China promised in Shanghai Tuesday that it would help Asian-Pacific countries control disaster using its space technology, said Luan Enjie, director of the China National Space Administration.

Luan made the remarks at the High-level Panel on Knowledge-based Disaster Management, a side event of the ongoing 60th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Luan said China would make full use of its domestic resources to provide preferential technical assistance and favorable training on space technology-based disaster mitigation and disaster control for the Asian-Pacific developing countries.

The Chinese government proposes that the Asian-Pacific countries should pay close attention to using space technology to mitigate and control disasters, and establish a regional coordination mechanism, and promote the regional cooperation in this field.

Countries in this region should, through international cooperation and using their present and future resources, establish an all-weather and around-the-clock comprehensive space technology-based disaster mitigation system, and make efforts to share the resources and data concerned in this system, Luan said.

Statistics show that each year there are about 200 million people affected by disasters, and the direct economic loss caused by various natural disasters in 2003 were up to 190 billion Renminbi (about US$23 billion) in China.

China has used space technology to carry out disaster warning, dynamic monitoring, judgment of disaster trend and disaster assessment, and the space technology plays a special role in minimizing causalities and economic loss caused by disaster, Luan said.

In order to play its role in the international disaster mitigation and in the peaceful use of outer space, China has decided to develop the small satellite constellation for disaster and environment monitoring and forecast.

The small satellite constellation, consisting of multiple small remote sensing satellites, is conducive to realizing the large-scale, all-weather, around-the-clock and dynamic monitoring of environment and disasters, Luan said, adding that the constellation will become one of the platforms of disaster mitigation mechanism in the Asian-Pacific region.

Ashfaqur Rahman, ambassador of Bangladesh to China, said he is "happy" to see that China applies space technology to disaster mitigation.

The Asian-Pacific region should promote regional cooperation in this field, so as to improve the capacity to control disaster on the basis of sharing information, technology and resources.

China plays a "leading role" in the research area of space technology-based disaster mitigation, Rahman said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)