Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr signed an agreement with China’s ambassador to Cairo, Song Aiguo for a grant worth $45 million to construct the Egyptian satellite “EgyptSat2” for remote sensing.

Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and representatives of the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences attended the signing ceremony.

The project aims to transfer Chinese technology and expertise in the field of satellites to Egypt, so that it can serve research and remote sensing projects especially with the establishment of an Egyptian Space Agency, Nasr said.

The agreement is an important step in the field of scientific research in Egypt, particularly since the project includes the training of a number of Egyptian specialists in China on remote sensing, which will benefit Egypt when it starts its own center for testing, integration and the assembly of satellites, said Abdel Ghaffar.

The Chinese ambassador on the other hand expressed his country’s keenness to transfer its expertise in satellite manufacturing and operation to Egypt.

Nasr stressed that Egyptian-Chinese investment relations have developed significantly in recent years.

According to Nasr, China currently contributes to several projects in Egypt, including a center for fish integration tests, a vocational training center in the Suez Canal Economic Zone to provide a highly trained workforce that will meet the requirements of industry and foreign investment fields, and the development of the first and second phases of the Distance Learning System.

Egypt and China signed letters in March 2017 for a project to establish and equip a center for testing, integration and the assembly of satellites with a Chinese grant of $23 million.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm