Satellite services firm Aprize Global has made Hong Kong its Asian headquarters, with plans to first target the mainland market and establish a joint venture there by the end of this year. Chinese government agencies and firms were interested in its low-orbiting satellites for applications such as monitoring water levels on the Yellow River for flood prevention and to track supply levels in oil pipelines, said Aprize Asia chairman Dino Lorenzini. Mr Lorenzini, who is also head of Bermuda-based Aprize Global, which owns both Aprize Satellite System and 60 per cent of the Hong Kong company, said the company would focus on applications where the receiving equipment was stationary and two-way communication required. Tracking service for moving objects such as cargo containers was still being tested and might not be ready for several years, he said. The company already uses a Shenzhen factory to manufacture its receivers, and the hope is that the vast land mass and relatively less developed infrastructure in China will mean a demand for a technology that can collect data from remote locations. 'I think initially the government customer is where we want to start. We've had discussions with China National Aerospace, we've had discussions with China National Offshore oil company, and we will be meeting with Sinopec,' Mr Lorenzini said. The operating licence would be obtained through a joint venture partner, something that has become an option after China's entry into the World Trade Organisation, he said. Iridium and Globalstar are two of the operators which have licences in the mainland, but access has been tightly controlled up to now. 'The Chinese satellites are generally government-owned as far as I know. But now that China's a part of the WTO, they've agreed to allow foreign telecommunications providers to come into the country and likewise those countries have to accept Chinese service should they decide to operate there,' he said. Hong Kong-based Aprize Asia will hold the master licence and be the base from which operating companies are established in other markets. It will be 60 per cent held by Aprize Global and 40 per cent by local partners International Economic Technology and Achievers Group. Hong Kong would not be a target market because it was already well served by other providers, Mr Lorenzini said. The SAR office will have a staff of between 20 and 30. 'Their purpose then is to set up operating companies in the different Asian countries, and that's really where the larger staff would be.' Aprize now has two satellites in orbit, checking in with receiver terminals about once a day. Several more launches are expected later this year and next, allowing the company to upload data from receivers several times daily. The small US$1 million satellites are about one-tenth the cost of traditional satellites, and Aprize hopes the resulting lower service cost will appeal in markets like China. Aprize established a unit in Latin America eight years ago, where the Argentine government is interested in using the system to track trucks for the purposes of collecting border taxes.
