SINGAPORE - Boustead Singapore's subsidiary Esri Australia has been awarded a A$16.5 million contract (S$18.6 million) from the Australian Government Department of Defence.

Esri Australia, of which 88.2 per cent is owned by Singapore-listed Boustead Singapore, is an exclusive distributor of Esri geo-spatial technology and a leading provider of geographic information systems (GIS) in Australia.

Under the three-year contract, the firm will provide the Australian Government Department of Defence with Esri geo-spatial technology software, known as the ArcGIS platform, professional services, training and after-sales software services.

Boustead Singapore announced in a statement on Monday that Esri Australia will play "a strategic role" in supporting the Australian Government Department of Defence by creating an enterprise-wide GIS.

"The partnership will deliver advanced geospatial and mapping capabilities across Defence - facilitating greater collaboration, quicker analysis, more robust planning and ultimately, superior decision making," it added.

More than 65,000 military and civilian personnel will be able to access the Esri technology across the entire Australian Government Department of Defence enterprise at fixed and deployed locations globally.

"Esri Australia has been a strategic partner of the Department of Defence for more than a decade - and this new agreement reaffirms Defence's commitment to continue innovating with this software," said Mr Brett Bundock, Esri Australia's managing director.

The Esri ArcGIS platform, is used by more than 400,000 organisations worldwide, including many of the world's leading national security organisations such as the United States defence and intelligence communities, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).