News Mails - 2008
Newsletter -No.047, 12/Dec/ 2008
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APRSAF-15 successfully closed in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (9-12 December)
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The fifteenth session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-15), under the main theme entitled “Space for Sustainable Development” was successfully closed its 4-Day programme today, on 12th December 2008, at the Saigon Halong Hotel, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.
Jointly organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), APRSAF-15 gathered more than 200 participants from 20 courtiers and 6 regional and international organizations.
At the Plenary session on Day-3, following the two Opening Remarks by Prof. Nguyen Khoa Son, Chairman of the National Research Program on Space Science and Technology, VAST and Prof. Hiroki Matsuo, Chairman of the Space Activities Commission, MEXT, the Opening Speech was expressed by Prof. Chau Van Minh, President of the VAST, and the two Keynote Address were delivered by Mr. Toshio Yamauchi, Senior Vice Minister of the MEXT and Dr. Le Dinh Tien, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology Vietn
am, respectively.
The results of APRSAF-15 including the Recommendations (shown below), adopted by all the participants, are posted on the following website together with photographs taken at the forum:
http://www.aprsaf.org/annual_meetings/aprsaf15/meeting_details.php
It was agreed at the plenary that the next Session, APRSAF-16, will take place in Thailand.
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[[[Recommendations of the fifteenth session of APRSAF]]]
(Adopted on 12th December 2008, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam)
Recognizing that the use of space technology and its applications substantively contribute to sustainable development, by improving the quality of life and bringing other benefits to humanity in the Asia-Pacific region,
Recognizing the importance of regional cooperation to cope with disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, capacity building and other regional issues,
Hereby affirm that we, the participants of APRSAF-15,
[Sentinel Asia]
1. Confirm with satisfaction that STEP2 JPT with JAXA as its secretariat has been successfully evolving its activities such as an increase in the number of participating satellites, and the provision of higher value added data, and utilizing WINDS “KIZUNA”;
2. Welcome that in addition to JAXA and ISRO of STEP1, KARI and GISTDA have decided to provide EO data for STEP2;
3. Look forward to further utilization of Sentinel Asia;
[APRSAF Satellite]
4. Agree on the name of APRSAF satellite cooperation as “Satellite Technology for the Asia-Pacific Region (STAR) Program”;
5. Welcome the start of an international project team of the STAR program consisting of JAXA and other participating agencies at JAXA Sagamihara campus, starting from April 2009;
6. Encourage the organizations concerned to provide launch opportunities for the Micro-STAR satellite, operation resources of ground stations, and necessary instruments;
[Earth Observation/SAFE]
7. Recommend that Space Application for Environment (SAFE) as a platform for development of solution-oriented prototype systems for environmental monitoring, in particular to assess regional impacts of climate change;
8. Appreciate the early success of SAFE prototyping (Land use monitoring and water resource management) in Vietnam, and recommend to extend to other countries and other themes;
9. Agree on the SAFE basic concept for future prototype activities contributing to GEOSS;
10. Encourage more participation from the science community as well as the private sector affiliates to support space agency initiatives;
11. Agree to hold the first SAFE workshop in Pattaya, Thailand in May 2009, hosted by GISTDA;
[Communication satellite applications]
12. Agree to further promote the Asia-Pacific regional cooperation through the Communication Satellite Applications Working Group (CSA WG) by sharing the experiences and working on the creation of the new application for tele-education, tele-medicine and disaster management, which are expected as suitable applications of the satellite communication;
13. Pursue to cooperate in the field of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in the Asia-Pacific region, and organize a workshop to discuss the future possibility of the joint development and experiments of GNSS applications in the region;
[Space education and awareness]
14. Call upon all countries that participate in APRSAF to support the efforts made and activities undertaken through APRSAF to enhance the understanding among young people at all education levels and school teachers of space science and technology and their applications as well as their links with our lives;
15. Agree that the regional space education efforts undertaken by APRSAF should continue to expand to include various activities and to contribute to global initiatives undertaken in areas relating to space education and awareness increase, such as the celebration of the World Space Week each year and the International Year of Astronomy, in 2009;
16. Agree that it is important to promote inter-regional cooperation with other regions such as Latin America and Africa by, among other things, sharing concrete examples of the successful, joint regional initiatives undertaken by APRSAF in the area of space education;
[Space Environment Utilization]
17. Appreciate the realized opportunity to utilize the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) “KIBO” and confirm to promote concrete activities towards the joint utilization, continue to share and update information multilaterally on space environment utilization status, and to seek promising areas of steady and productive cooperation among Asia-Pacific countries such as parabolic flight experiments and ISRO's capsule recovery experiment;
18. Encourage to further promote bilateral cooperation activities clarified through APRSAF initiatives;
[UNCOPUOS]
19. Wish that the outcomes of the APRSAF-15 will be presented by the Chairman of UNCOPUOS at the meetings of the UNCOPUOS as well as its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee at their meetings in 2009.
20. Recommend the Chairman of UNCOPUOS presents the outcomes of APRSAF-15 as regional cooperative structures to other region such as Latin America and Africa in order to promote inter-regional cooperation as mandated by UN General Assembly.
APRSAF Website:
http://www.aprsaf.org/
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Copyright 2008 The APRSAF Secretariat
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