SupremeSAT signs MOU with Ministry of Communications and IT of I.R. Afghanistan to negotiate Afghani
Thursday, 19 September 2013 00:00
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On 18 February 2012, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan initialled an International Competitive Tender for the usage of its valuable orbital resource – 50 Degrees East.
MCIT of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan signed an MOU with SupremeSAT, one of the eligible bidders, to form a technical committee to commence discussions on the Commercial and Technical proposal of Sri Lanka’s SupremeSAT.
The Supreme Group’s Corporate Legal Counsel Sharm Fernando and Deputy Minister of Communications and IT (MCIT) Baryalai Hassam, signed the MOU in Kabul recently.
Issuing a congratulatory message on this occasion, SupremeSAT Chairman R.M. Manivannan said, “It is indeed a great honour to be entrusted by the Government of Afghanistan with this responsibility. Emerging from a developing nation, we are well aware about the challenges and obstacles faced by countries like Afghanistan to enter the space age. SupremeSAT was able to bring rapid progress to Sri Lanka’s space journey and is confident of repeating the same success story for Afghanistan as well.”
“I take this opportunity to commend the vision and wisdom of Minister Amirzai Sangin, who has been instrumental in the creation of this project. The rest of the developing world must learn from his wisdom and initiative in utilising their respective space resources. I also congratulate and thank the senior officials and staff of the Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority who played a very active role in this worthy venture which demonstrates to the world the visionary governance of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” added Manivannan.
Seven international companies participated in the tender. The successful bidder was to secure the rights to use the Afghan orbital slot and to launch a satellite in partnership with the Government of Afghanistan. The list of bidders included Eutelsat of Europe (ranked within the world’s top 3 satellite operators having more than 30 satellites), Hong Kong listed APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. and Australia’s Newsat. However, after months of evaluation and negotiations, The Afghan Government decided to sign an MOU with Sri Lanka’s SupremeSAT for making better use of its space resource.
