Indonesia to Register 14,752 Officially Named Islands with UN

The meeting of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN).

Jakarta, 12 Rabiul Akhir 1438/11 Januari 2017 (MINA) – The Government of Indonesia has officially named as many as 14,752 islands across the archipelago in 2016, Antara quoted an official as saying here, Tuesday.

The government will now register the names of these islands with the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) during a conference in New York, in August, Directorate General of Marine Space Management of the Ministry of Marine and Fishery Brahmantya Satyamurti Poerwadi revealed here, Tuesday.

“The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fishery has standardized the names of 14,752 islands,” Poewardi declared.

UNGEGN is one of the United Nations groups that deals with the national and international standardization of geographical names.

Every five years, they hold the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

In 2012, Indonesia had registered as many as 13,466 islands with the United Nations.

Registering the official island names was necessary to strengthen the nation’s sovereignty, Poerwadi maintained.

The exact number of islands comprising the Indonesian archipelago varies according to sources.

As per an earlier survey in 2002, conducted by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), the Indonesian archipelago has 18,307 islands. (T/RS05/RS01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)