The first China-Central Asia BDS Cooperation Forum convened in Nanning, Guangxi on October 18th, 2019, during the 7th China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum. With a theme of “Applications and Cooperation of Navigation Satellite Systems”, the forum includes opening ceremony, cooperation signing, presentation exchanges, and exhibition and so on. Subakuzeeva, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Imanaliyev, former Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, former Ambassador to China and former Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, LI Hui, Special Representative of the Eurasian Affairs Department of the Chinese government, HUANG Ribo, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the Association for Science and Technology of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and RAN Chengqi, Director General of the China Satellite Navigation Office, attended and delivered speeches in the opening ceremony. Over 100 delegates attended this forum. They are from 11 countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan, 3 international organizations including Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization and Eurasian Economic Forum, as well as from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanning and Lanzhou Municipal People's governments, industrial organizations, and enterprises.
Expressed in his speech, The Special Representative LI Hui hoped BDS to strengthen cooperation in applications, academic exchanges, education and training with Central Asian countries, to establish a normalized cooperation mechanism, plan and to implement more practical cooperation projects. In his speech, Director General RAN Chengqi said that the economic and cultural exchanges between China and Central Asian countries had a long history. Central-Asia is located in the hinterland of Eurasia and is the hub of the Silk Road economic belt. Both China and Central-Asia Region are truly good neighbours, good friends, good partners and good brothers. At present, BDS has entered the era of globalization. We hope to use the forum to establish and strengthen the cooperation mechanism of satellite navigation with Central Asia and ASEAN countries and regions, and to share the BDS services with higher accuracy, higher reliability, and higher diversification. The Deputy Secretary General Subakuzeeva said in the speech that the BDS Cooperation Forum would provide greater power for China and other countries to carry out satellite navigation cooperation under the framework of the China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
In the presentation session, China Satellite Navigation Office introduced the BDS construction and development as well as the BDS applications in Central Asia and ASEAN countries. The International Cooperation Center of the China Satellite Navigation Office introduced the international cooperation on the BDS. Delegates from different countries introduced their application needs, construction status, and cooperation ideas on satellite navigation, especially expressing their strong cooperation desires with BDS. Chinese representatives carried out reports and exchanges on service performance, application technology, solutions, education and training of BDS, and jointly discussed the broad prospects of satellite navigation cooperation in China-Central Asia, China-ASEAN and other multilateral and bilateral fields.
At the same time, the forum also held a BDS thematic exhibition, which fully demonstrated the BDS application cases and related products in typical fields such as transportation logistics, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, disaster prevention and mitigation, especially the BDS application situation in Guangxi. It made the delegates feel the application fields and service capabilities of BDS and enhanced their cooperation confidence. SHEN Yueyue, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Chairman of the good neighborly, friendly and cooperative committee of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, visited the exhibition and gave a good appraisal.
During the BDS Cooperation Forum, Chinese representatives and relevant institutions of Uzbekistan, relevant enterprises of Thailand signed three cooperation agreements respectively, including satellite navigation monitoring and assessment, education and training, and industrial cooperation. Relevant achievements were included in the Nanning Declaration of the 7th China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum.
Under the background of BDS starting its global services and accelerating its global constellation deployment, the BDS cooperation forum is held for the first time this year under the framework of the high-level China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum. It will help to jointly open a new chapter for the cooperation of satellite navigation between China and Central Asian countries. At the same time, the China-Central Asia BDS Cooperation Forum is the third platform to promote the international development of BDS by using the mechanism of national cooperation platforms after China-Russia Satellite Navigation Key Strategic Cooperation Project Committee and China-Arab States BDS Cooperation Forum. In the near future, taking this as a new starting point, we will always insist on the development concept of "the China’s BDS, the World’s BDS, and the Top-class BDS", continue to use cooperation platforms and mechanisms at the nation’s level, increase the pace of going out, so that the BDS could better serve the world and benefit mankind.
