APSCO's 10th Anniversary High-Level Forum Held in Beijing

ZONG Wen

Aerospace China

Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization's (APSCO)10th anniversary High-Level Forum was held in Beijing on November 14, 2018. Representatives from 24 countries and more than 100 representatives from the United Nations and relevant international organizations attended the forum. President XI Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to APSCO on its 10th anniversary.

MIAO Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China,attended the opening ceremony of the forum and read out the congratulatory letter. ZHANG Kejian, Director of the CNSA and council member of the APSCO, and WANG Haibo, Vice President of CASC, attended the forum.

ZHANG Kejian delivered a speech on behalf of China. He said that China, as an initiator and host country, adhering to the main theme of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization Development Vision 2030, looks forward to working with all member countries and the international community with the common goal of promoting economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region for space capability enhancement and based on the core concept of promoting space cooperation and building the community with a common destiny.China would like to contribute its wisdom and strength to the healthy development of APSCO and for economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region through constant project cooperation, data application promotion, talent cultivation and development.

The forum released the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization Development Vision 2030. Participants discussed issues such as promoting free and equal access to developing countries to space technologies and space data applications,and boosting capacity-building in developing countries through space cooperation and talent cultivation.

Mr. Chinbat Baatarjav, Chairman of APSCO Council,made a speech at the press conference.

Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO)was formally established on December 16, 2008, as a not-forprofit, Inter-Governmental Organization, with full international legal status. Today, APSCO has developed into a space community of 8 member states Bangladesh, China, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey, a signatory state Indonesia, an observer state Mexico and an associate member state Egypt.

The main purpose of APSCO is to provide a cooperative mechanism and support for countries in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly the developing countries, to be able to mainstream peaceful uses of space as a driver of their socio-economic development. By pooling up and sharingfinancial, technological and human resources in space science, space technology and space application, APSCO can effectively promote multilateral cooperation to facilitate capacity building for its members.

Over the past decade, APSCO benefited its members through different cooperative activities, and in order to make full use of its uniquely wide geographical coverage area, and to effectively share its resources, APSCO focused on establish-ment of the six cooperative networks in its development plan of space activities, including Data Sharing Network, Space Segment Network and Inter-Connection of Ground Systems,Ground-Based Space Object Observation Network, Disaster Monitoring Network, Space Application Network, and Education and Training Network. Through these strategic networks,APSCO has continued to witness history through the remarkable achievements. APSCO pays highest attention to the our new generation, and cultivate the space talents mainly through 4 ways of education and training, namely, degree education programs, short-term trainings, new generation cultivating activities, hands-on training projects. APSCO has established two platforms for providing for international exchange and knowledge sharing. APSCO are proud of our role in supporting international cooperation over the past decade, and remaining host to one of the largest Asia-Pacific networks of space experts and decision-makers. APSCO also takes part in other world-leading communities for exploiting space technology and its application for socio-economic development for humankind.

Responding to the increased needs for space development in the most dynamic Asia-Pacific region, APSCO is promulgating the Development Vision 2030, steering APSCO to the next development phase, and opening a new chapter for the space cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region towards further enhancing prosperity of the region by focusing more on sustainable development goals.

APSCO is committed to emphasize the perpetual promotion of resource-sharing, capacity-building, talent-cultivation and organizational-development, based on experiences obtained during the implementation of the Development Plan of Space Activities of APSCO and the 2015 Beijing Declaration of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization Development Strategy Forum 2015.

APSCO will make full use of the existing resources and promoting resource-sharing while strengthening information inter-connection; constructing the data sharing service cloud platforms by using the existing and the potential co-developed satellite resources to meet the needs of its member states in such areas as urban planning, disaster monitoring and assessment, agriculture and forest surveys; facilitating the compatible application and services of satellite navigation terminals in the Asia-Pacific region; building Asia-Pacific space technology services network and professional application demonstration networks for crop growth monitoring, transportation and logistics with the support of the integrated application of such satellite technology and information as; communication, remote sensing, meteorology, navigation. Based on remote sensing, meteorology, navigation and data acquisition satellite constellation information, APSCO will construct a space technology-based disaster monitoring, mitigation and emergency response network to protect life and losses in its member states from disasters.

APSCO is committed to promote its capacity-building by making full use of geographic advantage in locations, of its Member States and by adhering to the principle of sharing common achievement by joint efforts; further promoting such key projects as the Joint Small Multi-Mission Satellite (SMMS)Constellation Program, the Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project, the extension phase of Asia-Pacific Ground-Based Optical Space Object Observation System Project (APOSOS), and the extended network of the Earthquake Signatures and Precursors Study by Integrating Satellite and Ground Observations;as well as promoting more space application projects and the joint construction of ground facilities.

APSCO will continue to promote talent cultivation by constantly conducting various education and training activities, and steadily enhancing and moderately expanding degree education; with the continuous sponsorship from China Scholarship Council (CSC), training Master and Doctoral students for its Member States, meanwhile, continuously expanding the resource scale of degree education and enabling more universities to establish cooperation relationships with APSCO to train high-quality professionals for its Member States. Also, it promises to carry out stimulated teaching, based on the rolling development of actual space mission, like the Student Small Satellite (SSS) Project, to establish permanent innovation alliance among the universities of the Member States to strengthen actual practice and innovation.

Finally, APSCO will concretely enhance regional cooperation and APSCO's international influence towards promoting the organization's development. Facilitating the establishment of broader cooperation relations between APSCO and UNOOSA, UNESCAP, UNSPIDER, and other international organizations while participating in UNCOPUOS and its two Sub- Committees; promoting the peaceful uses of outer space, and contributing to the space capacity-building for developing countries, while maintaining its leadership in the space cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region; contributing wisdom and strength to the development of Asia-Pacific region at large with its renowned exchange platforms; International Symposiums and Space Laws and Policy Forums Workshop and other related international cooperation High-level Forums.

The governments of the APSCO's member states have pledged to further open up their respective space resources and to constantly increase their space capacity, sharing services capability, quick response capability, industrial driving capability and information inter-connection. APSCO will keep exploring the development path and development patterns that suit its features; strengthen policy coordination, exchange experience while maintaining its own independence to foster a sound environment for the diverse and common development of its member states.

XUE Huifeng, Editor in Chief ofAerospace China, delivered a speech at the academic seminar on the theme of Developing Next-Generation Aerospace Innovative Talents Through Space Cooperation .

China started to explore the vast universe and develop its aerospace industry from 62 years ago, with QIAN Xuesen setting the blueprint, who made great contributions to the Chinese Space industry. Today, I want to talk about another contribution from him, how Mr. QIAN's legacy helps in cultivating innovative talents.

QIAN Xuesen had devoted nearly 20 years of hard work to the theory of meta-synthetic wisdom education. The linchpin of his theory is to create the Innovative Genes from the very beginning. The cultivation of outstanding innovative talents should start from the very beginning, and be accomplished through 4 stages, namely: pre-birth period, infancy period,juvenile period and adolescent period, so that we can join,perceive, recognize and change the world. Here I will give my opinion about the 4 stages.

XUE Huifeng is delivering a speech at the 9th APSCO International Symposium

Pre-birth period is before mother's delivery. The external environment has a great impact on the growth of the fetus.The in fluence of the external environment, prenatal education,can play an important role in human brain and intelligence.

Infancy period is from birth to 3 years old. It is time for“perceiving the world”, the baby forms an impression of the world through senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell and absorbing impressions into its mind.

Juvenile period is say from 4 to 11 years old. It is time to build the best genes for “recognizing the world”. The child acquires the ability to “recognize the world” which results in whether or not they can form a scientific way of thinking.

Adolescent period is say from 12 to 17 years old. It is time to build the best genes for “changing the world”. The teenager grows into a person with viability and the ability to transform the world through the infusion of a large volume of knowledge and the cultivation of various skills.

Consequently, QIAN Xuesen divided the education system into three stages. Thefirst stage is the eight-year primary education from 4 to 12 years old, to lay a solid foundation. The second stage is from 12 to 17 years old, achieving meta-synthetic wisdom study. The third stage is the 'internship' in the last year, becoming an expert in an industry demonstrated through writing a thesis. Therefore, shortening the duration is an effective way to strengthen the innovation in the education system with reform and accelerates education modernization.

How can we shorten the study period? I think you may all ask the same question.

Thanks to a massive leap in science and technology, it is now possible to create a more direct, broader and purer“thinking interconnection” between humans and machines,and between minds, which is a key to unlock the mind's potential as well as a revolutionary breakthrough in education.

The technologies in brain imaging, waves, stimulation and interface are growing. Brain imaging technology can not only observe the structural characteristics of the brain, but also observe the brain activities under specific psychological conditions. Families and schools can explore the actual needs of the students in their mental development and improve educational efficiency. Brain stimulation technology can help students improving their attention, memory, responsiveness, greatly improving their learning efficiency. While human-machine integration is to leverage human EQ and machine IQ.

The cultivation of innovative talents is an open complex giant system, involving reforms in the school operation system,management system, talent training modes, as well as teaching contents and methods. To promote the reform and development of education in the new era, we must adhere to the large systems theory thinking based on the combination of reductionism and holism. It is necessary to break the barriers of interests, the old-fashioned and decaying educational concepts.It is necessary to promote educational equality and effectively transform the demographic dividend into a human resources dividend, providing strong human resource support for the development of the aerospace industry.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering, computer simulation and other technologies has enabled digital logical reasoning to understand and solve problems. However, it is still difficult for computers, VR devices,and information networks to understand such open complex giant systems, which is our real world.

As an important inheritor of QIAN Xuesen's meta-synthetic wisdom, CAASSE, my academy, has been deeply practicing QIAN Xuesen's education concept, a new innovative talent cultivation mode has already been established. There are more than 40 QIAN Xuesen Classes across the country, several “QIAN Xuesen Colleges” are under way, all of which will demonstrate the new education concept.

General Secretary XI Jinping pointed out, “Through the ages, talent is the foundation for building a well-off country and the strategy for rejuvenation.” QIAN Xuesen's theory of meta-synthetic wisdom education promotes the modernization of education in the new era. Together with our global partners, we want to be the pioneer and the pathfinder of Mr.QIAN's excellent legacy, for a smarter world for the bright future.