Extracts from the 1st General Conference

Beijing, China - 1981

The Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) was formed during the second ACRS at Beijing, China that was held from 29 October to 4 November, 1981. The statute of the AARS was agreed upon by the founding members (Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand) at the First General Conference of AARS during this second ACRS. China attended this first General Conference, but waited to become AARS member after the endorsement by its Government.

The statute identified the following roles of AARS:

1. AARS should organize the annual ACRS, with as cheap a registration fee as possible, to encourage more participants and more technical papers. The registration fee was only 50 US Dollars for a 5-day symposium, including a copy of the proceedings containing about 800-1000 pages, a dinner party, and other cultural events. The budget has always been difficult but manageable.
   
2. AARS should act as a kind of bridge or rainbow to connect Asian scientists, Asian organizations and Asian countries, and to facilitate personal, institutional, regional and international joint activities in remote sensing in the Asian region.
   
3. AARS should focus on the promotion of education and training in supporting a technical session at ACRS, the publication of books and international co-operation with UN organizations.
   
4. AARS should organize in future data exchange among Asian countries to promote global environmental monitoring. Basic geographic data such as political units, population, land use, geology, soil, drainage, lake, ground height, agricultural census, road/railway, etc. should be standardised for global base research at least in the Asian Region.
   
5. In the original statutes of the AARS there was a provision for the election of only one office bearer: the General Secretary. Accordingly, Professor Shunji Murai was elected as the first General Secretary in 1981 in the first General Conference of the AARS. The statutes provide a Chairman to preside over the General Conference, one who will be from the host countries for the ACRS.