The agreement for the Integrated Land Administration System Project (ILAS) was signed on Wednesday by Croatian Finance Minister Martina Dalic and the World Bank’s Country Manager for Croatia, Mr. Hongjoo J. Hahm after the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the credit 4 August.
"The Integrated Land Administration System Project (ILAS) is a follow on project to the successful Real Property Registration and Cadastre project which helped the Ministry of Justice, the State Geodetic Administration and Land Registry Offices to successfully complete the first phase of the reform of the land registry and cadastre," reads a press release issued by the World Bank.
The press release recalls that Real Property Registration and Cadastre project "simplified procedures, improved efficiency of services, reduced backlogs, increased transparency and access to information and developed joint procedures and a common land database under the Joint Information System (JIS)."
"All of these reforms have been important in improving tenure security and strengthening the land administration system which are both crucial for speeding up the reform of the judiciary and public administration, the fight against corruption and doing business."
"The second phase of reforms supported through the ILAS will further strengthen the land administration system, including cadastre and registration, through improved services. Easier access to digital information will further lower the costs of doing business and strengthen private sector-led growth. It will also complete the national roll-out of the Joint Information System which will provide complete data including land registry and cadastre information in one database, making this information available to citizens and the public and private sectors," the World Bank reports.
The project will also help Croatia adopt the EU INSPIRE directive, a requirement for all member states. INSPIRE calls for effective sharing of spatial data locally and across borders to the benefit of all EU public authorities and governments.
"By the end of the Project in 2015, we expect that the public and the business community will receive faster services and access to information through fully integrated digital data, government institutions will be able to share and view government spatial data more easily, allowing better planning and spatial development, environmental monitoring and natural resource management," Hongjoo J. Hahm, World Bank Country Manager for Croatia was quoted as saying.
"The increased transparency and access to digital cadastre and registry information is necessary for e-government and other modern services that Croatian citizens will expect as the country enters the European Union," he added.
The World Bank has so far supported a total of 48 project operation in Croatia in an amount above USD 3 billion, and approved 52 grants with a total value of USD 70 million.