ACRS & AARS: My association

Dr. Anwar Hossain Formerly, Chairman, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission And Founder Chairman, Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO)

In his return from Costa Rica after attending the 1980 ERIM Symposium, Late Mr. Qumrul Huda of Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO) informed us about the wonderful meeting of the Asian participants under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Shunji Murai who deliberated on an Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS) to be organized in Asia.

We were quite convinced about Dr. Murai's ideas and immediately agreed and wrote to Professor Murai supporting his proposal. Subsequently, when the ACRS was held in Bangkok in November 1980, we sent Dr. M.A.H. Pramanik, one of the Directors of SPARRSO to attend this first ever Asian Conference on Remote Sensing.

Bangladesh was also an enthusiastic participant at the Second ACRS at Beijing, China in 1981, where the Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) was born. We were thus among the founder members of AARS. As the Chairman of SPARRSO, I was the first national contact person for AARS in Bangladesh.

Our enthusiasm did not end there. We proposed to hold the Third ACRS at Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1982, for the first time under the banner of the newly formed AARS. I was still leading the Bangladesh programme and organized all preparatory efforts for the Dhaka ACRS.

However, during the ACRS at Dhaka I could not remain fully involved, as I had to take over the responsibility of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission as its Chairman on a full time basis. Due to my preoccupa-tions there, I requested one of the Bangladesh's distinguished scientist Late Dr. Al Muti Sharafuddin, the then Secretary to the Ministry of Science and Technology, to take over as the Executive Chairman of the AARS just before the Conference. He was very ably assisted by Dr. M.A.H. Pramanik and Dr. M.U.Chaudhury in successfully holding the ACRS at Dhaka in November 1982.

Many years have passed since the third ACRS was held in Dhaka. I realize that many successful conferences have since been held and ACRS has contributed to many pioneering efforts in promoting Remote Sensing in the region.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to recollect my own contribution in the remote sensing development in the region. In early eighties, when remote sensing technology was crawling for establishment in the region, I was appointed by the ESCAP Secretariat as a Consultant to find out the possibilities of establishing a Regional Remote Sensing Programme in the Asia Pacific Region.

The team that was assembled under UNDP funding, of which I was the Member Secretary, toured nine countries in the region and submitted a Report to ESCAP recommending the establishment of the Regional Remote Sensing Programme (RRSP). RRSP was subsequently established under the UNDP funding and finally it became ESCAP's Regional Space Applications Programme (RESAP).

Although ACRS was then just born, our recommendations covered RRSP's association with ACRS. So, to-day I am happy to see that although RRSP has bloomed into a regional UN Programme, its association with the ACRS is still continuing and the catalysis that has occurred has been benefiting regional development in space technology and its applications.

As one of the early workers in the promotion of remote sensing in the Asia pacific region, I would therefore congratulate Professor Murai, Dr. Suvit, Mr. Manu, Dr. Tateshi, Dr. Changchui, Dr. Chaudhury, Ms. Fujino and many others who contirbuted their time and efforts in establishing ACRS and AARS, thereby contributing to the promotion of remote sensing as a tool for development in the region.

I wish ACRS and AARS all success in their continuing efforts.