More than 500 Chinese and foreign scholars, experts and entrepreneurs jointly issued the Beijing Declaration on Digital Earth at the closing ceremony of an international symposium in Beijing on December 2.

All countries and regions in the world are called on to provide adequate funding and strong support to the building up of Digital Earth, according to the declaration which has been agreed to by scientists, engineers, educators, managers and entrepreneurs from 20 countries and regions who were participating in the symposium.

At the dawn of the new millennium, mankind still faces great challenges such as rapid population growth, environmental deterioration, and natural resource depletion which will continue to threaten global sustainable development, the declaration points out.

It says that Digital Earth will help mankind visualize the Earth and all places within it, and understand the social, economic and environmental issues that affect their lives in their neighborhood, their nations and the planet Earth.

The declaration suggests that while implementing Digital Earth, priority should be given to solving problems in environmental protection, disaster management, natural resource conservation, and sustainable economic and social development as well as improving the quality of life of mankind.

It calls for close cooperation and collaboration between governments, public and private sectors, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations and institutions, so as to ensure equity in distribution of benefits derived from the use of Digital Earth in both developed and developing economies.

In a special session before the closing ceremony, symposium participants agreed to establish an International Steering Committee on the Symposium chaired by Prof. Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The symposium will continue to be held by interested countries and organizations biannually. The next one will be held in Canada in 2001. (Xinhua)