Pacific GeoInfo forms joint venture company

January 05, 2005

Vancouver, BC - Further to its news release of June 21, 2004, Pacific GeoInfo Corp. (TSX-V: PGO) ("Pacific GeoInfo") reports the establishment of EarthData Pacifica, Co. ("EDPC"), the joint venture company formed between Pacific GeoInfo’s subsidiary, PGO Holdings Corporation ("PGOH"), and EarthData Pacifica, Inc. (Delaware) ("EDPI"), an affiliate of EarthData Holdings, Inc. ("EarthData"). EDPC is an unlimited liability company incorporated under the laws of Nova Scotia.

Pacific GeoInfo’s interest in Qinhuangdao CASW Data Technology Co., Ltd. of China (the "Production Facility"), consisting of 90% of the voting rights and 49% of the equity, will be transferred to EDPC while EarthData’s contribution will include the transfer to EDPC of certain hardware and software, as well as providing project management, training and marketing skills. The profit sharing of EDPC will be 50/50 between the two parties while EDPI holds 52.5% of the equity of EDPC and PGOH holds the remaining 47.5%. PGOH holds 51% of the voting rights of EDPC whereas EDPI holds the remaining 49%.

EDPC has been formed to (a) jointly develop a Chinese domestic and international geospatial processing business, (b) further develop the Production Facility as a "Pan Chinese" and international airborne remote sensing and geospatial processing business based in strategic regional locations throughout China, and (c) to further utilize the services of the Production Facility for the benefit of the EDPC’s international geospatial processing business. The services of EDPC and its affiliates or joint venture companies will include airborne remote sensing (imaging and lidar), photogrammetric and lidar processing, vector data digitizing, GeoSAR radar Digital Elevation Model (DEM) editing, and hard copy to digital vector conversion. These geospatial services will support a wide range of domestic Chinese and international land and resource management and infrastructure development activities, including road and railway route selection and design, oil and gas pipeline planning and routing, electric transmission routing, and environmental impact assessment and protection. Sectors such as water quality and supply management and routing, forest management, economic development, and minerals mining will also benefit greatly from accurate, current geospatial information.

Both shareholders of EDPC have agreed that all of their respective geospatial marketing and sales activities in China will be undertaken through EDPC. EarthData has also agreed that it will, except in certain circumstances, subcontract data processing work to EDPC.

"After 4 years of researching the vast Chinese mapping and GIS market, we are confident that this joint venture with Pacific GeoInfo will result in exciting new opportunities to expand advanced geospatial technologies throughout China," said Bryan J. Logan, chairman of EarthData Holdings, Inc. Logan added that Pacific GeoInfo’s regional insights, international experience, and keen understanding of Chinese government agencies will ensure success in this highly complex market development effort. "We look forward to assisting the Chinese people in their drive to modernize China’s infrastructure."

"The demand for geospatial data within China to support the country’s rapid development is growing by the day," noted Paul Liu, chairman of Pacific GeoInfo, "so to insure that we were well positioned to meet this exploding demand, we carefully reviewed the leading international companies in the field. We chose to partner with EarthData for their management team, international experience and technology leadership. We strongly believe that our joint expertise will greatly assist China in its modernization journey. We are very excited about the opportunities ahead."

Contact:
Mary Hiatt
301-948-8550, ext. 111
mhiatt@earthdata.com