The Governments of the Republic of Namibia through the Ministry of Education and the People’s Republic of China have signed an Employment Agreement that will facilitate the employment of Namibians at China Telemetry, Tracking and Command Station at Swakopmund in the capital on 26 March 2012.

The Employment Agreement seconds a coorporation agreement between the two countries signed earlier in 2000 to setup a Telemetry, Tracking and Command Station for the China Manned Space Program and also to help Namibia develop its own Space Science and Technology capacity. The purpose of the station is to manage and control the re-entry or landing procedure of the China’s Manned Spacecraft. This station has successfully participated in six (6) space launches run by the China Manned Space program so far.

On its part, China has agreed to train Namibians in the area of Space Science and Technology as part of skills transfer and so far eleven (11) Namibians have been trained in this area. Five (5) of them have successfully completed their Masters Degree while the rest obtained Certificates.

Against this background, the two governments drafted and signed the Employment Agreement that will facilitate the employment of trained Namibians at the Swakopmund Station.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Alfred Ilukena, expressed concern over the poor representation of Africa in the area of Space Science and Technology.

Ilukena emphasized that most African countries lack human, technical and financial resources to utilize existing space-based infrastructure for even the most basic applications in Meteorology, Communications and Natural Resources Management.

Ilukena said the agreement will allow Namibians to further gain knowledge in the area of space science and extensively master the art of this technology for the economic development of the country.

On his part the Director of China Space Tracking, Telemetry and Command Station, Dong Weidong, on behalf of the Chinese government commended the Namibia government for their unwavering support since the development of the station.

Weidong is confident that through this corporation Namibian technicians will be more aware of operation and management mode of the world’s advanced Space Tracking, Telemetry and Command station.

The event also witnessed the handing over of degrees and certificates to the Namibian students who recently completed their studies in Space Science in China and to be employed at the space station.