Inaugurating a regional six-day ministerial conference in the southern city of Bangalore on space applications for sustainable development, Indian Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran emphasised the need to share knowledge.

"India, with its indigenous space programme, is ready to share its experience with other countries in the Asia Pacific region," Maran told ministers from 20 participating countries.

"Equitable access to space technology and its applications could provide the solution to many environmental and societal problems in the region," Maran added.

The scientific meet, organised by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was aimed at helping policy-makers chalk out space programmes at a broader regional level.

"Appropriate strategies on food security, land and water management, soil and forest conservation and wasteland development should be chalked out jointly using space technology," said K. Kasturirangan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"The primary thrust in the conference should be to push for the implementation of region-specific programmes," Kasturirangan said.

Scientists said the meeting would evaluate the five-year-old Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development (RESAP), launched at the first ministerial conference in Beijing in 1994.

On the sidelines of the meeting, there will be a series of science seminars, lectures and an exhibition called "Space '99" to showcase space technologies from different countries.

"Greater coordination is needed between the countries which generate satellite-based data and those which need it for use in developmental projects," said ESCAP conference secretary Cengiz Ertuna.

Four nations in the region -- India, Russia, China and Japan -- are capable of developing and launching satellites.

"Some countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Australia are trying to develop such capabilities," said Berzelio Santos, ESCAP expert on space applications.

"Therefore, there is room for a lot of co-operation and sharing."

During the course of this six-day space meet, China and India plan to explore the possibility of working together in the lucrative area of developing satellite launch services.

"The areas of co-operation between us may include research in micro-satellite technology, conducting survey's of earth's resources, and developing satellite launch services," said Liu Zhixiong, vice president of the China Great Wall Industry Corp.

"China and India could also exchange technologies related to satellite-based early warning systems for earthquakes and cyclones," Liu added.

Kasturirangan, who is to hold talks with Liu, said that India's space agency ISRO was preparing an advanced version of its satellite-launching rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

India hopes to tap into the global commercial satellite launch market which focuses on 20 to 30 launches a year with total fees of about 2.5 billion dollars.

ISRO for the first time in May this year, successfully launched the PSLV rocket which put into orbit a German, South Korean and locally-made satellite.

The maiden launch of a prototype PSLV rocket ended in disaster when it crashed after blast-off in September, 1993.

The fourth and last test flight successfully placed an Indian-built Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) into space in September 1997.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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