The State secretary for transportation, construction and urban development, Mr. Jörg Hennerkes, stressed the following today at the 2^nd Galileo-user conference in Darmstadt: "With this Galileo-user conference, we are offering interested businesses the possibility to look at future Galileo markets now.  It is also a good opportunity to keep up with the developments of the Galileo project.  The conference is a building block for the many activities of the government for the support of industry, to take advantage of the chances emerging from the Galileo-user market.”   The subject of “Galileo – new markets through co-operations”, the BMVBS hosted the conference in co-operation with the government of Hessen and the European Space Operations Centre ESA/ESOC.

"In addition, the State government is sponsoring the Galileo Test and Development area, GATE in Berchtesgaden with the sum of about 8 million Euros.  GATE is a large test area that generates and sends artificial Galileo signals.  With this, an infrastructure for research and industry will be created which will make new Galileo products and services possible under realistic conditions”, said Hennerkes.

On top of that, the State government is also offering to moderate the co-operartions between regional Galileo initiatives and networks in Germany.

Minister Rhiel: Sensible use of the extensive Galileo market potentials with other German states.

The Hessen Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr. Alois Rhiel, said today that Hessen will participate in a co-operation with the states of Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and that they are open for other states to join.  This network was announced at the end of February at the Satellite Navigation Congress in Munich.  Dr. Rhiel said “Hessen will bring its strong user competence in the areas of IT, transportation and logistics with it.  The activities of the Galileo states must be networked in order to achieve the most effective use of the market potential for Germany.”

The State government in Hessen has great interest in the success of Galileo.  Galileo is the “synonym for immense chances” that Germany, like Hesse – as a high technology location”.  Of the 100,000 expected work places in Europe that will be created through Galileo, we want to have as many of those work places as possible in Hessen.  “I think the chances are very good that Hessen will profit with more than 1,000 work places created by Galileo”, said Dr. Rhiel.

The minister also announced that the „Galileo Centre Hessen“ planned by the State of Hessen and the ESOC have won the city of Darmstadt as well as the Technical University in Darmstadt as additional partners.  The centre will offer services for the founders and the existing businesses that want to develop and market Galileo implementations.  Dr. Rhiel “We want to be available for all technical and organisational questions concerning Galileo.  We also want to spread the word about Galileo in order to increase sensibility for economic chances.”  The preparations are running well, so that the Galileo centre can start working in the next few months. 

ESA supports the competitiveness and innovative strengths of the industry.

Gaele Winters, Director of the ESA Operations and leader of the control centre ESA/ESOC, emphasized this when she said “A particular task of the ESA is the guarantee the competitiveness and innovative strengths of the European industry on the international market.  Galileo means that in the next few decades, there will be an increase of tens of thousands of High-tech work places, including Germany.  We are very happy that our host region, Hessen, in agreement with other states, decided to increase its co-operations for Galileo implementations.”

Gaele Winters also explained „Starting in the summer of 2006, we want to stimulate the clever, young people as well as the existing businesses in the region to move towards the future area of navigation with our Galileo Founder centre in Darmstadt so that they can successfully assert themselves in the global environment.  Both approaches complement each other ideally.”   

Press contacts:

Federal Ministry for Transportation, Construction and Urban Development

Richard SCHILD, Press Department

Tel.: 030 / 2008 - 2054 (or -2042)

e-mail: presse@bmvbs.bund.de

Web: www.bmvbs.de

Hessen Ministry for Economics, Transportation and Land Development:

Dr. Clemens CHRISTMANN, Press officer

Tel: 0611 / 815 2020

e-mail: presse@hmwvl.hessen.de

Web: www.hessen-galileo.de

European Satellite Operations Centre ESA / ESOC:

Bernhard L. von WEYHE, Communication Officer

Corporate Communication Office

Tel: 0 61 51 / 90 28 61

e-mail: bvw@esa.int

Web: www.esa.de/galileoinfo oder www.esa.int/esoc