Sharon Kavhu
Egypt strongly believes that space technology, remote sensing and digitalization are key areas that will drive the African economy and achieve significant growth in social and economic, Egyptian president of the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Science (NARSSS), Prof Islam Abou El-Magd has said.
Speaking during the just ended GMES and Africa Phase 2 Forum in Sharm El Sheikh Egypt, El-Magd noted that the continent has already made significant developments in line with space technology and is keen to continue with the strides.
“We have to be proud of ourselves, Africa has moved very solid steps forward in space and developed its own continental space policy and strategy and established its own continental space agency that is hosted her in Cairo. This agency will drive all space activities in the continent and ensure access of infrastructure, data and services to African member states,” he said.
El-Magd also said that Egypt in partnership with African member states and African Union Commission shared and invested in developing both policy and strategies which were used to establish the Space Agency and both countries continues to provide the full support for the operation of the agency to achieve its goal.
He added, “Among the main 4 thematic focus areas of the space strategy is earth observation and we think that GMES and Africa in partnership with our European partner leapfrog the application of remotely sensed data in thematic areas of land, water and coastal and marine to provide value added services, and information to stakeholders.”
According to the Egyptian National Authority for remote sensing and space science, the key principle of the space policy is the ca[acity development of our African scientists and engineers. In line to this thematic area, Egypt provide yearly scholarships to African member states for both graduate and postgraduate studies and one important theme of these scholarships is space science and applications in all related disciplines.
“This indeed, play key role in capacity development, not only such scholarships, but also we provide short term technical training courses, for example we have trained more than 200 African researchers and engineers in space and remote sensing this year,” he said.
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“We also reiterate of our position that we are committed to provide full support to the African s pace agency and any other ESTI activities in Africa with our diverse universities, research and developed centers, industrial facilities and all resources that will speed up the implementation of the continental policies and strategies for the AFRICA WE WANT.”
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