In the introduction of my presentation I explain Ravi's role. The term Ravi is the Dutch abbreviation of the Netherlands Council for Geographic Information. In organisational terms, the Ravi and Federal Geographical Data Committee (FGDC) are more or less simular with each other. However, here is one main difference. The members of Ravi are not only federal level representatives. The Dutch Association of Municipalities, Provinces, Waterboards and the utility companies are members of Ravi too. Within the Ravi organisation a business platform had been set up. At the moment, 32 private companies in the Netherlands are member of the platform. The Esri company is one of it's Executive Committee representatives. The Secretary of Housing and Building is political responsible for the coordination of Geographic Information in the Netherlands. In my presentation I will underline the importance of knowledge exchange between the GI communities in the Netherlands and the U.S. The F.G.D.C.. and the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) work actively together to stimulate partnerships with governments, the academic community, and the private and not-profit sector based on the NSDI and the National Clearinghouse for Geographic Information. In 1995, the Dutch National Geo Information Infrastructure (NGII) was developed and in 1998, the Dutch Clearinghouse for Geo Information was installed by the former Secretary of Housing and Building. In the first part of my presentation I will focus on the main developments in the cooperation between the main public GI organisations within Ravi, the Ravi involvement in the new Dutch government information policy "Electronic government", the main results of Ravi and the future activities Then, short overview will be given of the recent developments in the design and the implementation of the European Geo Information Infrastructure, laid down in the document " The European Policy Framework for Geographic Information", which waits for the European Commission's approval. The Ravi directed the European Commission's study on practice and policy on GI in six European Union Countries. The main differences in the UK , France and the Netherlands will be presented. In the last part of my presentation I will explain why cooperation between the US and the Netherlands can be beneficial. There are simularities in the organisation of the GI coordination and the involvement of the GI communities in the process leading to a better NSDI in the US and a better NGII in the Netherlands. For that reason future partnerships between Ravi/FGDC/NSGIC are in preparation now. The main elements of the future cooperation will be highlighted in the presention. Suggestions from the audience for the content and the further excution of the future partnership are very helpfull. Private companies will be invited to give their opinions for possible preparatory actions creating partnerships with the Ravi businessplatform.