Seminar on “Space and Sustainable Development: Japanese development assistance using satellite data for sustainable development”

On 13 February 2013, on the occasion of the fiftieth session of Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS, a seminar on “Space and Sustainable Development: Japanese development assistance using satellite data for sustainable development” was held at the Vienna International Centre (VIC), co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA).
 

Following the opening remarks by Ambassador Toshiro OZAWA, Mr. Makoto ASHINO, Senior Advisor to the Director General, Economic Infrastructure Department, JICA, Mr. Takaaki KUURASAKI, Director, General Affairs Department, JAXA, and Mr. Erick KHAMALA, Remote Sensing Officer, Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), made a presentation on a mapping project using data from the Japanese Advanced Land Observing Satellite “DAICHI” within the framework of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the Asian, East Europe and African regions.
 

Dr. Yasushi HORIKAWA, Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and COPUOS Chair, who moderated this seminar, noted in his conclusion that “The harmonization among development assistance agency, space agency and a local user agency is very important, and we would like to further share our good experience with every country in the Post-2015 development agenda process”, pointing out that satellite data plays an efficient role in global sustainable development.
 

After the seminar, there was a reception hosted by Ambassador OZAWA. Posters showing examples of mapping using data from the DAICHI satellite were displayed in the reception hall.