China and the European Union (EU) signed an agreement Thursday
in Beijing on China's participation in the Galileo Program, a
European global system of satellite navigation.
"China will help Galileo become a major world infrastructure in
the growing market for location services," said Loyola de Palacio,
vice-president of the European Commission, who leads the Galileo
Program.
Xu
Guanhua, minister of the Science and
Technology, said China will support and participate in the
construction of the Galileo Program, believing the effort will
bring mutual benefits to Sino-European ties.
The agreement highlights cooperative activities on satellite
navigation in a range of sectors such as science and technology,
industrial manufacturing, service and market development.
A China-Europe technical training and cooperation center on
global satellite navigation will begin today in Beijing's
Zhongguancun High-Tech Zone to serve as a local center for the
Galileo Program.
The project is a European satellite radio navigation effort
designed to develop new generations of universal services in areas
such as transport, telecommunication, agriculture and fisheries.
The combination of the program with current systems will increase
the reliability and availability of navigation, its designers
say.
(China Daily September 19, 2003)