In September 2025, the third Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for the period 2025–2030 between Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and our Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC).
The MoU includes a list of activities that GISTDA and ITC will jointly develop in the coming years. This list was compiled during a meeting in 2024 in Bangkok with Dr. Pakorn Apaphant, Executive Director of GISTDA, and Prof. Freek van der Meer, Dean of ITC.
ITC and GISTDA have collaborated for more than a decade. The partnership began in 2012, a year after the major floods in Thailand, when a GISTDA delegation visited the Netherlands. In the following years, ITC and GISTDA worked together on seminars, staff exchanges, and short courses. These training activities included capacity building for GISTDA staff as well as joint regional training in Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
The signing ceremony took place in a hybrid format. Dr. Pakorn signed on behalf of GISTDA at the agency’s headquarters in Bangkok, in the presence of His Excellency Remco van Wijngaarden, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Thailand, and Mr. Gijs Theunissen, Agricultural Counsellor. ITC Dean Prof. Freek van der Meer signed the MoU at ITC in Enschede, while His Excellency Asi Mamanee, Ambassador of Thailand to the Netherlands, joined the ceremony online from the embassy in The Hague.
With this Memorandum of Understanding, GISTDA and ITC reaffirm their commitment to continue the collaboration, advance innovation in geo-informatics and earth observation, strengthen regional capacity, and support sustainable development in Thailand, Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, and beyond.
