China's race to space provides opportunities for foreign firms
Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - China's growing interest in the possibilities of space has led to a number of high-profile projects, including the country's first manned mission, expected to be launched as early as October. While there will be no business involvement in the military-run manned mission, China's burgeoning civil space program will create more and more opportunities for hi-tech and aerospace enterprises throughout the world, according to Pat Norris, the Business Development Manager of LogicaCMG, in an interview with Interfax.
"China now has a very extensive space program, a lot of it involving indigenous, local industry," Norris noted. "But increasingly, China appears ready to buy from the West, to import things they could, conceivably, do themselves. But it's quicker, not necessarily cheaper but quicker, to buy from the West. So, we are here to explore opportunities the potential either for straightforward commercial exports or perhaps collaborative programs."
Pat Norris was leading a mission to China by the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), which began on September 7. The mission held a series of meetings with government officials and organizations in Beijing - "We started at Beijing because we wanted to talk to the customers, like the Meteorological Bureau," Norris noted - before a number of visits to manufacturing facilities in Shanghai.
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