Cyprus attends UN conference on Standardisation of Geographical Names

A two-member delegation from Cyprus will participate in the ninth United Nations Conference on the Standardisation of Geographical Names, to be held at United Nations headquarters in New York, from 21 to 30 August 2007.

The delegation comprises Prodromos Vassiliou, President of the Permanent Cyprus Committee on the Standardisation of Geographical Names and Committee Secretary Menelaos Christodoulou.

The Cypriot delegation will also participate in the 24th session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), which will meet on 20 and 31 August, immediately before and after the Conference.

Nearly 300 experts from 100 countries discuss key issues and technical aspects of promoting and providing accuracy and consistency in the use of place names.

In addition to addressing the technical problems involved in the standardization of geographical names and drafting recommendations for procedures to be followed, experts will discuss ways of promoting the use of more accurate names on the Internet and assisting developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where standardization of place names is crucial in advancing economic development and in the fight against poverty.

A new Technical reference manual for the standardization of geographical names, compiled by three UNGEGN working groups and published by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, will be launched at the Conference, along with a prototype global database, which initially aims to collect, manage and disseminate names of countries and major cities in the world with a population of more than 100,000.