Thinking worldwide
GALILEO is a worldwide system and maximising its benefits means making international co-operation a fundamental part of the programme. Such co-operation can help to reinforce industrial know-how and to minimise the technological and political risks involved.
Similarly, GIROADS is the result of an international partnership regrouping 31 organisations active in 8 countries (including three partners active in the People's Republic of China) with industry and research agreements extending worldwide.
The Chinese road market
Road transportation plays a major role in China economy and society, involving a wide range of industries and services which together contribute the increasing of GDP and fiscal income. The industries related to the roads are efficient and growing part of China's economy.
China has seen a steady increase in the length of trafficable roads and corresponding improvement on the distribution of networks. At the end of 2004, the total mileage of the national road network reached 1,870,700 kilometers, with an increase of 60,800 kilometers compared with that of 2003.
With respect to road mileages, the proportions of national highway, provincial road, county-level road, country road and accommodation road for the year 2004 were 6.9%, 12.2%,25.6%,50.5% and 4.7% respectively. In the total mileages, there are 129,815 kilometers long national highway and 227,871 kilometers long provincial road. County-level road and country road have much large figures at this point by 479,372 kilometers and 945,180 kilometers respectively.
As a fundamental policy, the Chinese government gives a high priority to the development of their road transport system. According to the national backbone road plan, the mileage of the trafficable road will reach 1,600,000 kilometers by 2005, with over 25,000 kilometers of motorway-standard expressways. The road construction of central and west regions will make a breakthrough and road network is supposed to connect all the organic villages and towns.
The total number of registered vehicles at the end of 2004 was 10.6718 millions, and this total represented an increase of 1.4254 million over the corresponding figure at the end of 2003. The number of licensed vehicles for passenger transport was 4.3909 millions and it represented a sharp increase by 24.8% compared with the end of 2003. The total number of goods vehicles licensed in 2004 was 6.2809 million showing an increase of 9.72% over 2003.
In recent years, China has been suffering an increasingly shocking death toll from traffic accidents. Official statistics indicate that 760,000 traffic accidents occurred in 2004, and 100,600 people lost their lives on the road. The main reason is lack of safety awareness among the driving population and their ignorance of traffic regulations. To cope with the serious situation, traffic safety departments have taken measures to strengthen administration and supervision of motor vehicles, especially buses, trucks, and agricultural vehicles.
Congestion is also becoming a serious problem in most area and cities in China. The annual average index of traffic crowding for national road networks was 0.53 in 2004, representing an increase of 6% over 2003, while Shanghai and Beijing's congestion indexes exceed 0.8. At the end of 2004, there were 4,545 observation stations to observe traffic of national roads nationwide, consisting of 328 continuous observation stations, 4,217 temporary or other type observation stations, observing 107,300 kilometers, accounting for 82.7% of the total mileage of the national road.
EU-China cooperation on GALILEO
The cooperation between China and Europe is based on an agreement between the European Union and China concluded in 2003 and China, through the NRSCC, became a member of the Galileo Joint Undertaking. The cooperation with China aims at sharing research results and encouraging education, joint projects, and industrial contacts.
In September 2003, the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology established a joint cooperation centre – the China-Europe Technical Training and Cooperation Centre – located at Beijing University. This centre promotes Galileo initiatives, supports the increase of awareness of the benefits of Galileo in China, and is a tool to help Chinese industry to work in the field of satellite navigation applications. Beginning this year, the centre is being supported by the permanent presence of ESA personnel working in close co-operation with their Chinese partners.
The Galileo Joint Undertaking has so far signed, via the NRSCC, 12 contracts related to the manufacturing of Galileo infrastructure elements in China and the development of navigation applications. China is directly contributing to the Galileo in-orbit validation phase by developing the search and rescue transponder and the satellite laser retro-reflector.