Vice President U Myint Swe, Chairman of the steering committee on establishing Myanmar Owned satellite system addressed the sixth coordination meeting of the committee at the Ministry of Transport and Communications in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday morning.

In his address the Vice President said the 13-member committee led by the Vice President was setup by the Office of the President on 25 January 2017 to implement seven tasks on establishing a satellite system. A 9-member work committee led by Union Minister for Transport and Communications was formed and was implementing six tasks.

Coordination meetings were held by the steering committee starting from April 2017 and had conducted five meetings where 26 decisions were made. Of these, 19 were conducted and seven were still to be done. Decisions made at the first to fourth meetings were explained in the past meetings. Seven decisions were made in the fifth leading committee meeting out of which five were conducted while two were still being conducted. Of the two, one was for relevant ministries to coordinate quickly towards acquiring a site where Space Agency was to be established. Relevant ministries were to coordinate and cooperate towards submitting the matter of establishing the Space Agency to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). Another one was to draw up a Comprehensive Law involving member ministries and the Legal Affairs and Rules sub-committee was to implement this.

Implementation of establishing Myanmar’s own satellite system was being conducted in three steps where the second step was to launch a jointly owned MyanmarSat-2 satellite in June 2019 and to start utilizing it with new technologies in mid-September 2019. Due to repeated assessments made to ensure reliability and delay in readiness of other satellites owned by other organizations that were to be launched together with MyanmarSat-2, it was successfully launched only on 7 August 2019.

Necessary tests and inspections were conducted on the satellite that was already in orbit and works were conducted to start utilizing it at the earliest by 15 October 2019. Many thanks were owed to the works of departments and organizations in achieving this success. Total cost of the satellite was US$ 155.7 million and payments were made in installments. In this satellite, Myanmar would use 432 MHz C-band and 432 MHZ Ku-band channels and the channels were to be used efficiently and effectively in education, health, human resources development and other sectors required by the nation. Furthermore relevant ministries were to use the State-own MyanmarSat-2 satellite and were urged to strive towards private sector users leasing and using it.

As Hokkaido University of Japan had proposed the third step of launching a Myanmar wholly owned satellite and relevant ministerial departments had also allocated budget for it, this step need to be implemented quickly.

Members of the Steering Committee,

Work Committee and Sub-Committees need to openly discuss future work processes, sectors where preparations were required, matters of cooperation, difficulties faced and suggest toward a having a successful Myanmar-owned satellite system, said the Vice President.

Next Steering Committee secretary Ministry of Transport and Communications Permanent Secretary U Soe Thein explained about completion of decisions made at past meetings.

Afterwards, Steering committee members Union Ministers Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Lt-Gen Sein Win, U Ohn Win, and U Soe Win, Union Attorney General U Tun Tun Oo,

Deputy Ministers U Aung Hla Tun, U Tha Oo and U Win Maw Tun, chairmen and officials of four sub-committees explained, discussed and suggested on sector wise works conducted.

The Vice President gave advice and instructions based on suggestions and subject matters presented at the meeting. The meeting came to a close after a concluding speech by the Vice President.

The meeting was attended by Chairman of the work committee on establishing satellite system Union Minister U Thant Sin Maung, steering committee members Union Ministers Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Lt-Gen Sein Win, U Ohn Win, and U Soe Win, Union Attorney General U Tun Tun Oo, Deputy Ministers Maj-Gen Aung Thu, U Aung Hla Tun, U Tha Oo and U Win Maw Tun, chairmen and officials of four sub-committees, Permanent Secretaries, directors general, heads of department and officials.— MNA

(Translated by Zaw Min)