OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2008. The Board of non-commercial organization "GLONASS/GNSS-Forum- Association of developers, manufacturers and users of the hardware and applications based on global navigational systems" held a regular meeting in December.

Vladimir Klimov, Association CEO, summarized the results of 2008. "Active involvement of the Association members and Executives provided essential progress in promotion of the GLONASS navigation technology, as well as application of its capabilities for socio-economical evolution of Russia and its regions and for commercial use in business subjects", noted V. Klimov. The Association plans to implement several significant projects (including international ones) in 2009. Several cooperation agreements with leading non-commercial organizations, authorities and administrations of the Russian subjects, either have been signed, or to be signed. These agreements will support promotion of the GLONASS navigation technology.

Members of the Board approved charts of the committees to be established in order to maintain analysis and resolution of some tasks. The committees will deal with: promotion of the Russian GLONASS system on the regional, federal and international levels; evolution of the business cooperation in utilization of the navigation and spatio- temporal support systems, equipment and technology for the benefits of socio-economical evolution of the Russian Federation, as well as internal Russian and international collaboration.

Alexander Gurko, M2M Telematica DG, commented the summary of 2008. "GLONASS-GNSS Association became powerful in the market of navigation equipment and services", he said. "The Association did not collect the member fees in 2008 in accordance with the promises made. Despite of limited funding, the leaders of the Association have done a lot in many Russian regions". Speaking about further plans, A. Gurko stated that "many important actions are planned in 2009. These are to support all the members of the Association and facilitate commercialization and enhancement of the GLONASS system, together with all Russian market of navigation services".

Yury Urlichich, Chairman of the Association Board, GLONASS General Designer, expressed a desire to maintain regular life dialogue between the members of the Board and the Association. He emphasized doubtless use of such meetings and information exchange for accelerating creation of new ideas in full-scale commercial application of the system.