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Senator Pierre Laffitte, President of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation 
The satellites of the GALILEO system do exist.
Two have already been launched.
It is therefore time to pursue and extend our efforts to enable the creation of new companies on the Côte d'Azur, like VuLog, the GALILEO Master 2005.
We also have to give new opportunities to companies like Thales Alenia Space, ACRI and others that use earth observation satellites in a diversity of fields: sustainable development, ecology, etc.
The development of individual means of transport are already impacted by the GPS and shows that applications that did not exist in the past generation are expanding rapidly.
This contest, launched five years ago in Munich, where Jean-Pierre Mascarelli, president of Cote d'Azur Developpement, and myself represented the department, is still having very positive effects on our department. The contacts between the Alpes-Maritimes, Sophia Antipolis, High Bavaria and Munich can only develop.
Pierre Laffitte
Senator of the Alpes-Maritimes,
President of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation
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Mr. Jean-Pierre Mascarelli, President of Team Côte d'Azur 
The 5th edition of the GALILEO Masters welcomes two new international partners -Taïwan and Queensland-, bringing the number of regional gateways for the contest up to 13.
The Nice-Sophia Antipolis region will remain the unique national gateway and will therefore centralize all the ideas and projects for France participants.
Nice and Sophia Antipolis are two major assets in our regional economic and technological expansion. Innovative minds have always found inspiration on the Côte d’Azur, which is still a favourite choice for those who use their talents and take part enthusiastically in the creative technological life of the region.
The recent approval of 8 clusters of competitiveness in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, including the Secured Communicating Solutions cluster designated N°1 worldwide, is a good illustration of the innovation dynamics of our region.
For more than 30 years, the Côte d’Azur has been building up its high tech identity, enhancing its economic and technological features. Nice, 5th largest Town in France and Sophia Antipolis, Europe's foremost Science and Technological Park, attract the leading companies, which in our region can keep higly skilled professionals, particularly in the R&D field.
GALILEO is the largest and most ambitious technological programme to be undertaken by the European Union over the next few years.
As such it perfectly matches with the high level of positioning aimed at by the Alpes-Maritimes Concil, which is fully aware of Society stakes in the fields of Security, Environment, Travelling and Health. My goal is that we welcome an ever increasing number of developers of technologies and creators of applications dedicated to professionals and the general public, so as to favour synergies between respective know-hows.
I wish the best of luck and much success to European Satellite Navigation Compétition 2008 candidates and express my thanks in anticipation to those who will choose to compete under the Nice-Sophia Antipolis banner.
I value the quality of their ideas and of their creativity and I am pleased to provide them with my support, on behalf of the Alpes-Maritimes General Council and Team Côte d'Azur.
Jean-Pierre Mascarelli
President of the Commission of Economy, Tourism and Technonological Areas of Expertise of the Alpes-Maritimes General Council,
Local Councillor,
President of Team Côte d'Azur, the Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency
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