Anhui Province, Feidong County, China – June 2, 2011 — International Land Systems (ILS) Inc. – a Manatron Company, recently conducted the final workshop for the Anhui Province Rural Land Registration and Certification Program, which was funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).
The pilot established a rural land certification process in China’s Anhui Province. ILS introduced methods and technologies to map the properties of rural households, and also established a digital land registry and land records archive system in Feidong County, Anhui Province.
For the project, ILS localized and configured its ILS LRS™, a land registry software system that has been implemented in numerous countries worldwide. Through the implementation, ILS addressed several critical issues of the Anhui Agriculture Commission (AAC): how to create a more efficient registry process; how to deal with issues pertaining to map scale and accuracy; and how to control costs for such a large initiative.
Anhui Province was an early pioneer in China’s land reform, beginning in the late 1970s when rural lands were de-collectivized and individual households were assigned contract rights. This rural land registration pilot clearly demonstrated the province’s continued legacy in rural land reform political leadership.
Chinese government officials stated in the workshop that Anhui is a prominent national pilot and that ILS land registration and certification methods should be modeled and expanded. The Anhui pilot demonstrated that U.S. technology and international best practices can be utilized in China to create systems customized to meet unique Chinese characteristics.
Officials from the Anhui Provincial government, Hefei Municipal government, China Rural Development Policy Center, China Ministry of Agriculture, Anhui Agriculture Commission, and Feidong County attended and spoke at the event. United States government representatives from the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service, were also present.
Speaking at the event, William Brekke, U.S Commercial Consular General Shanghai, said “Securing land tenure and registration for farmers was the basis for the U.S. economic prosperity. This project is the beginning of a relationship where working together U.S. firms can help serve the needs of China’s farmers and government leaders. Projects such as these grow this key bilateral relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.”
Christopher Barlow, ILS’ Project Manager, speaking at the event said, “Systematic land registration is immensely important for rural households’ social and economic security. Helping to secure property rights for 800 million people in rural China represents quite possibly the largest land registration campaign yet to be seen. ILS is proud to have contributed to this important work in rural China.”
ILS collaborated with project partners including Trimble Navigation Inc., Esri China (Beijing) Inc., Landesa (formerly the Rural Development Institute), Digital Globe Inc., and Beijing Landstar Digital Technology Co. Ltd., all of whom contributed products and services to the project.
For photos from the event, click HERE.
About ILS
International Land Systems (ILS), Inc. – A Manatron Company is a land administration solutions company that offers the power of land management through application of modern technology and methodologies. Together, ILS and Manatron offer a complete land and property information management solution including integrated taxation, assessment, recording, cadastre mapping, and registry systems. The company has worked in more than 30 countries and implemented over 100 projects worldwide. ILS is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, and has subsidiary offices in Kiev, Ukraine, and Cochabamba, Bolivia. Manatron, the parent company of ILS, has more than 1,600 government clients worldwide, and is a privately-held company and an investment of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC.