First advisory board for stakeholders of Europe’s spaceport

The first plenary session of the advisory board for stakeholders of Europe’s spaceport was held on 29 November 2023. It was set up by the French Space Agency and is co-chaired by the Association of Mayors of French Guiana, the Local Authorities in French Guiana and the Prefecture.

This board is part of a general initiative to help the region take ownership of its space industry. Its creation is one of the recommendations set out in the “Government’s report to Parliament on the economic benefits of Europe’s spaceport for the Local Authorities”, published in December 2017. 

Its aim is to improve the understanding of the stakes involved in the space industry in French Guiana among all the region’s stakeholders, so that they can take ownership of them and turn the sector into an asset for the region.

On the agenda for this first meeting—at which the board was established—was a presentation of the activities, projects and stakes involved in Europe’s spaceport, its impact on the economy of French Guiana and the actions undertaken by the French Space Agency and its partners to contribute to the development of the region. 

The space industry in French Guiana

Ever since it set up its base in French Guiana, the French Space Agency has played a part in the region’s economic development. A special department has been in place since 2000 to manage and monitor development initiatives in French Guiana, in consultation with local stakeholders.

Since 2020, the structural unit known as “Espace pour la Guyane” (Space for French Guiana) has taken over in a new format, but with the same—or in some cases, higher—budgetary envelopes, and a new scope of intervention that remains consistent with the needs of French Guiana and the missions of the French Space Agency.

Priorities include education, economic development in the broadest sense, inclusion and the deployment of space applications to serve the region.

As far as education is concerned, the French Space Agency has also reactivated the possibility of intervening in the health sector, and more specifically in the future Regional University Hospital, in partnership with the ARS (regional health authority), the Local Authorities and the ORSG (regional health observatory). This project will promote a university-level educational initiative, as well as the use of space technologies for telemedicine and tele-epidemiology. 

Still on the subject of education, tele-technologies will also be used with the SEAS (Surveillance de l'Environnement Amazonien par Satellites, or satellite monitoring of the Amazon environment) platform, operated by the Local Authorities in French Guiana in partnership with the French Space Agency and the French government. 

Key figures

The space sector accounts for

12.6% of French Guiana’s GDP.