China Hands Over the Certificate for Egypt’s Assembly, Integration, and Testing Centre (AITC) Project to Egypt

According to Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, on 28 February 2024, oversaw the signing of the handover and delivery certificate for Egypt’s Assembly, Integration, and Testing Centre (AITC) project, backed by China.

The EgyptSat 2 remote sensing satellite, launched on 4 December 2023 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China, was constructed at the AITC, played a pivotal role in transferring Chinese expertise in satellite assembly and testing and sharing best practices in remote sensing with Egypt.

“The project is a milestone in the history of Egyptian-Chinese cooperation in exchanging experiences and knowledge. We look forward to strengthening tripartite cooperation in assembling and testing satellites between Egypt, China and Africa”, commented Rania Al-Mashat, the Minister of International Cooperation.

In 2019, Beijing provided a USD 72 million grant to fund the EgyptSat 2 and a USD 45 million grant it offered earlier in 2018 to support the construction of Egypt’s satellite assembly, integration and testing (AIT) facilities. The EgyptSat 2 satellite is a technology transfer project between the Egyptian Space Agency and the Chinese government aimed at providing Egyptian engineers and scientists with an opportunity to acquire on-the-project experience in satellite design and integration using facilities available in Egypt.