The following year China launched a communication satellite for Venezuela at a cost of US $241 million, while in 2009 an agreement was signed between the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and Laos to manufacture and launch a communication satellite dubbed Laos-1. This August, China also launched Pakistan’s first communication satellite, the PAKSAT-1R, while in July, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (GWIC) signed a $294 million deal with Bolivia for the building and launch of a satellite.
In fact, such cooperation in satellite systems between China and other countries commenced as early as 1984 with the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program (CBERS), whose purpose was “to generate images of the Earth surface that are used for applications in diverse sectors like agriculture, environment, hydrological and ocean resources, forestry and geology”, in short, to install a Remote Sensing System with multiple benefits.
The question arises: Why should Nepal initiate a dialogue with China to help it deploy its own communication satellite? To answer this question, we should first try to understand the reasons behinds why so many countries in recent years have looked to launch their own satellites and, moreover, why they have sought China’s cooperation in doing so.
The belief that it is a luxury or a distant prospect for a developing country to possess its own satellite has already been proven wrong. For Nepal to actively plan to deploy its own satellite in a not too distant future is therefore an idea that should not be dismissed so easily. It must be recalled that two years ago Nepal’s South Asian partner, Bangladesh, announced plans to launch its own communications satellite. The then Post and Telecommunication Minister for Bangladesh Raziuddin Ahmed Raju, speaking about the US $150 million program, stated that “we have already started talking to different countries including the US, Japan and China, to help us launch our own satellite.”
Bangladesh is a country very similar to Nepal as in it is beset by a range of development challenges including grinding poverty for many of its people. The country has similar economic indicators to Nepal, and yet plans to launch its own communication satellite. Which is sensible in my view. This should be instructive to Nepal.
The satellite is expected to make available smarter telecom services wherein local telecom operators could subscribe to Bangladeshi satellite services and help improve Bangladesh’s balance of payments.
Bangladesh’s satellite would result in more efficient television and radio broadcasting, availability of real-time meteorological data to predict weather patterns, strategic surveying of mineral resources and uninterrupted communication such that in the event the fiber optic cables are snapped, services will not be interrupted thanks to the VSAT satellite feed.
It’s about time Nepal signed an agreement with China to launch its own satellite. Farfetched? It isn’t .
Why did Nigeria seek Chinese assistance to manufacture and launch its own NIGCOMSAT-1 communication satellite? There were many reasons but the economic aspect deserves our attention. Satellites are no doubt expensive but we also need to consider a range of ways a country can save its vital resources over a stretch of time by employing its own equipment. Nigerian experts estimated that NIGCOMSAT-1 would help “users save more than US $900 million spent on telephony trunking and data transport services, $600 million in phone call charges and broadband access which is more than $95 million spent each year.”
A Nigerian official responsible for the NIGCOMSAT-1, Ahmed Rufai, had disclosed that Nigeria will earn about $1.05 billion from the satellite every year, “a major part of the earnings coming in from the sale and leasing of transponders from NIGCOMSAT-1.” Transponders—or the parts of the communication satellite that are “for sale”—are one of the key satellite components because they receive, cross-examine, amplify and retransmit the signals back to earth.
Last year it was reported that, while licenses for operation of direct to home (DTH) satellite television was being issued, only three of the six applicants could be issued such licenses as there weren’t enough satellite transponders with footprints in Nepal. That, most of the usable transponders had already been leased by Indian companies and therefore Nepali DTH operators would not be able to obtain sufficient frequency bandwidth until 2012.
Considering the fact that leasing a satellite transponder costs over Rs. 250 million annually and that currently demand appears to outstrip supply (even considering just the satellite television sector), Nepal stands to gain substantially if it possesses its own satellite. For instance, it would stem the outflow of precious foreign currency otherwise required to pay for satellite transponder time. There are other reasons why Nepal should seek the deployment of its own satellite. These reasons can be gleaned by understanding why other countries have cooperated with China in satellite technology.
Explaining the reason behind Pakistan seeking Chinese assistance for the manufacture and launch of the PAKSAT-1R communication satellite, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the PRC, Masood Khan, stated that “Pakistan felt the need for such a satellite when it was hit by massive floods last year which caused large scale devastation across the country.” The Pakistani satellite is expected to be used for crop monitoring, weather forecasting, urban planning, disaster prevention and management, earth observation and oceanography. Naturally, the Pakistani satellite is expected to “refine and enhance the country’s capabilities for the use of broadband Internet, digital broadcasting, and mobile telephony.”
The likely benefits of a country possessing its own satellite are manifold indeed. But why should Nepal initiate discussions on satellite technology with China, in particular? Why China, indeed? For the same reasons that a European country such as Belarus or a South American state like Bolivia does, which is, “China’s role in the satellite business stretches beyond building and launching them—it also provides financial aid and supplementary training to partner countries.”
The Bolivian satellite project was made possible by a loan offered by the China Development Bank, while the executing agency, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation, would be providing “additional training for Bolivian workers so they will not only be able to operate the satellite, but also learn how to build air stations.” Moreover, the Bolivian satellite project ended up costing $294 million which is relevant because as the executive general director of the Bolivian Space Agency Ivan Zambrana explained, “If we had signed satellite contracts with developed Western countries, it would have cost at least $350 million for the whole project.”
China has maintained that it wishes to cooperate with developing countries in peaceful use of outer space. In fact, it is actively facilitating the “entry” of such countries into space. Hence, Nepal and China should seek to open a new frontier in bilateral relations by actively exploring the possibilities of cooperation in satellite technology.
There are those who argue that the majority of Nepalis live in poverty and that satellites will be made redundant by the simple fact that electricity is sporadic at best and that the government should rather spend money on the generation of power, jobs and improving basic public services. But perhaps a reverse logic should also be considered, namely that satellite technology can assist Nepal in addressing precisely these concerns.
The writer is PhD student, School of International Studies, Peking University
bhaskar.koirala@gmail.com
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