Pakistan, China sign multilateral space co-op pact
From Javed Akhtar ( APP)

BEIJING—Pakistan, China and six other regional countries Friday signed a Convention, formally launching Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) to promote multilateral cooperation in the field of space technology.
Other six countries that inked the Convention were Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Peru. Five countries Argentina, Brazil, Philippine, Russian Federation and Ukraine joined the APSCO with observer's status.
Ch. Nouraiz Shakoor, Minister for Science and Technology signed the Convention on Pakistan's behalf, at a ceremony held here at the Great Hall of the People. Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju was the chief guest on the occasion.
Talking to APP, Nouraiz Shakoor termed the Convention as a big breakthrough in strengthening regional cooperation for peaceful use of outer-space for the benefit of all mankind.
He said, Pakistan and China played a pioneering role in establishing the organization, first of its kind to expand and intensify cooperation in space activities in the Asia-Pacific region. This will enable the member countries to share their experience, know-how and potential for their common benefit. They will share their available resources in the use of satellite remote sensing data in environmental protection, natural resources exploitation as well as disaster monitoring and prevention, he added.
The Minister said Pakistan and other member countries that joined APSCO will soon get the Convention ratified by their respective Parliaments to make it fully functional. Meanwhile, an interim council at the Ministerial level has been constituted to finalize necessary preparatory work. China, being a host country has offered to provide full financial support for the establishment and operation of the APSCO until 2006. As such, the member States are not under any obligation to make financial contributions during the preparatory phase. However, they will be required to pay their financial contributions from the year 2007.
Taking in view the immense potential of Space Technology and its spin-offs in the socio-economic uplift of the countries, three Asia-Pacific countries, China, Pakistan and Thailand had taken an initiative and jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in February 1992 for setting up the Asia-Pacific Multilateral Cooperation in Space Technology and Applications (AP-MCSTA). According to the sources, the benefits to be accrued to the Asia-Pacific countries by virtue of their membership to APSCO will be enormous, including creation of multilateral compatibilities among space systems by the member states that can provide enhanced capabilities in several areas of space technology applications, the sources added. It may be mentioned here that Muhammad Nasim Shah, former secretary SUPARCO played a pioneering role in preparing Charter and Convention of the proposed Asia-Pacific Space Agency. He was retired from SUPARCO last year and joined the AP-MCSTA Secretariat to help in accomplishing various tasks relating to APSCO.