Chinese Government provides RMB 492.3 million grant for EgyptSat 2 Project (Linked to Project ID#65871 and ID#65872)

On January 21, 2019, in Cairo, the Chinese Government and the Government of Egypt signed an RMB 492.3 million grant agreement for the EgyptSat 2 Project. On the same day, the two governments signed a project implementation agreement. The RMB 492.3 million grant is the third grant issued by the Chinese Government in support of the EgyptSat 2 Project. The first grant of RMB 200 million is captured in Project ID#65872 and the second grant of RMB 300 million is captured in Project ID#65871. The purpose of this project was to construct a small remote sensing satellite with a designed service life of five years, a ground measurement and control station with a design service life of fifteen years, and a set of ground application systems. The satellite was expected be small high-resolution remote sensing satellite with the main mission of transmitting satellite imagery to help in several fields including agriculture, urban planning, weather forecasting, and natural disaster readiness. The satellite design work was to be carried out simultaneously in China and Egypt, and the assembly work was to be carried out in Egypt's first satellite assembly and integration test center built with Chinese Government assistance (see Project ID#59501). Satellite design and assembly were originally expected to take 35 months, and the satellite was originally expected to be launched in China 36 months later. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) was the general contractor responsible for project implementation. On January 21, 2019, a project implementation agreement was signed. Then, on September 8, 2019, the Egyptian Space Agency announced the start of project implementation. The implementation of the project was subsequently postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 20, 2021, the CEO of the Egyptian Space Agency, Mohammed al Quosi, announced that Egypt would launch the satellite during the first quarter of 2023. Then, on June 25, 2023, a completion ceremony for the assembly and testing of the MisrSat 2 satellite took place. Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat and Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang attended the ceremony. Rania Al-Mashat noted at the ceremony that the MisrSat II satellite and satellite assembly, integration and test (AIT) center had greatly boosted Egypt's capacities in satellite research, development, measurement and control, making Egypt a leading African country in the aerospace field.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the MisrSat 2 Project, the MisrSat II Satellite Project, and the EgyptSAT-2 Project. The Chinese project title is 中国援埃及二号卫星项目 or 埃及二号卫星项目. The Arabic project title is مشروع القمرالصناعي "مصر سات 2. 2. All media sources for this project refer to the amount of the grant as $72 million. However, an Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation webpage shows a dateless grant in the amount of RMB 492.3 million for the EgyptSat 2 project, or roughly $72 million in January 2019. AidData has assumed that this is the correct value, given that the linked grants to this project were also denominated in RMB. (Note: All projects on the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation's website indicate that the "signature date" of February 2022, which is doubtful.)

Number of official sources

14

Number of total sources

38