The Committee has been established pursuant to resolution 16 of the 13th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (Beijing 1994) and shall operate under the purview of the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (UNRCC-AP) and submit its report and recommendations to that Conference.

The aims of the Committee are to maximize the economic, social and environmental benefits of geographic information in accordance with Agenda 21 by providing a forum for nations from Asia and the Pacific to:

• cooperate in the development of a regional geographic information infrastructure;
• contribute to the development of the global geographic information infrastructure;
• share experiences and consult on matters of common interest; and
• participate in any other form of activity such as education, training, and technology transfer.

GIS infrastructure is defined as the:

• Institutional Framework which defines the policy, legislative and administrative arrangement for building, maintaining, accessing and applying standards and fundamental datasets
• Technical Standards which define the technical characteristics of fundamental datasets
• Fundamental Datasets which include the geodetic framework, topographic data bases and cadastral data bases
• Technological Framework which enables users to identify and access fundamental datasets

• that support the organization and the analysis of a range of spatial and related information for a wide range of social, economic and environmental purposes.

The Committee shall endeavour to achieve the following objectives, which are, inter- alia:

• To define the nature of a regional geographic information infrastructure that each country in the region can contribute to in order to meet regional and global mapping and GIS requirements.
• To determine the nature of legislative and administrative procedures and orders appropriate to the acquisition and sharing of spatial data.
• To develop a regional geodetic framework, regional topographic datasets, national cadastral datasets and regional geographical names datasets as the basis for regional GIS activity.
• To document the status of key geographic datasets and key agencies in each member nation, and develop a framework for the exchange of such information.
• To prepare guidelines and strategies to assist member nations for the implementation of cadastral development to meet individual member nation needs.
• To determine the need for research, training and technology and policy exchange in relation to the beneficial impact of geographic information on the social, economic and environmental objectives of member nations of Asia and the Pacific region.
• To explore opportunities for aid funding to support development needs of member nations and for the development of a regional spatial data infrastructure.

In addition to reporting to the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (UNRCC-AP) the Committee shall also seek to establish links with other relevant United Nations programs and international bodies such as: UNRCC for the Americas;

• International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM)
• ESCAP Regional Space Applications Program (RSAP);
• EUROGI and EUROGEOGRAPHICS;
• GSDI Steering Committee;
• ISO TC 211;
• International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG);
• International Federation of Surveyors (FIG);
• International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS); and
• International Cartographic Association (ICA).

• The above and other bodies are contained in a schedule maintained by the PCGIAP Secretariat.