Vice Minister Cao Jianlin led a delegation to the Eight Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO VIII), which was held in Istanbul on November 16th and 17th, 2011. 

The session approved GEO Work Plan (2012-2015) and the new management mode, authorizing the establishment of GEO Planning Working Group for 2015 and beyond and ratifying the updated list of member countries of GEO Executive Committee.

On behalf of Asia and Oceani, VM Cao addressed the opening ceremony. He reviewed the great progress in the building of Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) since 2010 Beijing Ministerial Summit, particularly the progress by Asian and Oceanian member countries in 2011. He also highlighted China's significant contribution to GEO.
 
At the plenary meeting, China was reelected as the member and co-chair of GEO Executive Committee, represented by VM Cao.