The information about the last XXIII Congress of the International society for photogrammetry and remote sensing (ISPRS) held in July 2016 in Prague (Czech Republic) and about the decisions of the General Assembly of the society is outlined. The General Assembly elected new members of the Council of ISPRS and the presidents of the new five (instead of eight former), technical commissions, awarded the 11 official awards of the society, adopted the Prague Declaration, approved the time and place of the next XXIV Congress of the ISPRS – Nice (France), August-September 2020. The article reflects a brief summary of the scientific program of the Congress, which was implemented in the framework of the previous eight technical commissions: I «Sensors and platforms for remote sensing»; II «Theory and concepts of spatial information science»; III «Photogrammetric computer vision and image analysis»; IV «Geospatial databases and location based services»; V «Close-range imaging, analysis and applications»; VI «Education, technology transfer and capacity development»; VII «Thematic processing, modeling and analysis of remotely sensed data»; VIII «Remote sensing applications and policies». For the first time in the history of the ISPRS at the Congress was organized by the so-called «Russian section». Analysis of commercial exhibition given; in the exhibition was attended by 77 manufacturers of aerial and satellite imaging equipment, digital photogrammetric stations and computers systems, peripherals and software products. The conclusions in the basic directions of development of foreign science and technology over the past four-year period in the field of aerial photography, remote sensing from space, photogrammetry, topographic and engineering applications of modern technical means and methods of acquisition, processing and interpretation of images are given.