\United Nations COPUOS/T.527

Committee on the Peaceful Unedited transcriptUses of Outer Space

527th MeetingTuesday, 8 June 2004, 3 p.m.Vienna

UNREVISED ADVANCE COPY

Chairman: Mr. A. A. Abiodun (Nigeria)

The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m.

The CHAIRMAN: Good afternoon distinguished delegates, I now declare open the 527 th

meeting of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

This afternoon, we shall continue and conclude our consideration of agenda item 8, Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. At that time, the Chairman of the Working Group on Space Debris of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Mr. Claudio Portelli, will make a brief statement. After that, the Chairman of the Working Group on Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space, will report to the Committee on the informal consultations of the Working Group, which are currently being held in Room C0713.

We will also continue consideration of agenda item 9, time permitting, Report of the Legal Subcommittee. I intend to close the list of speakers for this agenda item at the end of the meeting this afternoon. I sincerely urge all delegations still wishing to make a statement to please inscribe their name with the Secretariat no later than 6.00 p.m. today.

We will also continue our consideration of agenda item 10, Spin-Off Benefits of Space Technology: Review of Current Status, and begin consideration of agenda item 11, Space and Society.

At the end of this afternoon’s meeting, we will hear four presentations, under agenda item 11, by the representatives of the Regional Centres for Space

Science and Technology Education. These Centres affiliated to the United Nations. The presentations are in accordance with the request made by this Committee last year to be kept informed of the work of the Centres.

And I want distinguished delegates to note that I intend to adjourn this afternoon’s meeting at 5.00 p.m., in order to ensure that the Working Group on UNISPACE III + 5 Review Report will have sufficient time for its sixth meeting.

I am sure that all of you have listened very carefully. That is an ambitious time schedule. I do not see how we can do it but we will start.

Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on its forty-first session (agenda item 8)

Distinguished delegates, continuation of agenda item 8, Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.

I would now like to invite Mr. Claudio Portelli, Chairman of the Working Group on Space Debris of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, to please make a brief statement. Mr. Portelli, you have the floor.

Mr. C. PORTELLI (Italy): Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, at the forty-first session in February this year, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee established a Working Group on Space Debris to consider comments from Member States of

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In its resolution 50/27 of 6 December 1995, the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that, beginning with its thirty-ninth session, the Committee would be provided with unedited transcripts in lieu of verbatim records. This record contains the texts of speeches delivered in English and interpretations of speeches delivered in the other languages as transcribed from taped recordings. The transcripts have not been edited or revised.

Corrections should be submitted to original speeches only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned, within one week of the date of publication, to the Chief, Conference Management Service, Room D0708, United Nations Office at Vienna, P.O. Box 500, A-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum.

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the Committee on the proposals on debris mitigation presented by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee to the Subcommittee at its fortieth session.

The Working Group agreed to proceed in accordance with the following plan.

(a) To request IADC to revise its proposals in view of the comments received from the Member States of the Subcommittee and to produce a new draft proposal;

(b) To conduct a review cycle among the Member States and observers through the Secretariat;

(c) Depending on the results achieved during the work of the IADC, to provide the Subcommittee with a new draft of the proposals on space debris mitigation and to consider these proposals during the forty-second session of the Subcommittee in 2005.

At its last meeting in April 2004, the IADC has already started to analyze all technical comments as contained in the documents A/AC.105/C.1/2004/CRP.29 and Addendum 1.

Basing on the items of the Work Plan, and taking into account the interest of the IADC in the comments provided by the Member States to the IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, the Working Group is intending to initiate the following steps towards the implementation of the above Work Plan.

One, to officially request the IADC to consider and possibly to reply on the comments provided by the Member States to the IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines.

Second, and last, to invite interested Member States to participate jointly with the IADC in a meeting which will take place in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2004. The Working Group believes that such a meeting could be an opportunity to achieve a progress needed for successful accomplishment of the Work Plan. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank Mr. Portelli for his statement.

I now invite Mr. Harbison to address the Committee on the work of his Working Group on Nuclear Power Sources. Mr. Harbison, you have the floor please.

Mr. S. HARBISON (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland): Thank you Mr. Chairman for giving me the floor.

As agreed during the forty-first session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, the Working Group on the Use of Nuclear Power Sources has continued its intersessional work in the form of informal consultations during this session of COPUOS. These informal consultations have been attended by representatives of some 10 countries.

In order to assist these informal consultations, two papers have been made available in all the appropriate languages, namely documents A/AC.105/L.253, entitled “Proposed Outline of Objectives, Scope and Attributes for an International Technically-Based Framework of Goals and Recommendations for the Safety and Planned and Currently Foreseeable Nuclear Power Source Applications in Outer Space”, and A/AC>105/L.254 entitled “Preliminary Draft of Flow Charts for Potential Implementation Options for Establishing an International Technically-Based Framework of Goals and Recommendations for the Safety of Planned and Currently Foreseeable Nuclear Power Source Applications in Outer Space”.

As a consequence of the informal consultations currently taking place, these two documents will be updated and re-submitted to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee at its meeting in 2005. In particular, we expect to be able to provide the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee with a detailed projection of the time and general level of resources likely to be required for each option identified in A/AC.105/L.254.

We are also taking the opportunity to review the outstanding activities necessary to fulfil the actions required under the Work Plan for 2004 and 2005, as mentioned in document A/AC.105/804, Annex III, which is the report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee for 2003. This will enable members of the Nuclear Power Sources Working Group to prepare properly for the next Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meeting in 20054. Thank you Mr. Chairman for giving me the floor.

The CHAIRMAN: I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Harbison for his statement and, therefore, both Mr. Harbison and Mr. Portelli for briefing this Committee on the ongoing deliberations in their Subcommittee, in their Working Groups, respectively.

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Do we have anybody with any comment on both presentations?

I see none.

This brings to a conclusion of our consideration of agenda item 8, Report of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee.

Report of the Legal Subcommittee on its forty-third session (agenda item 9)

Distinguished delegates, we now move on to agenda item 9, Report of the Legal Subcommittee on its Forty-Third Session.

And the first speaker on my list this afternoon is the distinguished representative of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Jae-wan Lee. Mr. Lee, you have the floor please.

Mr. J.-W. LEE (Republic of Korea): Thank you Mr. Chairman. My delegation takes note of the report of the forty-third session of the Legal Subcommittee. We would like to express our warm appreciation to Mr. Sergio Marchisio, Chairman of the Legal Subcommittee, for his leadership and dedication which generated fruitful and productive results. This has especially been very helpful to us in drafting our own domestic legislation on outer space, which my country plans to submit to the National Assembly at the end of this year.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation welcomes the adoption of the draft model letter with a view to encouraging non-Member States to join the United Nations treaties on outer space, to adhere either to a selected number or all of its treaties and take the necessary steps to incorporate them in their domestic legislation. Recognizing the undisputed significance attached to the universal participation in view of promoting consistency and certainty in the implementation of such treaties, we would like to encourage as many Member States as possible, including those of COPUOS, to take a proactive attitude to the issues of adherence and implementation in the future.

My delegation would also like to support the draft resolution concerning the concept of the launching State to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly for its approval. Noting the development of new technologies, the growth in space activities carried out by non-governmental, as well as governmental entities, and the increase in joint launches since the adoption of the Liability Convention

and the Registration Convention. We believe that the adoption of this draft resolution is timely and appropriate because it will contribute to the development of civil space activities and the promotion of international cooperation.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation shares the view of many Members of COPUOS that the preliminary draft Protocol on Space Assets will facilitate the expansion of space activities, benefiting sellers and buyers alike, developing countries as well as space-faring countries. We believe that the United Nations would be one of the international organization for whom it would be appropriate to assume the role of Supervisory Authority, due to its comprehensive mandate with regard to international cooperation and the development of international law.

In the meantime, my delegation also takes into consideration the view voiced by some delegations at the last Legal Subcommittee that more discussions are needed due to the lack of relevant practices and information, including those regarding the question of liability and costs to be borne by the international organization. In this context, my delegation supports the establishment of an Open-Ended Ad Hoc Intersessional Working Group and intends to actively participate in the discussions. My delegation hopes that this Working Group will submit a desirable recommendation to the next Legal Subcommittee for our future consideration.

Lastly, Mr. Chairman, my delegation is pleased that the Legal Subcommittee has begun reviewing the “Practice of States and International Organizations in Registering Space Object” under our four-year Work Plan of 2004 to 2007. We take the view that the identification, analysis and harmonization of different practices relating to registration will contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of international law of outer space. In this regard, my delegation calls upon the Member States to submit an account of their domestic practices soon. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished delegate of the Republic of Korea for his statement.

I now invite the distinguished representative of India, Mr. Narayanan. Mr. Narayanan, you have the floor.

Mr. G. NARAYANAN (India): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Indian delegation is pleased to note the progress achieved during the forty-third session of the Legal Subcommittee and would

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like to commend the leadership and guidance provided by Professor Sergio Marchisio as the new Chairman of the Legal Subcommittee. Also we would like to briefly make some observations on the report of the Legal Subcommittee.

Mr. Chairman, the Indian delegation considers the contributions of the Legal Subcommittee over the years in developing an international legal regime of outer space as very important. In our view, the Legal Subcommittee occupies a leading and prestigious role in evolving and safeguarding the entire body of international space law, which was founded so far on ethical principles.

We note with satisfaction that the Subcommittee reached an agreement on the draft resolution, to be recommended for consideration by the United Nations General Assembly on the concept of the launching State. We support the resolution and expect the Committee will endorse it. We also note that the draft resolution does not constitute an authoritative interpretation of or a proposed amendment to the Registration Convention or the Liability Convention.

The subject of definition and delimitation of outer space had been on the agenda of the Legal Subcommittee for quite a long time, and we urge the Legal Subcommittee to expedite their deliberations and arrive at conclusions. Any further delay may likely lead to a situation where different countries may adopt their own criteria for the same.

Mr. Chairman, the satellites enable many developing countries to plan vital space applications such as communications, national television broadcasts, tele-medicine, tele-education and remote sensing applications towards sustainable development. These space applications are an essential means for national development for many countries. The operation of the space systems and international cooperation in the space field so far are being carried out within the boundaries of the five United Nations treaties on outer space which provided a fair and equal opportunity to all the countries.

In this context, the agenda of “Examination of the Preliminary Draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment” deserves careful examination. We followed the debate on the subject in the Subcommittee with interest. First of all, we fully concur with the agreement of the Working Group established to examine the preliminary draft Protocol, that a number of both practical and fundamental issues

remain to be resolved before the Subcommittee could decide on the appropriateness of the United Nations acting as the Supervisory Authority for the future Protocols.

The Indian delegation considers certain aspects of this subject as fundamental:

The primacy of the United Nations space treaties in the conduct of space activities by the States, including the non-governmental entities under the jurisdiction of those States, as non-negotiable and to be fully complied with;

The public services carried out by the States through their space activities utilizing space objects, must be guaranteed irrespective of the interests of a few sections of larger international society;

The obligations under the United Nations treaties must be fully met by the States to which the financing agencies may belong, if the Space Protocol of UNIDROIT comes into existence in the future;

A policy direction will be needed from the United Nations General Assembly on the mandate of our Committee and its Secretariat for taking up any role in the future implementation of UNIDROIT protocols, after consideration of legal, administrative and cost aspects.

Finally, the Indian delegation considers that the Legal Subcommittee should concentrate on the complex new subjects and further develop the international space treaties, under the leadership of COPUOS.

Mr. Chairman, we consider that the United Nations should encourage all non-governmental entities and private industries to contribute to the implementation of UNISPACE III recommendations, both in kind and in cash. That will help the orderly development of space activities, including the international space legal regime. The Legal Subcommittee is the primary forum to foster such an international multilateral cooperation, upholding the ethical principles involved in the United Nations space treaties.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished delegate of India for his statement.

I now invite Mr. Trebaol, the distinguished representative of France, to address the Committee.

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Mr. J.-Y. TREBAOL (France) (interpretation from French): Thank you Mr. Chairman. The French delegation is pleased with the quality of the debate of the last session of the Legal Subcommittee. We would like to warmly congratulate Professor Marchisio and the Working Group for the results achieved. Efforts aiming at encouraging countries to accede to international conventions are worthy of commendation.

The French delegation is pleased with the constructive nature of the exchanges that have taken place on the question of registration of space objects. The Convention on Registration, which entered into force in 1976, contains provisions, the implementation of which must be assured.

The presentation of States practices has allowed to note differences in approach between States with variable practices and differing forms of transmission of information to the United Nations. The relevance of the objectives of the Work Plan have thus been demonstrated. This should contribute to unifying practices, strengthening the application of the Convention and encouraging States that have not as yet done so to ratify or sign.

Mr. Chairman, the work of the Working Group on the Status and Application of the Five United Nations Treaties has also been very constructive. My delegation would like to express its gratitude once again to Professor Cassapoglou for the skill with which he chaired the work in the Group.

The conclusion of the draft resolution on the concept of the launching State, as well as initiatives aiming at having States sign international conventions, as well as international organizations do so, points towards a broader accession to space law on the preliminary draft Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to the UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment. The session has made it possible to stress the differences in views that there are on this question of the determination of the Supervisory Authority for the register. The position of the French delegation outlined several times, consists in wishing to attribute this function to an existing international organization.

My delegation, Mr. Chairman, counts on the Ad Hoc Working Group set up, led by the Dutch delegation, to arrive at a common position on this matter rapidly. The French delegation, furthermore, would like to thank that delegation for their initiative.

Mr. Chairman, the French delegation made statements at various times in the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee as well as the Legal Subcommittee on the question of debris and contributed extensively to IADC work.

My delegation would like to stress here that the differences in views made clear at the last IADC meeting, as well as the two Subcommittees, most likely will mean more time being necessary so the principles can be agreed. The question of debris involves the practical matter(?) with a universal dimension and all States must work on this to set up a preventive system. The urgency of the matter, in our view, calls for specific initiatives that can be concluded rapidly.

The French delegation, thus, would like to express its wish once again to see this question on the agenda of the Legal Subcommittee and has the intention of coming forth with new proposals next year on this.

On behalf of the French delegation, Mr. Chairman, I thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished representative of France for his statement.

I now invite the distinguished representative of Indonesia, Ms. Adrianti Sunaryati. You have the floor Madam.

Ms. A. P. SUNARYATI (Indonesia): Mr. Chairman, with regard to agenda item 9, my delegation would like to express its position on the importance of the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the future Protocol on Matters Specific to Space Assets to bolster the ever-growing outer space activities.

These legal instruments are also of paramount significance in reducing the financial risk and burden arising out of these activities.

However, my delegation wishes to underscore the necessity to seek other possibilities concerning the international body, other than the United Nations, that will be serving as Supervisory Authority under the future Protocol, as this function is not in the purview of the mandate of the United Nations as enshrined in the Charter. Furthermore, this function will also set a precedent for similar initiatives in the future.

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, my delegation is of the view that it would be more effective and efficient for UNIDROIT to assume the functions of Supervisory

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Authority, since the Convention and the draft Protocol have been developed under the aegis of UJNIDROIT.

With regard to the possibility of the United Nations serving as Supervisory Authority, we believe that the Committee should continue to study the relevant practice and experience of ICAO serving as Supervisory Authority of the international registry under the Aircraft Protocol.

We do not(?) object to the United Nations taking on a supervisory function with the main condition that the United Nations does not bear any costs associated with the supervisory function.

I thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished delegate of Indonesia for her statement.

The next speaker on my list is the distinguished representative of Thailand, Ms. Thanomsri. You have the floor Madam.

Ms. T. RANGSIKANBHUM (Thailand): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is the first time that my delegation participated in the activity of the Legal Subcommittee at its forty-third session. The discussion on the status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space and related matters during the said meeting, has enlightened my delegation with valuable views and contributions made by COPUOS members. My delegation, therefore, encouraged the Committee to engage in more thorough discussion on these matters with a view to obtain better understanding in relation to space law and education in space law. We hope that we can participate more actively in the future endeavours of the Subcommittee so as to improve understanding of international space law among developing countries.

Regarding the matter of ratification of the five major international legal instruments governing the uses of outer space, Thailand is pleased to inform the meeting that we already ratified the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of Status in Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, and the Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched Into Outer Space. We are seriously considering to become party to the rest as called upon by resolution 56/51 of the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session.

With these remarks, my delegation welcomes with appreciation the report of the Legal Subcommittee in its forty-third session. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished representative of Thailand for her statement.

Distinguished delegates, at the beginning of this afternoon’s session, I read out the schedule of our work this afternoon and if you recollect, it was too ambitious, and I was looking at the clock and the other things we are supposed to do this afternoon. With your permission, I would like to suspend and continue tomorrow morning for the presentations on agenda item 9, as well as items 10 and 11. We have delegates that have indicated their interest to speak and if you really observe what is going on, you discover that a number of members of the Secretariat have been going around you carrying out informal consultations with those delegations that have indicated their interest to speak. And I am very grateful, on behalf of the Bureau and the Secretariat and on your behalf, for these delegations who have now agreed to be patient enough to wait until tomorrow morning to address their issues on agenda items 9,10 and 11.

That being the case, and if there is no objection, I intend to invite the four speakers from the four Regional Centres that the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has established, under your guidance, to address us, at your request last year, on their respective status in their respective countries.

Is this arrangement OK? And after they have finish, we go to priority number one of this session, that is the UNISPACE III + 5 Working Group.

Any objection?

If not, I will like now to turn the presentations and remind our speakers, we have four, we can only give each of you 20 minutes, no more, I am sorry, so please make sure you do not go beyond 20 minutes.

My first speaker is Professor Ekundayo Balogun, the Director of the African Regional Centre on Space Science and Technology Education, in the English language, and this Centre is based at Ile-Ife, at the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University at Ile-Ife in Nigeria. Professor Balogun, you have the floor please.

Mr. E. E. BALOGUN (Nigeria): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to present my presentation by, first of all, expressing my profound gratitude to the Office for Outer Space Affairs and to its Director, Dr.

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Camacho, for inviting us, that is Coordinators of the various Centres, to make presentations at this meeting.

I will touch on some of the milestones of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Nigeria.

Showing that some of these things are mentioned, I will not have time to spend on each of these but I will indicate some of the important aspects of these items.

The Centre in Nigeria was established in 1998 and there were seven African countries represented at the opening, or at the inauguration of the Centre, Egypt, South Africa, Liberia, Namibia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana. Only five of these countries have signed the Memorandum of Understanding. Although many African countries have expressed interest in the Centre, yet very few have come forward to sign the Memorandum of Understanding.

Shown here is a kind of an organogram(?) of the organization of the Centre. The main features of these is that we have four areas of specialization where we give instructions to participants from the various African countries. The mission of the Centre, of course, is to build high-quality capacity and critical mass of indigenous educators in English-speaking African countries for application of space science and technology for sustainable, national, regional and continental development.

Of course, the vision is then to develop skills and knowledge in four prime areas: remote sensing; satellite meteorology; satellite communications; and basic space science and to ensure the participating African countries are part of the Global Information Society, using leapfrog technologies afforded by satellite communication.

The support for the Centre is from the Office for Outer Space Affairs, especially in the areas of curriculum development, the supply of relevant United Nations publications that are relevant through the educational system, and funding transportation for foreign participants and they have pledged support for relevant pieces of equipment. The other support is from the host country. The Ministry of Science and Technology in Nigeria established NASRDA, that is the National Space Research and Development Agency. And it is through this agency that the African Regional Centre is being funded. In fact, the Centre has become one of the activity centres of NASRDA and the Nigerian Government pays local staff, provide

counterpart funding for research activities and encourages participation of Nigerians and encourages popularization of space science and technology.

The host institution, the University in which the Centre is based, contributes a large pool of top-grade resource persons for the Centre and provides infrastructure, accommodation, energy and water supply and provides also a large expanse of real estate for the Centre’s permanent site, provides library and health care facilities to staff and participants at the Centre.

RECTAS is a familiar centre. It is the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys and provides facilities for remotes sensing and GIS and GPS. And sometimes supplies resource persons in remote sensing and GIS.

Since 1998, the Centre had engaged in various activities. The nine-month programme in the various area of concentration commenced in the year 2000 and, as you will see, there were very few participants from African countries The nine-month programme seems to be too expensive for African countries to support. However, we have short-term courses and workshops and, as you will see later from the figures, there are very many participants. These workshops, some of them hands-on exercises and from my little(?) experience from 1998, we found out that there are African countries willing to participate in these workshops. They are short in duration, from about a week to three weeks and the various topics and the target participants are indicated in various slides. We have upwards(?) of _____________ (not clear), each of the years that these activities are held.

So these were very popular programmes. As you can see, the figures for the participants are much higher than the figures for the nine-month Diploma programmes.

In order to encourage the interest of many participants in the nine-month programme, there was an arrangement with some departments within the University to award a Masters degree to what I refer to as high-flying participants. That, we thought, would encourage other participants, many countries, to send participants to those courses.

The budget. Money is always an essential aspect of any programme and, as I have mentioned at the outset, the Government of Nigeria pays for virtually everything. The participating African countries have not been able to make contributions to the Centre, for one reason or the other, and an attempt

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is being made in that to pay personal visits to these countries to encourage them or to help participants from these countries to get some scholarships. We have made some attempts to approach some United Nations organizations, WMO, UNESCO and so on, to sponsor participants to some of these courses. Let me put it this way, we have had limited success.

The Centres, in an attempt to get support engaged in some research activities. Some of these activities are supported by institutions abroad, and I have mentioned a few of them. Usually these institutions do not give us money but they are willing to provide pieces of equipment, they are willing to send resource persons and so on.

And we have been able to make some publications and these are some samples of the kind of things you will see.

And we also engage in some research projects which ____________(?) school(?) supports the Centre. You must have heard about NigeriaSat-1 and the Centre engaged in some validation process which we have found very rewarding. There is also a micrometeorology/mesometeorology research project which we is supported by the University of Bayreuth and from the Institute of Physical Science in Sweden. These organizations, as I mentioned earlier on, are usually willing to support us by supplying equipment and resource persons but no funds.

We have research projects to use the trim(?) data to estimate rainfall about the Tropics. We are also involved in climate modelling for which we have support from the ICTP in Italy.

These are some of the research projects that we have engaged in to support the Centre and to make sure that the few people who work at the Centre are gainfully employed, that is, they will be happy to be at the Centre.

Also participants have pilot projects and some of these are examples of the pilot projects which we have engaged in. We have some success stories, especially in Gambia, where, as a result of participation in the course of Nigeria, they have been able to expand the facilities in the country. We also have participants who are working on new ________ (not clear) for estimating rainfall from satellites.

The Centre also engages in outreach programmes to secondary schools and elementary schools in Nigeria and this is limited to Nigeria at the moment.

International cooperation. I have mentioned Uppsala University in Sweden, Bayreuth University in Germany, ICTP in Italy, WMO and WMO has been kind enough to send resource persons for hands-on workshops from aspects of satellite meteorology and remote sensing. The International Research Institute of Columbia University in the United States, has also been very helpful in training some of the participants in private modelling using satellite data.

Needs. Of course, we all need funds. The pieces of equipment we have are inadequate. We need to establish academic linkages and exchange programmes and collaboration with world-class national and regional laboratories. Partnering, I do not know if that word is permissible, but partnering gives an indication of the kind of thing we want to do with other national and international Centres of Excellence, and research collaboration with sister United Nations Centres.

Of course, we have limitations and there are lamentations. We still do not have the kind of facilities we would like to have to run the kind of Centre we are running. There is poor and inadequate funding. Of course, funds will never be adequate but the amount of funds we have is very much less below the level for us to operate adequately. The infrastructure, so far, is inadequate. Hardware and software, we need systems, we need manware also. We do not have the critical mass of skilled personnel. And also data access is still a big challenge to most of the Centres and researchers.

These milestones are a testament of salutary courage to accomplish much in the face of tremendous opposition, meagre resources and so little motivation. More resources will result in more dividends.

Thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: Professor Balogun, thank you very much for your detailed presentation to the Committee on the aspirations, the progress and the problems and, of course, the needs and vision of your Centre at Ile-Ife. I think we should defer questions to the very end because I will expect some of the questions to be similar and when we come back to that, I will also defer my own summary comment to the end.

Having stated that, I now go to North Africa and invite Morocco, Dr. Touzani. Dr. Touzani is a Director of the Centre in Morocco and the Centre in Morocco is dedicated to French-speaking African countries. You have the floor Sir.

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Mr. A. TOUZANI (Morocco) (interpretation from French): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your introductory remarks. Indeed, we are very honoured to have been invited to make a presentation on the Regional Centre’s activities and to present the CRASTE-LF which is the African Regional Centre for Science and Technology in Space in the French language. Indeed, it is a Centre which provides instruction in French only and all activities are conducted in the French language.

The details of my presentation are on CD and I will make those available to the Office for Outer Space Affairs. I have two updated CDs which explain all the Centre’s activities since its inception, workshops, reports, and other institutional activities engaged in by the Centre.

I prepared a PowerPoint presentation which reflects our activities since 2001, whereas, in fact, we started operations in 2000, so what is missing here are two courses that were run prior to 2001 but those are on the CD.

As I said, I am particularly honoured to present the Centre’s activities, i.e., institutional activities, training activities, cooperation, high-level visits to the Centre, participation in meetings and other events, the Centre’s commitment, basic equipment, a situation which continues to be weak and the financial situation and prospects for the future.

So that is what I will be presenting today.

If we look at the institutional activities, I can mention the signing of the Headquarters Agreement between the Royal Government of Morocco and the Regional African Centre. There is also an affiliation between the Centre and the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations, and the Côte d’Ivoire, which is becoming the thirteenth member nation. Other countries include Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, and we also accept countries which are either Portuguese-speaking or Spanish-speaking.

The Centre continues to approach non-member countries that are Francophone in order to interest them in joining our Centre because we feel that there is a need for their resources, human and otherwise. In the Centre between 2001 and 2002, there were two remote sensing course run and one session on meteorological training and one training course on telecommunications, and the third, remote sensing and

geographic information systems course is underway now and will end in September 2004.

There are some 80 interns that have come to the Centre for training from countries throughout Africa. In other words, they are sent by countries that are not members of the Centre and participate in our courses so that they can be encouraged to become member nations.

These training courses took place, based on documentation provided by the Office for Outer Space Affairs, which date back to 1996 and our more updated is from 2001.

These training courses run nine-months. Then we have the Thesis Defence after the nine-month course. It is a long preparation of thesis projects which take place in the country of origin of the intern or grantholder. A number of thesis have been defended. To date, of the 80 interns, only 12 have defended their thesis, belonging to 10 Member States of the Centre. For the most part, they are very high-level academically qualified interns who are on the Thesis Defence Juries who help in the research. Generally speaking, they are university professors and generally speaking, they appreciate the work of these researchers. And if there is a request for putting up a Centre in one of these countries, it is the intern then who will do the research in their country of origin and be involved in that. But I do want to underscore here the very low number of thesis which have been defended to date. A number of interns, most of them have finished their coursework but due to a lack of financial means have not been able to travel back to the Centre in order to defend their thesis before the Defence Jury.

So here I am appealing, through this Assembly, I am appealing to international organizations to come to the aid of these interns so that they can finish their training and finish their degree, in other words, defend their Masters thesis and get the Masters in science and space technology.

Turning now to workshops and other activities. We have had workshops on remote sensing, satellite telecommunications, weather satellite communications and global climate. Three rather significant workshops were held that were continent-wide workshops and include the following.

The first was one Earth observation and telecommunications. The second on tele-medicine, with the participation of some 140 participants, including doctors, telecommunications engineers, who

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put their work and knowledge together, they exchanged ideas so that they could continue later with a follow-up, and, in fact, we are still getting requests for aid or other contributions or financing of tele-medicine projects which is very important for the region. And so there has been a call for greater use of this technology to help the more remote and isolated areas of the continent.

The Sixth International Training Conference, or Workshop, was organized with the help of the United States and with the Moroccan Meteorology Institute.

And here we have an Internet initiative which is what we call the Descending Internet, in other words, a message is sent by the server to the emitting station from Washington to Iowa and then that is sent to the Star System and that can then be received with a simple small antenna using radio frequencies and then you can record that or put it directly onto a PC. So this week we had one of these workshops with 16 high-level managers from 16 different African countries and one of the unique features of this Workshop was it was only using regional expertise, that is African expertise, to use what we have at hand, the value that we have at hand, rather than calling upon foreigners, which would be much more expensive, so they came from Senegal and Morocco, for instance.

Turning now to the area of cooperation, here we are looking at strengthening and improving cooperation and there are two levels being targeted. First, cooperation with university or other academic institutions with what we call Cooperation Conventions, to have access to their laboratories and allowing their experts to come and work at our Centre and in parentheses, I should mention that the Centre has no high-level professors or managers. The academics tend to be university professors from the Mohamed V University in Rabat, Morocco. So these are people who belong to institutions, professors who belong to other institutions, and who are loaned to us and who are specialists in the field of space science and technology. One example would be one of the oldest universities of Morocco. The African Centre for Applications of Meteorology and Development, ACMAD. We also have the Islamic Organization for Science Education and Culture called ISESCO. These are two organizations that have loaned us experts or who have provided grants for our interns. Another example would be the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation, which makes it possible for an intern to get a grant to then come to Morocco for a nine-month training course. This year, we have petitioned to double the value of the grant which would

make things a bit easier for the interns who come and study at the Centre.

We also have similar cooperation agreements in place with other institutions such as the Remote Sensing and Cartography African Organization, and, even though we have no agreement in place, we have a number of experts coming to us from the African Organization for Cartography and Remote Sensing. We also have a Convention underway with the Algerian Space Agency, which is very motivated and which is very actively interested in our activities at the Centre.

We also have experts coming from the National Institute for Urbanism which has also sent us a number of experts and with whom we are developing agreements.

Turning now to the visit of high-level officials. We have had a number of Ministers coming from various countries, such as Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and others. We bring them to the Centre. We show them what we are doing in terms of training and education and in terms of scientific events or conferences that are held.

They also participate in national-level meetings, regional or even international meetings. We sent representatives from the Centre to these meetings, for example, the EURISY meeting on Improving Water Resource Management and Fighting Desertification Using Space Science and Technology, organized by EURISY from Europe and the Royal Moroccan Space Centre.

And then in West Africa, we have the Regional Workshop on World Climate Observation, held in Niger, and the Global Climate Observing System was involved in that, along with the World Meteorological Organization.

And then in October 2003, we were invited to participate in another workshop in the area of remote sensing and the applications for meteorology. This year, we will be attending similar meetings in Dakar, specifically on capacity-building in the area of using space observation data.

And then we have a very urgent need for Africa in the area of cartography because each country has its own cartography system so we are trying to work with the other organizations specializing in this area to develop one single workshop in order to harmonize or standardize this cartography and we have been doing this in a joint project with EURISY.

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We also have meetings on the subject of communications and we have been trying to promote our visibility by way of these various events.

Another important project which reflects the Regional Centre’s commitment, is the TIGER project on space technologies for water resource management in Africa, which we see one of the recommendations from this workshop gave way to requesting UNESCO, working with other African organizations, especially our Centre, to support efforts undertaken to create regional capacity in Africa and to ensure liaison among scientists and other partners in the Mediterranean region.

And we have also been working English-speaking Nigeria, so that they can help us with the pedagogical infrastructure necessary in terms of audio-visual support, computers or data available.

At the very beginning, our Centre started with a gift from the Moroccan Government. These funds are currently being exhausted. If you look, we have 80 interns at the Centre who were following training course and they have been using the equipment but we need to trade in this equipment since it has been in use since the 1980s. Basically, what we are doing now is trying to keep the old equipment going even though it is very difficult. So it is rather laborious and in order for interns to not have such a difficult time getting the training they need, we are using every means available to us, human resources, to achieve this goal, to train these people. We only have three people who are on staff, that is the Director, Deputy Director and one administrative assistant, who generally work 12 hours a day just in the Centre and this is in addition to our regular teaching duties.

Having said that, due to financial insufficiency, we have no specific work underway. We have resources available to us from the University. We have library access. We can access their documentation in terms of scientific journals and books. So we have partners with the Centre that help us in that regard.

Turning now to finances, and here you have more details in my speech. Unfortunately, of the 80 interns who participated only two countries finance their interns. Morocco, which created the Centre in 1998, has taken on the bulk of the financial burden, contributing some $200,000 a year, both in kind and in currency. And now they have just confirmed their contribution for 2004. And Niger made a huge effort also to contribute this year, during the last Board of

Administration Meeting, which was held in March of 2004. They announced their commitment to help.

For every course run, we also have ongoing contacts with international organizations, such as CNES, IntelSat, WMO, etc. Each of them sends an expert to us for one week to provide a course or lectures, and they do so free of charge. This helps us to have techniques available to us which are not necessarily easy to locate in the region.

I would also like to call your attention to the financial situation of the Centre which is critical right, and which runs the risk of undermining the quality of the training, we are trying not to weaken the quality of our courses, but, of course, there are limits to what we can do and that is why we are appealing to international organizations to help us, either with in-kind or other contributions to help us with the infrastructure, computers, etc.

Despite the financial situation, we are optimistic and we believe that there are good prospects for the future so we are organizing this Workshop on Standardizing Geographic Information in Partnership with the OACT. And we are planning to hold a Workshop on Space Technology and Major Risks, in cooperation with the Algerian Space Agency.

All the Members of the Board of Administration, who are ministerial-level members, are going home and asking their own countries or other donors, in other words, they are doing fund-raising for the Centre. The main obstacle we come up against is not the providers of funds but the fact that the structure of Centre, which is multilateral in nature, makes it difficult to have funding for the Centre directly. International organizations either prefer to help countries specifically on a bilateral basis rather than multilateral, so it is difficult to find those who are willing to provide funds in a regular manner. The United Nations, for example, through the Office for Outer Space Affairs, participates along with other organizations and helps us promote the reality of the Centre, the mission of the Centre, which is very important, and the pedagogical purpose behind it. There is a great need for space science and technology and know-how to help countries, that we could leverage the bilateral and multilateral aid through the Centre because with one donation, one is helping 13 countries at the same time.

By way of conclusion, I would just like to say, Mr. Chairman, if you look at the enthusiasm of the interns at the Centre, you will realize how well it is working. The success is reflected in them and their

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spontaneous volunteering to take on projects that they would then take home and then ensure follow-up. This is very promising and we hope that it will continue in the long run and I am sure it will continue to exist in the long run with your support. A number of pilot projects have been developed by the researchers and other research projects. These are very applicable, in a practical manner, and they respond to the needs of the countries who sent the interns. Generally speaking, it was institutions sent an intern, these are not individuals, who then leave their salaries behind for their families and when they come to Morocco for these training courses, they receive a grant of $150 so we are looking for aid for them because $150 is not much but it is as much as the Moroccan agency can provide them with. So they are already providing them with university-level, or post-graduate-level grants.

That is all I had to say and thank you for your attention.

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you Mr. Touzani for your presentation to the Committee and I am sure delegates will ask more questions later on.

Our next speaker is from Asia, from the country of India, Mr. Sundararamaiah. You have the floor to address us on the work of the Centre in India. I think it is located partly in Dehradun and partly in Ahmedabad. You have the floor Sir.

Mr. V. SUNDARARAMAIAH (India): Thank you Mr. Chairman. First let me express my appreciation and thanks to the Office for Outer Space Affairs for inviting me to do this presentation on behalf of the Centre for Space Science and Technology in Asia-Pacific.

Briefly, we are all aware that this Centre came into being following the United Nations General Assembly resolution(?) in 1990 as a sequel to UNISPACE ’82. After careful consideration, India had been selected for the Asia-Pacific Centre and the Centre got into operation in 1995.

The Centre aims at enhancing the capacity both in the county as well in the region with education, research and applications. This is how it is organized. It has a Governing Board with several countries, which I will come to later, an Advisory Committee with _____________ (illegible) advise the Governing Board, as well as the review the progress activities of the _________CSSTEAP and there is a Coordination Committee between the first step and the host country to resolve if there any small problems.

There are several linkages from other agencies, mainly the Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations ESCAP, UNESCO and ITC, Netherlands, and several other agencies.

As you see from the map, , Dehradun is the main place where the ___________ (not clear)and it also has another campus in Ahmedabad.

The Governing Board is the principle policy-making organ. About 14 countries, including India, are members. Of course, the students are not limited to these 14 countries. In fact, about 29 countries have sent their students. In addition, we have two observers ITC and the United Nations.

The Director of the Centre is Executive Authority, under the guidance of the Governing Board.

The Advisory Committee, chaired by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, meets once a years, reviews all the technical aspects, curriculum, facilities, performance, _____________ (illegible) future programmes and it reports to the Governing Board. The last meeting was just one month back at Bangalore.

These are the views of the four campus we have. Dehradun, this is just next to the IIRS, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, which itself is a guiding institute, both are in the same campus, which deal with remote sensing and GIS courses. The Ahmedabad campus is a newly built campus only for CSSTEAP activities for SatMet and SatCom companies. And the Physical Resource Laboratory at Ahmedabad gives training in space science.

This is the aerial view of the campus. IIRS is here and quarters for the CSSTEAP and just beside that we have an international hostel and the quarters for the Director of CSSTEAP is just under construction.

Fortunately, the host country has provided all the necessary infrastructure for the functioning of the centre within its capacity.

Roughly about half a million dollar per year has been spent in the last nine years. Incidentally, this is the tenth year of the Centre. So far, about 5.2 million dollars is spent on the day-to-day running of the Institute and the capital goods worth about $8 million dollars have been created in the form of facilities, building, hostels, laboratories, for supporting the step.

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In addition, the host country also provides in-kind support, quite substantial. Most of the teaching faculty comes from the host country or ____________ (illegible) about 70 per cent of the people come from the host institute itself and another 20 per cent of the staff comes from the sister units of ISRO, less universities in the country, and there were 10 per cent of the staff lectures are given by international faculties who come frequently to the other aspects in the country. They visit and also give lectures there. And this has been possible basically of the reasonably well-developed space programmes which helps in giving the quality manpower with years of experience on hand.

All the associated institutions, like IIRS, Space Applications Centre and Physical Research Laboratory, are all well-equipped with the state-of-the-art computers, software, Unix workstations. They are available for the students.

Instruments for field work, education tools form an integral part of the training. All the students will be taken around all our space facilities and they really see exactly hands-on what is going on. Of course, it is a very short exposure but still it helps.

And very good hostels, international quality hostels have been built, both at Dehradun and Ahmedabad, with well-equipped with kitchenette facilities. Of course, it also serves the Indian cuisine. The hostels are provided with computers and Internet facilities and word processing software. They have a good culture like outside the campus with activities in sports as realized in the former(?) cultural programme. The Centre has taken care to see that they feel at home in their nine-month stay in the country. These are one of the views of the Ahmedabad hostel campus.

Four courses are given by the Centre. A nine-month course, at IIRS in remote sensing and GIS. And a nine-month course in SatCom, satellite communications, at the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, and satellite meteorology also at Ahmedabad and space science at the Physical Research Laboratory, that is also in Ahmedabad.

After nine months, they get a post-graduate Diploma, as students are expected to go back to the country and do a project of relevance in their home country, prepare the thesis and then they will become eligible for consideration of the M.Tech degree by the Andhra University, which is local university.

In addition to these post-graduate Diploma and M.Tech courses, several short-term courses,

ranging from a few weeks to a couple of months in various areas, are regularly conducted.

Coming to the course ______________ (not clear), the system(?) follows a set of standard curricula developed by the United Nations, and you can see this is on remote sensing, it contains three modules, I do not want to go into detail but they follow the curriculum as given and the review by the United Nations.

There are facilities for both remote sensing and GIS at Dehradun, state-of-the-art facilities. Regularly they are updated.

Coming to the satellite communications at Ahmedabad, again this is the curriculum that is followed based on the United Nations recommendations. Eight modules and a regular course followed by a thematic pilot project. All these projects are listed on the website, as well as documented in CD form and hard copies.

And the satellite communications. Ahmedabad is a special applications centre where the communication payloads are built for our satellites, very well built ground stations are available and plus all computers and exclusively built new campus for the students. It is a really good place.

Similarly, in the same campus, we also have the satellite meteorology and global climate course that is going on there. This is done by the Physical Research Laboratory and the Space Applications Centre where they have a big group working on meteorology. These are the facilities.

Then space and atmospheric science. Once again, the syllabus that is followed suggested by the United Nations. This entails visits to several observatories in and around Ahmedabad.

So far, the Centre has conducted about 17 nine-month post-graduate courses, seven courses in remote sensing and GIS, four in SatCom, three in satellite meteorology and three in space science, including 15 short courses and workshops in the last eight years. About 29 countries and 557 participants have been benefited, 316 in the long courses and 241 from short courses.

The Centre brings out regular publications in the form of newsletters, information brochures, announcement brochures and at the end of each course, Memoirs of each candidate what he thinks __________ (not clear) is brought out as a book. All the lecture

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volumes are available in both hard copy and CD and even the old ones are compiled and ready for distribution and the Centre maintains a website. This is a snapshot of the website.

And the distribution of students interest is roughly, remote sensing and GIS attracts the major attention, more than 50 per cent of the students are in this area and then the other ones about SatCom and Satmet are roughly 20 per cent and less than 20 per cent in space science.

You can see the year-wise distribution of the students. Basically remote sensing and GIS is conducted every year because of the large demand and the other courses are on alternate years, because there is so much only you can handle it. There is a constraint on the capacity because basically the staff comes from the ISRO community and they can handle this much. And also ________________- (illegible) also gets double, if you want to increase the number of courses.

These are the countries from which students have participated, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fuji, it goes on, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea. And over 316 students completing the post-graduate Diploma, about 80 students have qualified for M.Tech and all of them have been awarded. But the problem, it looks like, when they go back they are not able to do the project for various reasons and, therefore, they are not getting proper exposure to the project, they are not becoming eligible. This is a serious matter we have to address.

These are the programmes for the next two years. It is very well structured.

I would just like to share the few experiences what we had over the last nine years. The applicants have different types of degrees from different universities, each having a unique syllabus and course design. It puts initially some strain on the students to adjust because of the varying backgrounds. And the knowledge of English and communication skills also vary vastly across the countries and their capacity to understand and absorb the subject also varies. This is partly minimized by giving audio tapes of the speakers on selected subjects. As soon as they are selected, they have a couple of months before coming to Dehradun so that they get familiar with the way of speaking as well as the language and it has helped quite a bit.

As I mentioned, the project work seems to be given not very much important in the home countries, either due to lack of facilities or they are otherwise

busy. And, of course, I mentioned the attraction for the remote sensing and GIS course.

The plans for the future. The recent meeting of the Advisory Council, chaired by the Office for Outer Space Affairs, followed by the Governing Body Meeting, has approved these plans for the future. Consolidate and expand further improved quality of education, including they want to start a visit(?) programme for the PhD, undertake region-specific projects and emerge as an institution of excellence, contribute to international endeavours.

To sum up, with the consistent support of the host country, and encouragement from the Office for Outer Space Affairs, the Centre is helping capacity-building in the region. Definitely many countries can get benefited by joining the Centre and strengthening financial support will definitely help organizing more courses since the infrastructure is already there, the benefits will be much more by marginally _____________ (illegible).

Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank Mr. Sundararamaiah for your contributions on the extensive work that has been done at the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific. And as I said earlier on, we shall take questions at the end of the last presentation which is coming up right now.

In that connection, it is my pleasure Ms. Tania Sausen of Brazil with the Centre located at the campus of INPE, São José dos Campos. You are welcome Madam.

Ms. T. M. SAUSEN (Brazil) (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. It is an honour for me to give you a presentation for the Regional Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean.

As Chairman, or Director rather, of the Brazil campus, I can now tell you about what we do in the Centre and what we have been doing since we began working with the Brazil in 2002.

Just some of the history. In 1991, the United Nations made an appeal for countries to offer themselves as candidates for the Latin American Centre. These are the candidates on the screen. Then in 1992, there was a mission to the countries to evaluate the candidates and in 1993, the United Nations identified Brazil and Mexico as countries for the location.

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In June 1994, the Chairman of COPUOS established that the Centre was to have the Head Office in Brazil with the Secretariat and then two campus, one in Brazil and one in Mexico. And there would be a rotation between the two countries for the Secretariat. It was decided, in principle, that when the Head Office of the Secretariat. It was decided in principle that when the Head Office of the Secretariat was to be in Brazil, the Secretary-General would be a Mexican and vice versa when the Head Office in Mexico, the Secretary-General was going to be Brazilian. But for the moment, the Head Office is in Brazil and the Secretary-General, Dr. José Marcos da Costa, is also Brazilian. We have two campus, one in Mexico and one in Brazil. However, the Chair of the Board of Directors is Mr. Arendida(?), Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mexico..

In March 1997, Brazil and Mexico signed an Agreement for the establishment of the Centre in the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Brazil.

In May 1997, Mexico ratified the Agreement and in December Brazil did.

In August, I was appointed Director of the Brazil campus and January 2002, Mr. Javier Roth(?) was nominated as Director of the Mexico campus.

The main goal of the Centre is to train professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean to work with space applications and to develop projects on space affairs that can be of benefit to these countries. The main areas that we work in is remote sensing and geographic information, satellite meteorological questions, satellites connections and space and atmosphere sciences.

And we have, thus, begun activity in the Centre. The Brazil campus and the Secretary-General of the Centre at the moment are located in Brazil, in the city of São José dos Campos in the State of São Paulo. We are halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, we are 80 kilometres from São Paulo. And the Mexico Centre is in the Puebla in the INOA(?) Institute.

The National Institute for Space Research of Brazil is the institute hosting the Secretary-General of the Centre and the Brazil campus.

Our activities in the Centre. We start with the international course on remote sensing. That course began in 1985 when the Outer Space Division of the United Nations asked INPE to begin with a remote sensing course. So since 1985, we have had that

particular course. Initially, the course was for Latin Americans and Africans. Since 1993, we have been working only with Latin Americans, since there are Centres in Africa too. The course was a very successful experiment or experience in Brazil. Every five years we do an evaluation. This year, we have finished the third evaluation of the course. First, it was a seven-month course and since 2003, it has been moved to the Brazil campus and it is a nine-month course now, with the curriculum being adapted to the curriculum established with the United Nations for Centres.

Since the beginning we have had 185 graduates from the course. With the last evaluation, the result was that out of the 185, only seven are no longer working in remote sensing. Out of those seven, only one never worked in remote sensing. Now that shows that the results of the course were very successful.

The course is developed. We have INPE offering the faculty, the body of teachers, the classrooms and the facilities of INPE, the United Nations University pays trips and travel and the DSA and the CNPq of Brazil pays for scholarships.

Last year, we had annual contributions, this is a course that is split into two parts. There is the theory part, where we have the introductory classes, introduction to remote sensing, geographical information, the introductory part, we have a part on agreements and space law, we have information on main symposia and publications, the main institutions in the region working in space affairs. Then we have the fundamental courses which are the various remote sensing technical aspects. And we have additional courses, the Ministry of Education of Brazil covers methodology and scientific research and then within the additional activities, we have technical visits, Brazilian institutions and seminars.

Students have to work on a pilot project under the supervision of an INPE researcher in a remote sensing application topic or GIS topic.

Last year, we managed to organize seminars on remote sensing and GIS applications and with that it was possible to invite people from other countries in the region to give presentations to the students on what they are doing in remote sensing and GIS.

The lady on the right, the last one with the black blouse, is an alumna of the first remote sensing course. So every year, we try to bring back alumni so that they can then give a seminar or a lecture telling the

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students about their activities in remote sensing. And besides, those alumni, we invite other professionals from the region to tell them what they are doing in remote sensing and GIS.

We want to have the same apply for meteorology courses, satellite communications and other courses because we have seen that inviting people from the region to talk about what they actually doing has been very beneficial for the course and also interaction and integration of the students with other professionals in the region which is very important for their professional life.

We also have several technical visits to various Brazilian institutes and institutions companies, public offices and universities where they can then see what is being done in remote sensing and also how they might work on something similar in their respective countries.

We have various facilities in the Brazil and these are not necessarily part of the campus, they are INPE infrastructures that are open to the campus. We have classrooms, we have laboratories for radiometry, we have two auditoria, we have a weather forecast centre in climatic studies with super-computers this year. We have had images from the Chinese-Brazilian satellites. These are available free for downloading on the home page and there is also the LANDSAT, NOAA, GOES and SPOT databases. That is all available for students. And we are very fortunate to have a very good contribution, space imaging in Brazil, SPOT, NIKONOS(?), they give us, donate images for educational purposes. Last year too, we had a CONAECON(?) donation, we have the MASCOS(?) telescope, the GEO processing laboratory that we got three years with the computers that were bought to equip the lab, we have the Brazilian data collection data satellite on environment information. We also have the library, the restaurant and the club, there is also a club that where people can enjoy themselves. And there is software too that INPE developed free of cost for remote sensing technology.

Just like other Centres, we also have problems with funds. For example, in order to update all the computers that we need for the students. And at present, we are working with geo-processing software that was developed free of charge by INPE but that shows also that we are working with just one software. We are working with a Regional Centre, we should not just work with what we have there in the region, we should also be able to use other software available on the market the same way as we should be able to have access to images from other satellites and not just the

Brazilian satellite. That is our problem. We do not have the funds to acquire that software.

Last year, an INPE representative donated a three-month licence to me but I just cannot wait for people to donate gifts. So to expand, we have serious fund problems.

And now to see if we manage to solve some problems, we are looking for grants. For next year, we are working with the Climate Centre of INPE which is in _________(?) de Paulista, 100 kilometres from São José dos Campos, so as to find equipment for the course for the climate meteorology. We are also working with the Brazil offices and we have been told that we will receive contributions for the meteorology course to be equipped for three months. For the moment, we are working CPTEC for a one-week course, one-week seminar for November on Climate and Satellite Meteorology.

We are also looking for agreements with other countries, other institutions in the region. The first Agreement that we had was last year with the Inter-American Institute, the IAI, and last year, we already had the first joint work. They set up a two-day seminar, the IAI set up a two-day seminar on remote sensing and climate changes and with the seminar, we managed to invite somebody from Costa Rica, who had coordinated some significant work with Argentina, Mexico and Costa Rica on the use of remote sensing and climate changes in agriculture.

New or future agreements that we are looking for to see if we can have the Centre be more regional, we are working with the Cordoba in Argentina, with the National Centre there. We would like to work with the University in Cordoba and together with them, we are setting up a seminar that we want on remote sensing and climate change for October.

Similarly, for this seminar, we are looking for other agreements with CONAE of Argentina, together with the Cordoba University, they are helping us organize the seminar for October in Cordoba. This will be the first activity in the Centre that is not taking place in Brazil. It is outside.

Another university that we are working with is the Sinos River Valley University in the south of Brazil. It is a private university that is quite large. It has more than 35,000 students with an excellent remote sensing lab as well as digital cartography and they want to expand their remote sensing and meteorology sectors so they are interested in doing work together with the Centre. They have offered us part of their

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infrastructures and facilities in order to do this. It is a fairly large university and it even has publishing, television broadcasting, various auditoria and computer equipment that I am sure that will be of help to the Centre, plus they have a fantastic library, 37,000 square metres with many books that will, no doubt, be helpful for the Centre.

Now we are planning courses for 2005, 2006 and 2007 and we want to see if in 2005, we can already have the meteorology course. In 2006, possibly satellite communications course. We also want to set up one week seminars or two-week seminars with other countries. So we already planned with Costa Rica, one seminar on ozone, that will be April 2005. We are negotiating with Bolivia for a seminar on urban planning and regional planning. We had first talks with the CPqD of Brazil. It is a scientific centre doing research in satellite communications and we also had our first meeting to see if we can arrive at an agreement with them to do some things and if they can help us get in touch with everybody in Brazil and Latin America for the satellite communications course.

And we also have a GPS one-week course with UNISINOS planned but we are open. We are open for all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean wishing to participate or help us organize any training courses.

For visits to the Centre, the last month of May, we had a visit of the Vice-Minister of Research and Innovation of Venezuela. She came on a mission around Latin America, went to Argentina and Brazil and she came and visited us to see how relations can be worked out with the Centre, to see how they could contribute to the Centre and how we can do any joint activity.

And we are eager to receive visits from other countries, representatives from any other countries in the region in order to discuss possible joint work. Next July, the Director of the United Nations University that pays for part of the remote sensing course will be visiting us.

Right at the moment, we are beginning embassies of Latin American countries and Caribbean countries in Brazil so as to be able to invite all countries to take part, to participate in the Board of the Centre. For the moment, the Board has on it only Brazil and Mexico. We will inviting in other countries in the region, all countries in the region, asking them to become members of the Board of Administration. And we will also start setting up the Advisory Committee for the Centre so we will need experts from all around

the region to be on the Advisory Committee for the Centre.

What I would also like to say is we are open to all countries of the region. We have already seen excellent results since the last Space Conference of the Americas in Colombia, a representative of Colombia, Cole(?) Siensia(?), started helping us with the course, the dissemination of this, thus, we have vast dissemination throughout Latin America. Last year, we almost had twice the number of applicants than past years. The United Nations has also helped with dissemination on the Centre. So what I would like to ask you is, if you have any interest in participating in this Centre, we are eager and ready to welcome. And if you have any idea where we can get any more money for the Centre, please let us know.

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank Dr. Tania Sausen of the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Latin America and the Caribbean for her contributions.

Distinguished delegates, you heard all the four speakers from the four Regional Centres. Having listened to all these four people, I have some personal comments to make before giving you the floor. And I was discussing with Sergio as the speakers were going along and the first thing I need to say is that, while I thank all the Directors for your detailed presentations, I also want to thank this Committee for inviting these four Directors to come and make their presentations. I was telling Sergio that we are now working, in the few minutes, we will be working on the UNSPACE III + 5 and the presentations you heard was like Abiodun five years after. Because I left here five years ago as the United Nations Expert on Space Applications, and these Centres were established under my watch, as the United Nations Expert on Space Applications. Therefore, I feel very happy that in your wisdom you decided to bring them here under my chairmanship, so I thank you very much for that opportunity.

But having said that, I want to particularly thanks Dr. Hans Hauboldt of the Office for Outer Space Affairs. He, more than myself, and more than all our colleagues, worked hardest in getting these Centres off the ground. And I know that other colleagues are supporting him in the Office where he has worked hardest with these Centres. Even though, I am not thanking him on behalf of the United Nations or the Office, but I am thanking him personally because he did this work while I was here with me.

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Now, you Directors have addressed a number of issues. One, you spoke about problems of money. I am sure all of you did. Even in India, where they gave the largest amount of money, the money is still not enough.

Secondly, it is very heartening to see all of you, you have established relationships with national, regional and international institutions. By so doing, you have more or less accepted ____________ (not clear). You are actually and true and in fact institutions of the international community under the umbrella of the United Nations. And more than everything else, you have approached your problems or your issues or your goals in different ways and what is very satisfying that since that all of you are here, I hope you have your own meetings and see how you can learn from one another in trying to overcome your difficulties at the local level.

Then, again, I wonder how many delegates actually focused on the features shown by India and Brazil. Some delegates in this room are in those pictures. All you have to do is replace some of them back and you will receive them.

Finally, I was discussing with Sergio and I think I made a comment two or three days ago about OPEC and the OPEC Fund being supportive of the Space Applications Programme. While I have the floor on this, I am very serious about that statement even though it was freely given when I made it but now seriously I really believe that OPEC Member States in this Committee should establish, should appoint one of them by themselves, to establish liaison with OPEC and the OPEC Fund and other oil-producing countries to see how they can assist us for the United Nations and these Centres in their respective efforts at the local level. I understand that these Directors are going to be here for a few more days and in case delegates want to meet with them in person, if you cannot catch them, you can speak with the Office and they will arrange for you to have direct consultation with them while they are here.

With that summary, let me leave the floor open for questions to the speakers.

Colombia has the floor please.

Mr. C. ARÉVALO YEPES (Colombia) (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to thank the Directors of the Regional Centres for their statements. These not only have the virtue of analyzing the characteristics of each one, how they are approaching

their work, but also they show connectivity between what they are doing, the lessons that can be derived from their experience, I am sure, are very positive aspects enhancing the work they do. With the very specific matters that we deal with in COPUOS, we focus also on these Regional Centres. They have value added definitely because they make the whole idea of space applications very operational and they also make our whole mandate from UNISPACE III something that can actually happen.

In the Latin American region, we are very interested in the Centre. We are grateful to the Director of the Latin American Centre. It has the great advantage of association with INPE. INPE participated quite a bit in Cartagena at the last Conference of the Americas and there is installed capacity right there which is a great benefit for the Latin American region.

What I would like to do is just make a couple of comments on how to make this more regional, as you right said. One of the concerns that we head on various occasions is that with the Centres, being one in Brazil in the south and the other in Mexico, there are some areas of the Latin American continent that, to a certain extent, would like to have a stronger feeling of belonging, and I am speaking in particular of the Andean region. The Andean region involves Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and what I have noticed to a certain extent is that it would be very good if there could be better participation in the Andean region. I feel that that coverage would go well with the mandate with the Cartagena Declaration where a list was also set out of projects and needs in the region.

I believe the Centre should have stronger cooperation between the temporary provisional Secretariat and the area so that we can look at projects and they can consider projects that came out in Cartagena, so there can be stronger cooperation.

There is another element that I was very pleased with from the presentation from the Centre from India, the Board have been made up of Member States and I was pleased to hear from the Director of the Regional Centre that the Board will be opened further. I think it is a very good thing to have a broader composition to get a better reflection of the regional views. That is a very good thing. We support that.

As to synergies with other space agencies, as the Chairman rightly said, I think it is fundamental that there be a focus on the main problem funds. Without funds, you do nothing. That also means that within the recommendations to be studied here, there should be

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one on how funds can be collected, how the Centres can be helped to get more funds.

These are comments that I wanted to make with a constructive spirit, congratulating everybody and I would like to say for the provisional Secretariat, I will be sending in the outcome of the presentations so as to seek greater synergy between them. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I thank the distinguished delegate of Colombia, the Ambassador, for his comments.

There are no questions raised, just comments right?

Any more comments or questions? Let us be brief because we are going to adjourn very shortly so be brief in your comments please. Thank you.

The Republic of Syria first.

Mr. M. RUKIEH (Syrian Arab Republic) (interpretation from Arabic): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I have a comment to make and I also have some questions. I know all sorts of efforts have been made to create a Centre for Western Asia and when Mr. Abiodun visited us in Syria, we outlined the idea of such a Centre and I would like to know if the Centre for Western Asia has been established and where that would be.

I have questions that I would like to put to the Directors of the Centres who talked to us about their activities that are most important. I thank them also for the presentations.

The first of these questions is the level of schemes, what is it and what are the specialized(?) and are the courses similar nine-months and how many graduates come out of the Centres every year please. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: I give the floor to the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs to answer the first part of your question regarding the status of the Western Asia Centre.

Mr. S. CAMACHO (Director, Office for Outer Space Affairs): Thank you Mr. Chairman. The status right now on the establishment of the Western Asia Regional Centre is the following. After the same process of identifying where the Centre might initially be located, Jordan was identified as where we would initially begin. Then in the process, as were in the process of discussing details of the establishment, there

were personnel changes both within the Foreign Ministry of Jordan and within the University that was going to be the host institution as the basis of the Centre being built up. New authorities have taken the issue up and we have been lately in contact discussing both the political authorities as well as with the academic authorities and the process is moving on and our intention is also as well that there should be a Centre established in Western Asia. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Regarding the second part of your question, the Office, to the best of my knowledge, and I was involved in it, we established an international curriculum in initial disciplines for all the Centres. Depending upon the ability of each Centres, some of this curricula could have been modified to take care and look at conditions but they have an internationally-designed standard because I remember we invited about 27 to 30 experts from around the world and we went to the University of Grenada in 1996, where we developed the curriculum for the Centres. But the experience in each country will be different. OK?

Now I invite, and I am told by the Office, that if you interested and any delegation that might be interested, of data versions of these curricula in remote sensing, in telecommunications and information technology in basic space sciences and satellite meteorology, are available in the Office.

The next question is coming from South Africa, the distinguished delegate of South Africa you have the floor.

Mr. L. S. MKUMATELA (South Africa): Thank you Chairperson. Chairperson, we would like to congratulate ourselves and Africa for doing so much with so little, so little in terms of public awareness and so little in terms of resources.

Chairperson, as a family of varied nations, Nigeria especially is leading a group of countries that are least developed, in that family which is led by Nigeria. We have got least developed countries there. Consequently, the challenges are too great. We want to emphasize especially for that group led by Nigeria which poses a big question and obligation to all of us as this Committee to pay special attention again to the African continent with an emphasis in particular. Having said that, we have got those least developed countries there. If we check all the sister Centres, you do find a space activity already taking place. If you refer to the African continent, we have got few

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countries that have got initial projects in the space arena. We still battle to raise public awareness.

Having said all this, we will (not?) want to forget our obligation to raise public awareness in our political body which is the African Union. We do understand that we need to address the question of the relevance of space applications with the organs of the African Union.

In all the three(?), let me say, there are three platforms that raise the question of capacity-building and public awareness, that is UNISPACE III, we have got the Millennium Declaration, and the last one is the Plan of Implementation of WSSD.

We hope the results of the African continent of these two Centres in Africa will not, within a period of 10 years, be sub-standard. There is that threat but they could be sub-standard because of the resources. Therefore, whether it is a workshop, whether it is any other cooperation or engagement by any other organization, there is a need maybe to sustain or resuscitate the two Centres in Africa, we can _______________ (illegible).

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you distinguished delegate of South Africa. I want to have a brief comment to say that there are five delegations from Africa I am looking at in this room and I believe the five delegations should meet and address a special petition to the Chairman of the Africa Group here, who can communicate it to African Union in Addis Ababa on the comments you have just made. Thank you.

The next speaker on my list is Morocco. You have already spoken. I want to give the floor to the delegates first, sorry. I am going to Chile.

Mr. R. GONZÁLEZ ANINAT (Chile) (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Chilean Space Agency to thank Brazil for their efforts, especially Dr. Tania Sausen. Truly, she is a tremendous ally in trying to achieve a community amongst the Latin American and Caribbean countries in the area of space and we have all been joining efforts with Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. We all have been working together to put our resources together, to pool our resources, and indeed this Centre is a great help so that we can all work together to improve our human resources.

We would like to thank them and her for a friend, and she is a friend of Chile, and she will be attending a symposium in our country soon and we just

wanted to express our gratitude to her for their openness, to their Centre, and we hope to have future contacts with her to improve the work with Brazil and to support her work as a professor. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: Now I will invite the Director of the Morocco Centre but you have only one minute because I need to give the Chairman of the Working Group who should have been on this podium at 5.00 p.m. so I have already eaten 21 minutes of his time. So you have one minute Sir.

Mr. A. TOUZANI (Morocco) (interpretation from French): Thank you. Just one information. In response to Colombia, who requested that the Office for Outer Space Affairs make the documents available. First, I just wanted to specify that the Office for Outer Space Affairs has a website which it has developed where you can find all the documents and the CD that I gave them will be incorporated on their website and there you will find all the information you are looking for on our Centre and also the Centre for Nigeria, which is on the same website, as well as the Brazilian and the Indian Centres are also on that website. So I think the information is available but it was information that we wanted to bring to this assembly.

And then, in response to the question put forth regarding the interns and the various levels of training, I think it would be appropriate to answer. The number of interns depends on the course being run and the year. It is not a university. It depends on the countries, what their needs, so it varies from 10 to 15 maybe even to 20.

And then, as far as the level required, when the United Nations made their appeal, they required a level that is equivalent at least to an engineer or above. So it is not Baccalaureate or some intermediary between a Baccalaureate and an engineer but they need to be the equivalent to an engineer at least. Thank you Sir.

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, our friend from Morocco.

I invite the Director from Brazil. Please, you have a very limited time to speak.

Ms. T. M. SAUSEN (Brazil) (interpretation from Spanish): Thank you Chile for your very kind words and I would like to say that they are very welcome and I am very pleased that you are so receptive. We have had students from Chile but we would like more. We have also had instructors from Chile and this year we will be having instructors from

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Colombia and Peru as well. But I would like to mainly have an addition to South and Central American, representatives from the Caribbean. We really do not have much contact with them. So if the Caribbean representatives could be so kind as to contact me, please do so. We would greatly appreciate being able to promote some rapprochement with the Caribbean because it is a Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean after all. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much distinguished representative of Brazil.

Distinguished delegates, I will bring to a close our deliberation on this particular set of presentations. On behalf of delegates and all the members of the Committee, I want to thank all you four Directors. The only statement I want to leave with delegates is this. Niklas is coming to the Chair now to take us to UNISPACE III+ 5 recommendations, how we are going to implement them through human capacity and financial resources. These Centres are the only institutions this Committee has created for the United Nations to address elements contained in those recommendations. My humble request is that this Committee shall find an innovative way of supporting these Centres so that they can fulfil their obligation. Thank you very much Directors.

He is asking me to remind you that you are going to eat at 6.00 p.m. I will do that.

Thank you very much Directors.

Now we will move ahead, and before I give the floor to the Chairman of the Working Group on UNISPACE III + 5 Review Report, I would like to remind all delegates that all participants of this session of the Committee are invited to a reception at 6.00 p.m. tonight and this reception is being hosted by the United States of America, at the Mozart Room of the Vienna International Centre Restaurant.

Tomorrow morning, we are going to meet here at 10.00 a.m. and at that time, all the presentations we postponed this afternoon from agenda items 9, 10 and 11 will be taken up. In addition to that, and time permitting, we will take up the consideration of agenda item 12, Space and Water, as well as item 13, Composition of the Bureaux of the Committee and its Subsidiary Bodies for the Period 2006-2007.

At the end of tomorrow morning’s meeting, there will be a presentation by the representative of the United States, under agenda item 11, and another

presentation by the representative of Nigeria, under agenda item 12.

Thereafter, the Working Group on UNISPACE III +5 Review Report will hold its seventh meeting.

Distinguished delegates, that is what I have before me as our schedule of work tomorrow.

If there are no questions, and if you still remember that you are supposed to go to the Mozart Room after you have been dismissed by Mr. Hedman, I will invite our Chairman, Mr. Niklas Hedman of Sweden, for the sixth meeting of the Working Group on UNISPACE III + 5. Mr. Hedman, please.

This meeting is adjourned.

The meeting closed at 5.27 p.m.