The Minimum Common Programme is the part of RESAP that is dedicated to the development priorities listed immediately above. RESAP II addresses all the objectives listed earlier, some of which are more long-term and wide-ranging than the practical and immediate targets of the Minimum Common Programme.

The draft Minimum Common Programme containing the common denominator projects was formulated through a series of brainstorming discussions and interaction among representatives of several ESCAP members and associate members and regional and international organizations, as well as invited resource persons during the three-day Regional Seminar on the Development of Space Applications for Phase II of the Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development and the two-day Ad hoc Expert Group Meeting on Space Technology Applications on the Minimum Common Programme, held at Bangkok from in March 2000. With the aim of building upon the foundation established and achievements attained under RESAP, the Seminar outlined the draft proposals of the common denominator projects while taking into consideration national interests, regional issues and concerns, and current donor strategies, as well as the recommendations contained in the Delhi Strategy and Action Plan. The Expert Group Meeting that followed the Regional Seminar reviewed the draft projects and aggregated them into 14 project proposals under the Minimum Common Programme. Two joint cooperative research studies and a joint regional research project on space technology applications were also proposed. In addition, the Meeting suggested that studies and activities recommended by the Second Ministerial Conference as given in the Strategy and Action Plan be included and carried out as resources became available.

The present document integrates the output of the Regional Seminar and Expert Group Meeting into a framework for the Minimum Common Programme. The framework has been circulated among ESCAP members and associate members through a series of consultations in the regional working group meetings and the Intergovernmental Consultative Committee meeting. Proposed common denominator project profiles were discussed by the four regional working groups of RESAP in the period March 2000 to July 2001, and refined by the Space Technology Applications Section of ESCAP, incorporating the suggestions of the regional working groups and the Intergovernmental Consultative Committee. The series of consultations is aimed at generating inputs, soliciting resource commitment, and encouraging the participation of countries in the implementation of projects under the Minimum Common Programme. Following the series of consultations and based on the inputs from the countries and various stakeholders, a more detailed programme document containing full-fledged project profiles of the common denominator projects will be developed.