Regional Conference in Accra - Visit in December 2005

Vice President Schroth and FIG Director Visit Ghana to Plan the Regional Conference in March

Accra, Ghana, 13-16 December 2005

FIG Vice President Ralf Schroth and FIG Director Markku Villikka visited Accra in December to discuss the arrangements of the 5th Regional Conference to be held at the La-Palm Hotel March 8-13, 2006. During the visit also remaining practical issues were discussed and the details for social programme agreed.

Representatives of FIG had a meeting with the local organising committee and were given information about the enthusiasm that the surveyors have to the conference. There are lot of local presentations in the technical programme covering all three divisions (General Practice (incl. valuation), Land Surveying and Quantity Surveying). Altogether it is expected that almost 500 participants will attend the conference. There will be big delegations also from the countries in the region like Nigeria.

In the final programme there are about 150 papers in 30 parallel sessions and workshops. In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies there are three plenary sessions on the following topics: Land Administration and Good Governance; Capacity Building in Africa; and New Cadastral Domains. The special workshops include the education in Africa and a workshop dedicated to AFREF.

In the programme a specific role will be given to the Land Administration Program in Ghana which is a huge World Bank project in Ghana. During the visit it was also confirmed that LAP will be the major sponsor of this conference. The FIG representatives made also a visit to the LAP offices. They also met with the Surveyor General of Ghana.

The conference will take place at the La-Palm Hotel and its conference centre. There are also other hotels offered in lower categories. However participants are reminded that the traffic in Accra is very heavy and that this should be considered when selecting the hotel.

The technical tours and sightseeing programmes were updated during the visit and are now posted on the conference web site www.fig.net/accra.

La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel and the Homowo Conference Centre which is linked to the hotel.	La-Palm offers also good facilities to refresh after the hot conference day.
Visit to the Land Administration Program: Dr. Antonio Carrillo, GTZ/LAP (left), Dr. W. Odame Larbi, Project Director of LAP, Vice President Ralf Schroth, Dr. Dr. B. E. Kwesi Prah, President of GhIS and Mr. Stephen Djaba, Congress Director.	Meeting of the organising committee at the GhIS office.
President Prah and Vice President Schroth.	Vice President Schroth together with Mr. Jones Ofori-Boadu, Hon. Secretary of GhIS, Stephen Djaba and President Prah.