REDLANDS, Calif., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The government of Panama signed a memorandum of understanding with Esri to leverage geospatial technology in support of national development. The agreement affirms Panama's recognition of the value of geographic information systems (GIS) in improving decision making and infrastructure management throughout the country. Esri president Jack Dangermond and Eduardo E. Jaen, general administrator of Panama's National Authority for Government Innovation, signed the agreement.

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With support from Esri, Panama plans to streamline operations, better manage and share its spatial data, and extend geographic resources throughout government institutions. The country's national geospatial system, GEORED, will use Esri's ArcGIS technology to provide services in the areas of land management, tourism, infrastructure, traffic, health, education, public safety, national security, and investment planning, among others.

"With ArcGIS serving as the collaborative framework throughout the country, Panama can modernize operations while saving time and money," says Dangermond. "It also supports transparency and accountability by making it easier to share geographic information among government departments and with the public."

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Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

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