ICG Program Officer Sharafat Gadimova[Updated Sept 7, 2011] The United Nations and the United States will co-sponsor a special meeting to commemorate 10 years of achievement on the global navigation satellite systems on December 12-16, 2011 at the United Nations office Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria.
The main discussion will center around the International Committee on GNSS (ICG), created by The UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) in 2005 to bring together all system providers and smooth the way for global development of the satellite navigation systems.
[Updated Sept 7, 2011] The United Nations and the United States will co-sponsor a special meeting to commemorate 10 years of achievement on the global navigation satellite systems on December 12-16, 2011 at the United Nations office Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria.
The main discussion will center around the International Committee on GNSS (ICG), created by The UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) in 2005 to bring together all system providers and smooth the way for global development of the satellite navigation systems.
OOSA will also introduce a new booklet at the event about the history and achievements of UN GNSS efforts.
Sharafat Gadimova, the program officer for the ICG Secretariat, said "It’s a good time to discuss what ICG and its Providers’ Forum have undergone over the past six years and what could be best achieved through a new approach [looking forward] to the next 5 to 10 years."
At two United Nations meetings on space in 1999 and 2001,the issue of global navigation satellite systems was just one of many items for discussion.
By 2005, GPS and the other growing and prospective space-based systems had become important enough to all nations for the UN to create a dedicated organization: the International Committee on GNSS.
In a 2009 Inside GNSS interview with Gadimova, she said "The goal of the ICG work was to have GNSS signals used coherently from all operating
GNSS at any location at any time for civil applications."
The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs acts as Executive Secretariat for the group. ICG member countries include China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia and the United States.
They have met six times in all corners of the globe.
