BEIJING: Every morning, the education and sports TV channel of Laos reaches thousands of households in the Southeast Asian country via the LAOSAT-1 satellite transmission.
The educational channel, which played a crucial role in enabling students across the country to study at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, has continued to provide distance learning services to schools and students in remote mountainous areas.
In addition to supporting distance learning initiatives in Laos, China has undertaken numerous extensive space cooperation projects with BRI partner countries in the past decade.
Dubbed “space silk road,” a service network weaved by satellites and ground stations among the BRI partner countries has promoted the space industry to better benefit the local people.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the leading entity in the country’s space industry, has provided satellite research, development and launch services to BRI partner countries.
Satellites, such as the Bolivian communication satellite, the LAOSAT-1, the China-France marine satellite, and the Pakistan remote sensing satellite, have all been successfully launched, playing important roles in the fields of communications, agriculture, culture and entertainment, environmental protection and meteorology.
The LAOSAT-1 project, officially delivered in March 2016, marked China’s first endeavor to export an entire satellite and participate in ground operations. It offers a range of services to Laos, including satellite communications, satellite TV live broadcast, wireless broadband, and more, transmitting more than 220 channels.
According to Hiem Phommachanh, former minister of post and telecommunications of Laos, the LAOSAT-1 has fulfilled the dream of the Lao people and is of great significance to Laos.
The remote sensing satellites launched by China for BRI partner countries have provided important support in fields such as weather forecasting, disaster prevention and mitigation, and climate change. –Agencies
