Last week saw the signing of two bilateral agreements, indicating a renewal in the commitment of leading nations at the highest level to geospatial technology. Giving boost to bilateral cooperation in earth observation, India agreed to facilitate the augmentation of Brazilian earth station at Cuiabá with requisite hardware, software and training to receive and process imagery from ISRO’s Resourcesat-2 satellite. Environmental management is key area of target for this agreement. On similar lines, China signed a bilateral pact with Brazil to expand its CBERS programme by adding two more satellites, CBERS-3 & 4.
On another front, Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia are ready to strengthen cooperation in ICT and space sectors, with emphasis on promoting the use of Japanese QZSS’s augmentation signal LEX for delivering real-time positioning through NPI of Australia.
While countries invest heavily in developing superior technology infrastructure and research capabilities, it is prudent they also explore complementing strengths in like-minded countries to share, support and leverage from each other’s technological supremacy. Apart from saving the toil and resources spent in years and often decades of indigenous technology development, bilateral cooperation further encourages commercial and industrial cooperation with a direct bearing on the pace of economic development.
Published as editorial in Geospatial World Weekly – July 21,2014
