Landata Group Inc.'s new system will manage land records improving the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of Romanian land transactions. "This is a historic project for Romania," Jill Urban-Karr, president of Landata Geo Services, said in a prepared statement. Urban-Karr is the only Stewart exec available to comment on the project and she's currently in Romania. She was unavailable for an interview by press time due to time zone differences. The Houston-based subsidiary will partner with IBM Corp. on the project.

Private land and property in Romania was confiscated by the Communist regime shortly in 1945. The practice was in force through the regime's fall in 1989. Romania has been embroiled in restitution ever since, making real estate transactions complicated.

The contract calls for IBM and Landata to implement the program in seven of the 42 Romanian judets or counties. Landata is a subcontractor to IBM.

The electronic system will include applications for map maintenance, land record research (including taxation and ownership information), project tracking and contractor licensing. The land registration process will be automated by Landata's LANDSCAN public record system.

The Landata applications will run on IBM-installed high-speed hardware and software products. The results will provide a single-source system for all land records. The plan is to streamline the process time for securing real property rights; providing reliable information for private investments in agriculture, housing and industry; support the development of an equitable tax system and promote the privatization process for Romanian industry and land properties.

Landata has completed similar land data registration and titling projects for the nation of St. Lucia, as well as entire real estate systems for Trinidad, Tobago and the US Virgin Islands. Stewart Information International has been a consultant in the privatization processes of the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Moldova.

"Stewart has been working overseas for 15 years, using our knowledge of land record systems to enhance the lives of people around the world in public land record systems and defendable private property ownership," said Stewart Morris Jr., president of Stewart Information Services Corp. Morris added the project is an "excellent example of the way Stewart's varied public land record expertise can help create local solutions for our international governmental clients.