China and Europe - one step closer to successful development of Galileo

Brussels, 09 Jun 2005

A high level meeting on cooperation between China and Europe in satellite navigation, took place today in Beijing, gathering Rainer GROHE, Executive Director of the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) and Mr. ZHANG Guocheng, Acting Director of the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC), to coordinate China's participation in the Galileo programme.

Mr. Grohe also met with high level managers of China's Space Industries, to follow up on the development of projects in the segments of space, ground and applications.

Mr. Grohe and Mr. Zhang expressed their mutual satisfaction about the progress of China's involvement in the Galileo Programme. Seven projects in the segments of space, ground and applications are on the way to be contracted with Chinese entities by the end of July.

The GJU was set up in 2002 by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) to manage the development phase of Galileo, the European global satellite navigation programme. The National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC) is responsible for the implementation of the Galileo Programme in China.

The NRSCC became a member of the GJU in October 2004, after a cooperation agreement related to the Galileo programme between China and the EU was concluded in 2003. China committed to contribute EUR 200 million to the Galileo Programme, 70 million of which is to support the Chinese participation in the development phase. The balance will be invested in the deployment phase through the Galileo concessionaire. Since April 2005, three Chinese experts have joined the GJU office in Brussels.

The future Galileo concessionaire will be known at the end of June; the chosen consortium will be responsible for the deployment phase and operation of the Galileo project and will be overseen by the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA). The future participation of China with both entities is under negotiation.

NRSCC and GJU agreed to organize an Info Day related to the Galileo Concession as soon as the selected bidder will be known, in order to support China's willingness to be involved in the deployment and the operation.

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Following Galileo's global approach, the Israeli entity MATIMOP is on the way to becoming a member of the GJU. Other third parties such as India, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco and the Ukraine have shown keen interest to participate in Galileo.

Background

GALILEO, the European satellite radio navigation programme is global in scope. It will be financed by both public and private funds, given that the growth prospects of the products and services markets connected with satellite radio navigation are considerable-hence the reason for choosing to manage and operate the system in the form of a concession, as part of a public-private partnership.

The concession period for the system covers the deployment phase and the operational phase. The private-sector concessionaire will be responsible for managing these phases in compliance with contractual terms to be established with the preferred bidder in 2005, and will be overseen by a public body, the Galileo Supervisory Authority as per the Council Regulation 1321/2004 of 12 July 2004.

The evaluation of the concession bids started in September 2004, when two consortia submitted a first bid; afterwards, direct negotiations took part with both consortia, leading to the submission of a final bid in January 2005.

The two consortia still in the running for the Galileo concession are the following:

Eurely
Core members: Aena, Alcatel, Finmeccanica, Hispasat

iNavSat
Core members: EADS Space, Inmarsat, Thales

Hans Peter MARCHLEWSKI, General Counselor
GALILEO JOINT UNDERTAKING
Rue du Luxembourg 3 (Sweden House)
B-1000 Brussels
Tel. 0032 2 5078064, Fax 0032 2 5078001.
e-mail: hans.marchlewski@galileoju.com

Galileo Joint Undertaking
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