, establishment of metadata services, applicable pricing policy and the economic interests of the data owner(s).
• The fifth study targeted quality-assurance and related standards. Approved international practices and standardization efforts of European and global organisations such as CEN, ISO and OGC were analyzed.
• The sixth study emphasized the marketing and public relation issues, inevitable for widening the dissemination of the spatial data and related services. The objectives to be achieved were described as follow: raising awareness, popularization of the use of this technology as well as the development of more user-friendly and market-oriented systems, services and products.

These projects provided in-depth investigation on the present stage in Hungary and provided analyses on the best practices at the international level. The goals to be achieved and alternatives for the applicable tools and methods for the NSDS have been recommended in a strategic document. The strategic document contains a balanced system of objectives and corresponding actions that are fully in line with the implementation of the Information Society action plan. The document contains 12 strategies and 50 specific tasks to be implemented in the years leading to the planned date of the EU accession. It includes recommendations concerning organizational/institutional measures, tasks related to the strengthening of national, regional and global spatial data infrastructure, and activities related to the needs of the Euro-Atlantic (NATO and EU) integration.

The Action Plan proposed by the Working Group on Geographic Information was approved by the Governmental Committee for Informatics and Telecommunication in 1997. The recent NSDS studies have verified the necessity of these programs

Fig.1 Key projects related to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure

The Working Group on GIS covers a relatively wide range of substantive interest as shown by the actions, actively involving all the relevant ministries and central agencies. The strong position of the two primary key data provider, namely the Department of Lands and Mapping and its R+D institute FÖMI and the network of 136 Land Offices, as well as the Mapping Agency of the Home Defense Forces should be mentioned here.

The primary types, categories or forms of spatial digital data being made available through the NSDI is as follows:

The technical and organizational mechanisms can be characterised as follows: Technical mechanism: standard order procedures with browse room services with some experiments with geospatial metadata service needed for later electronic commerce. Organizational mechanism: as far as the public data are concerned, well equipped data providers offer data and products based on yearly maintained pricelist.

The main suppliers are as follow:

Large scale mapping and land/property registration: Land Office Network of The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (LAN/Internet access is under development. Core nodes are the 136 Land Offices countrywide and FÖMI, the Institute for Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing) Taking into account the CEN TC287 and ISO TC211 efforts, standards have been elaborated and used.

Aerial and satellite remotely sensed data, value added products and imagery archive: FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre (Browse room service and special agreements)

Topographic maps, DTMs: Mapping Agency of the Home Defense Forces

As far as the legal and economic constraints under which citizens, businesses or others may gain access to data available through the NSDI is concerned, Sellings of public geospatial data is carried out according to the Act on Surveying and Mapping Activities (in force since 1996). The land and property registration data are open for the wide public. Nominal fees allow easy access. However, due to the mass change in land/property privatization during the last years an enormous backlog resulted especially in the capital (where 20% of the country’s total population is living and where 80% of all financial transactions take place). To face the challenge caused by the impact of the economic/societal/political transition, the introduction of the geospatial data clearinghouse concept is one of the scheduled actions in the framework of the planned joint National Aerial Survey Project to be implemented next year.

Resources for the implementation of the Action Plans according to the recommendation of the NSDS document is expected mainly from the budget, while some actions are paid by the European Commission (Phare, Tempus etc). Illustrating the magnitudes, phase one of the already launched National Cadastral Program is about 23 MECU, the accumulated costs of the computerisation of the Land Offices is roughly 15 –15 MECU, supported by the Phare aid program and the state budget respectively. Similar magnitude will be requested for the launch of the National Topographic Program, while the Parcel Based Information System was approved by 5 MECU.

The spatial data clearinghouse issue addresses one of the vital challenges for the institutions of state administration, namely how the cost-sharing scheme is to be introduced in order to ensure reliable and up-to-date data provision. It is mandatory for the establishment of an operational, market-oriented public data service for the citizen and other users including the data interchanges between central, regional and local administrations.

For istance, a representative of the main data provider is introduced. The Department of Lands and Mapping, MARD has a nationwide twofold role: it serves as a National Mapping Agency (NMA) for large scale base mapping (cadastral and topographic, practically in the scale range 1:1000 - 1:10 000), and also as a National Land Administration (dealing with land registration, land valuation, land use, land consolidation etc). It operates and supervises the Land Office Network consisting of 115 District- and 19 County-level Land Offices (DLOs and CLSOs), the Capital Land Offices as well as the FÖMI. The IT development of the Land Management Sector has been massively supported by the European Commission since 1990 in the framework of a multiannual aid programme financed by Phare. After the computerisation of the land registry was completed in 1996, the follow-on projects have been progressing gradually according to the pyramid shown on the Figure 2.

Fig.2 The Action Plan of the IT development of the Land Office Network (1996-2002)

This progressive development is in line with the recommended multiphase approach in IT/telematics environment featuring the following levels of the interchange of data between administrations (IDA) in the European Union and the proven stages of the public-private partnership in the USA

The improved telecom network and services available in Hungary have great importance from the information access point of view. Many of the public services will turn to provide data availability on the Internet including

• Digital Topographic Data DTA-50 of Mapping Agency of the Home Defence Forces,
• The TAKAROS/TAKARNET based National Land Information Service of the District/County Land Offices (to be completed in 1999) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development, and
• Digital Metadata Service on Surveying, Mapping and Land Registry of MARD FÖMI

The Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development (MARD) of the Republic of Hungary is not only responsible for the nationwide provision with basic lands and mapping data used by GI services and systems, and for operation of the FÖMI RS Centre, but MARD is also one of the major users of GI and RS data and services at the same time. These data and services are especially valid in the phase of the EU pre-accession talks and co-operations (SAPARD programme) with special emphasis on the institutional improvement (supported by the Twinning Framework) prior to the adoption of the Acquis Communitaire. The value of objective, accurate, and reliable information on agriculture and related disciplines has been realised with special emphasis on timeliness and savings in resources. Some of the GI and RS content major application projects have to be mentioned here:

After 15 years of intensive application-oriented R+TD at FÖMI RSC, the satellite remote sensing based nationwide crop monitoring and yield estimation programme NÖVMON become operational in 1997. It has been continuously used since then by MARD. Subcontracted by the EC, the countrywide CORINE Land Cover database and products were completed by FÖMI RSC at the scale 1:100k in 1985. Subsequently, a refinement was started with MoE and MARD support, to scale 1:50k, using internationally verified extended nomenclature. By merging of regional policy, Regional development and agriculture under one roof (MARD) recently, it is anticipated that these disciplines will offer good opportunities for wide ranging unified application of verified GI and GI data, products and services.

In association with the EU-accession, some other actions - having significant impact on use of GI and RS – are also to be mentioned:

Land tenure policy (partly FAO and EC DG1 ACE actions), to strengthen the land market issue including renewal of the land evaluation (study prepared by Coopers & Lybrand); GI aided land consolidation project (TAMA in German-Hungarian co-operation); Establishment of the land and soil related statistics according to EUROSTAT/OECD needs; Forest management (UN FAO/ECE, EC JRC); Marketing on wider LIS applications (study by Ordnance Survey /Geometria GIS System House); participation in activities of European organisations such as CERCO (European unified reference network EUREF and UELN, data quality, commercialisation and copyright of base map data and related products), MEGRIN (GDDD, SABE), EUROGI (ESMI, commercialisation, GSDI); UN ECE (MOLA, land registration guidelines); EARSeL; AGILE; CEN TC 287 (standardisation) and GISIG (Well-GIS, Panel-GI).

The design and implementation of the multipurpose, parcel based information system (PARCELLA) was enforced by the institutional upgrade and re-engineering as needed by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. Among the establishment of the paying institution and the improvement of the agricultural statistics, the need for a parcel based information system to support the integrated administration and control system of the agricultural subsidies and sectoral funds is inevitable. The tender document for the definition phase including pilots is near to completion and the multiphase project will be completed in the year 2002. Outsourcing will be procured according to the EU regulations. PARCELLA will provide interoperability with the already existing Land Office Network LIS/GIS infrastructure and offering a link with technology chain to utilise remote sensing data, products and services. Some additional potential application areas of the system include: regional policy and Regional development, water management, communications, transportation, statistics, environment and natural protection, insurance, banking, taxation, health issues, support of decision making in local, regional and central public administrations as well as in governmental agencies and NGOs, upgraded service for GI marketplace players eg. citizens, private sector, academic institutions (R+TD and education).

The Hungarian Association for Geo-Information (HUNAGI) was established in order to achieve competitiveness of the Hungarian players (data providers such as the national mapping agencies, data broker NMEs, and users) in the rapidly growing European GI content market. Just one year after that the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information (EUROGI) had been formed by the support of the EC DG XIII in Luxembourg, HUNAGI has held its inaugural meeting on 9^th November 1994 in Budapest under the auspices of the National Committee for Technological Development. HUNAGI was registered by the court in in early 1996 and since that time it has not only attained full member status in EUROGI, but it has also been acknowledged as an Advisory Board member by the steering committee of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure, a forum enjoining the political and industrial support of the three dominant ITT (Information Technology and Telecommunication) world market areas, namely US/CDN, Europe and SE-Asia including Japan. HUNAGI (as member of the European team of 25 experts) was invited to GSDI's closed-shop strategic conferences held in Bonn-Königswinter, Germany and Chapel Hill, NC, USA in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

According to its mission objectives, HUNAGI plays active role in forging institutional links between the European/US and the Hungarian GI community, where the participating institutions strengthen their links with internationally acknowledged organisations including CERCO, MEGRIN, EUROGI, MOLA, EARSeL, GISIG, AGILE, GEIXS, CEN, FIG, ISPRS, ICA, ISO, OGC, GSDI. HUNAGI effectively supported a series of international GI conferences and exhibitions called GIS/LIS'9x Central Europe and arranged Forums under the chairmanship of invited prominent experts of the European and US spatial data infrastructure in the period 1993-1996. In 1997, top-level sistership co-operation with North Carolina, Northrhine-Westfalia and Hungary on the field of satellite positioning, high- performance computer network based teleworking and distance learning, GI-related public data provision, and advanced applications was initiated.

Started with 10 founder organisations, HUNAGI has today 22 high profile member organisations, institutions and NGOs.

HUNAGI’s Member Organisations and Institutions (as of December, 1998)

• Agricultural Science Faculty,

University of Agricultural Sciences

at Debrecen

• AM/FM-GIS Hungary
• College on Surveying and Land Management, Sopron University
• Hungarian Academic and Research Network (HUNGARNET Association)
• Hungarian Geographical Society
• Hungarian Society for Regional Planning and Renovation
• Hungarian Society of Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing
• Hungarian Space Office
• Hungarian Urbanistical Society
• Hungarian Federation for Agroinformatics
• Geological Institute of Hungary
• Department of Physical Geography

József Attila University of Sciences

• Capital Plant Health and Soil Conservation Station
• Hungarian Urbanistical Society
• HUNGIS Foundation
• John v. Neumann Society for Computing Sciences
• Union of the Hungarian Public Administration Informatics
• Dennis Gabor Foundation
• Mapping Agency of the Hungarian Home Defence Forces
• Prime Minister's Office
• Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development
• GRID Budapest, Ministry of Environment

Meantime, HUNAGI was invited by the Genova based GISIG to take part in the West-East Linked Laboratories (WELL-GIS) Project of the Copernicus Programme, with the aim of assisting in the formulation of the GI2000 Programme of the European Commission orchestrated by the DG XIII E-2 and to demonstrate the GI-related progress in Hungary at the Joint European GI Conferences held in the Hague, Barcelona and Vienna. Since 1997, HUNAGI was invited to take part in the following European projects: P22 (GI-related legislation), ESMI (European spatial metadata infrastructure), ABDS (Administrative Boundary Database Service for the CEEC), PANEL-GI (Pan-European Network of Laboratories in GI). As proof of further positive development, HUNAGI's invitation to join the Executive Committee of the European Umbrella Organisation of Geographical Information must also be mentioned.

The overall profile of the national GI association is as much multidisciplinary as the GI-related applications itself. It ensures efficient consultancy capabilities and competitiveness in the international arena using the synergy of the public-private-academic partnership. This is why HUNAGI has been invited to assist in the formulation of the National Spatial Data Strategy document and the definition of the infrastructure-related actions having multisectoral significance. It is expected, that some of these tasks will be supported partly also by the 5^th Framework Program of the European Union in competition environment. The implementation of the projects will support adequately the EU integration procedure by provision of geo-referenced, accurate and reliable data, information, value-added products and user-tailored consultancy services. HUNAGI took also part in the list discussion of GI2000 policy paper and the GI-related R+TD strategic document of the EC DG XIII and DG III/JRC ISIS respectively.

The know-how transfer is important for raising awareness. Based on the emerging relations with the DG JRC and DG III of the European Commission, HUNAGI has received the right to host the 4^th European Commission GIS Workshop in Budapest, 24-26 June, 1998. The event attracted over 120 GI project managers and senior experts from throughout Europe providing platform for technical discussions and the needed cross-fertilisation. As additional international GI-related action, the ECO’BP’98 Symposium of the Technical Commission VII of the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing must be mentioned. The event was devoted to ”Resources and environmental monitoring – Local, regional and global”. Due to the Hungarian presidency of this ISPRS Commission for the period 1996-2000, the mid-term symposium was held in Budapest in September 1998, having about 30 sessions and participated by nearly 300 experts from 33 countries. Discussed topics were among others: GI and RS for sustainable development, digital global mapping of the urban areas, crop monitoring, global assessments and environmental impacts of mining activities. Some recent organisational activities include: MOLA Workshop on Land Market (and its driving factors) hosted by MARD in co-operation with HUNAGI member MFTTT under the umbrella of the UN Economic Commission for Europe on November 30- December 1, while the European Spatial Metadata Workshop was also held in Budapest on 2^nd of December 1998.

Since 1997, HUNAGI has been invited for participating the following international projects:

- GI in Hungary (1997). Subcontracted by GISIG (IT) in frame of the EU Copernicus programme Well-GIS (West-East Linked Laboratories on GIS), the study provided up-to-date information on (1) Stage of networking; (2) Meta data base building; (3) Institutional context; (4) Products and services; (5) Frameworks and experience setting up HUNAGI as national GI association.

- Commercialisation of GI in Hungary (1998). Subcontracted by RAVI, (NL) a questionnaire was completed related to the ”Survey on GI policy and practice in six European countries” focusing on (1) General policy of the commercialisation of GI; (2) Overall policy on pricing and access; (3) Consistency of the sectoral policy on pricing and access; (4) Practice of the commercialisation of GI with special emphasis on meteorology, environment, mapping, land registration, buildings.

- Pan European Link for GI (Panel-GI, 1998-2000). Coordinated by GISIG (IT) and sponsored by EC DG III this networking program has three main objectives as follows:

(1) Networking, to create the EU-CEEC framework (with partners EC JRC, EUROGI, GISIG, University of Vienna, and institutions from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary). (2) Production of a PANEL-GI tutorial package as guidelines (3) Ensuring technology transfer, exploitation of the established network organising workshops and conferences harmonised by the parallel ongoing regional GI project ABDS (Administration Boundary Database Service for the CEE countries) orchestrated by FÖMI as prime contractor, financed also by the EC DG III.

- European Spatial Metadata Infrastructure (ESMI, 1998-99). The DG XIII/E- INFO2000 project lead by Geodan (NL) aims to create ESMI by providing mechanisms to link spatial data users with metadata services using Internet. HUNAGI has been invited for working in the expert panel jointly set up by EUROGI, CNIG (PT), MEGRIN and LISITT (ES) in order to facilitate communication between users and providers/brokers of spatial data and establish the user/provider/broker requirements to build ESMI based on the experiences and expertise of the Hungarian METATÉR pilot project members.

The operation of HUNAGI as national GI association is heavily supported by the MARD Department of Lands and Mapping, the National Committee for Technological Development (OMFB), as well as by the HUNGIS Foundation.