FIG Vice President Matt Higgins gave an invited keynote at the opening of the 1st Asia Oceania
Regional Workshop on GNSS, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 25 and 26 January 2010. The
Workshop was convened by a new organisation known as Multi-GNSS Asia with strong support from
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan’s Satellite Positioning Research and
Application Center (SPAC), Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency
(GISTDA) and the United Nations International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(ICG). Chris Rizos, Vice President of the International Association of Geodesy and member of the
governing board of the International GNSS Service (IGS) has been closely involved in the
establishment and development of the Multi-GNSS Asia concept and is a co-chair of the Steering
Committee.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together interested parties to discuss the implications of
next-generation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, and was conducted in Thailand because Multi-GNSS issues are particularly relevant in the Asia Oceania region because it will be the area of the earth with the largest combined coverage from the new systems.

It is intended that FIG Vice President Matt Higgins will continue to monitor developments in
the Multi-GNSS Asia organisation and ensure cooperation with relevant space agencies in the region
and with IGS and with coordination by the UN ICG.

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