A report on the activities of Cyprus and a publication on Marine Toponyms were submitted at the 11th UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) by President of the Cyprus Permanent Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Names (PCSGN) Andreas Hadjiraftis, who was also elected Vice-Chairman of the Conference.
According to a press release, Hadjiraftis, who is representing the Republic of Cyprus at the Conference, submitted a report on the activities in Cyprus over the past five years.
He also officially submitted a new publication by the PCSGN on Marine Toponyms. The publication was the result of close cooperation between the Department of Lands and Surveys, and the PCSGN. It complements the large Toponym Dictionary submitted to the UNGEGN Conference in 1987.
Furthermore, Hadjiraftis was invited to present Cyprus’ achievements over the past years on “Making Data Accessible”. The invitation came after an article published in the latest UNGEGN Bulletin (No.52), in May 2017.
For this purpose, Hadjiraftis participated in a roundtable discussion on August 15th, with a great interest shown by the representatives of member states.
During the opening of the Conference, Hadjiraftis was unanimously elected Vice-Chairman of the Conference, among hundreds of candidates from other countries, after a proposal submitted by the representative of Canada. The election is considered an honour for Hadjiraftis himself, the PCSGN, the Department of Lands and Surveys, and Cyprus in general.
The two-week Conference is held every five years at the UN headquarters in New York. The 50 years of UNCSGN are being celebrated this year.
