From January 29th to February 9th 2018, the 55th Session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was held in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Weng Jingnong, Executive Director of the Centre and Dean of International School, Beihang University attended it as a member of the Chinese delegation.

“Programme on Space Applications” received universal attention and appreciation from all member countries. The delegates affirmed its outstanding contribution to promoting space application capacity building in various regions. Representatives of Sri Lanka, Russian Federation, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and other countries expressed their gratitude to China, especially to RCSSTEAP for its active efforts in international education of space technology applications.

      During the session, Regional Centre conference was organized by UNOOSA. The establishment of Alliance of Regional Centres (ARC), related agreements and operations, etc. were discussed. Mr. Luc St-Pierre, Mr. Shirish Ravans, Mr. Sergly Negoda from UNOOSA, Mr. Ganiy I. Agbaje, Executive Director of ARCSSTE-E, Mr. Sergio Camacho, Director of CRECTEALC, Mr. Weng Jingnong, Executive Director of RCSSTEAP, Ms. Jiang Hui from CNSA, Ms. Lei Nan from MIIT, Mr. Sanath Panawennag from Ministry of Science and Technology of Sri Lanka were in attendance. Representatives of CRASTE-LF, CSSTEAP, RCSSTEWA participated in the conference through Skype.

Representatives of the Regional Centres expressed their full support for the work of ARC and hoped to complete the agreement signing under the guidance of UNOOSA and finalized the legal status of the Regional Centres. Director of RCSSTEWA invited the other directors of the Centres to visit Jordan in May 2018. In addition, details of the exhibition organized by the Regional Centres during UNISPACE+50 were discussed. The name of the exhibition was tentatively identified as “Program on Space Applications: History and Future”.