China to host UN's 1st geoinformation meeting

BEIJING -- The first United Nations (UN) meeting on surveying and mapping is to be held in November next year in Deqing of East China's Zhejiang province, authorities said Monday.

It is the highest-level international event on surveying and mapping to be held in China, according to a statement issued after a meeting on the event.

UN Under-Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin said that participants will exchange views on the latest achievements in surveying and mapping and deliberate measures supporting the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Proposals are also expected to be raised at the meeting to deal with global challenges in the sector, Liu said.

With the evolution of new technologies including satellite navigation and artificial intelligence, UN established the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management in 2011 and launched the highest level governmental coordination mechanism in the sector.

The meeting will be sponsored by UN and hosted by China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation and the People's Government of Zhejiang Province.